HELP!! Ants!!!

[Pomlover2586]

Title says it all. Sunday I went to do my weekly cage clean and found roughly 100-200 ants in the bottom seed tray of my cage- not counting the ones on the floor and into my kitchen area. We have NEVER had ants in our current apartment, and there was no steady line to determine where they were coming from. My cage is never dirty- I wipe down all spots both food and poop daily with baby wipes, and my paper on the bottom tray is removed and tray wiped down and relined every 2-3 days.

Long story short it took me about 3 hours to thoroughly clean everything and I'm still finding small groups of stray ants around my floor/cage. I am currently changing the paper lining daily for extra precaution. We think they may be coming out between our linoleum/carpet tack....at the very least they are hiding under it.

So my question is what can I use on the ants to either kill or deter them away that is SAFE for my birds? I used to use Raid.....but due to chemicals and smell I'm assuming thats a Huge no no.

Please HELP! I despise ants and this is driving me insane!!!

[Eurycerus]

I know quite a few people who sprinkle cinnamon where ants are coming from and it's a huge detractant. Not entirely sure about toxicity but i bet it's way beret than toxic chemicals like raid. I won't even use that stuff around people.

Also I'm sure you are plenty clean ants are funny. They sometimes just decide to march and even they get lucky it's madness. So don't be too upset. Clean up every any you see with a vinegar solution. Move the cage and clean up every day and put a line of cinnamon wherever you see them and they'll give up.

[Polarn]

about the toxity of cinnamon, I cant swear by my heart but I am pretty sure you can actually serve your birds cinnamon, so I am pretty sure it is absolutely nontoxic for birds... however I would do some research first ... incase I remember my lists wrong

[JacobBird]

If the ants are after the seeds, I would say to wet the seeds. Ants don't like water (:

[GreenWing]

The ants are probably looking for water. Set dishes of water outside of your house.

Tiki's cage is placed on plastic mats. EVERY night, I wipe the mats down with apple cider vinegar. Ants HATE vinegar. It works wonders. We don't have ants and I don't see spiders or other bugs, either, and we live near the woods.

[pollyparrot]

I know hoe you feel. I suddenly had an ant problem a few years ago and the first year of the invasion freaked me out. I didn't know what to use to stop them from coming onto the second floor apartment nor what to use to kill the ones that I found inside. What I use to kill any ants indoors is a mixture of vinegar and dawn detergent. Maybe vinegar alone works - I don't know for certain. While I hate to use toxic chemicals, I do spray the outside perimeter of the house and some spots indoors with Ortho Home Defense. I spray early in the spring. This seems to have worked so far to control the ant invasion.

[pionus]

mint oil works well.

[marie83]

I would put the birds elsewhere in your home until the problem is dealt with.

I have no idea what will get rid of them safely from the inside but go round the outside of the property well. They will drag a bit inside so hoover up really really well and leave the birds in another room for a few days after whilst you ensure all traces of powder are gone.

[liz]

Smear the legs of the cage with vasaline petroleum. They can't cross it. I even use it on the trunk of my fig tree.

[GreenWing]

I know hoe you feel. I suddenly had an ant problem a few years ago and the first year of the invasion freaked me out. I didn't know what to use to stop them from coming onto the second floor apartment nor what to use to kill the ones that I found inside. What I use to kill any ants indoors is a mixture of vinegar and dawn detergent. Maybe vinegar alone works - I don't know for certain. While I hate to use toxic chemicals, I do spray the outside perimeter of the house and some spots indoors with Ortho Home Defense. I spray early in the spring. This seems to have worked so far to control the ant invasion.

Vingear works well alone, but it's even BETTER if you add certain essential oils to the vinegar. I personally use rose geranium essential oil, as rose geranium is a natural bug repellent. It's eco-friendly, too.

Be careful when adding certain detergents to vingear... especially bleach. Adding bleach to vinegar creates harmful vapors, which isn't good for you or your birdie.

When we first moved into our place years ago, we had ants. Ant bait traps only work for so long, because they always come back. However, we've been ant-free for a long while... I think it's because we have a compost, and we leave dishes of water outside of the home, but also because I wipe the mats down with the vinegar/essential oil. It's worked for us.

mint oil works well.

Yes! It's true. Bugs do hate peppermint.