ants in my gecko tanks

[gmanning]

Can't seem to keep ants out of the gecko tanks. I dont have ants anywhere else in the house just in tanks. clean all the tanks every week take food bowl out every morning and put alittle mint oil on cotton ball and went around bottom trim of tanks.Got up this morning ants!!!!! about to drive me crasy afraid the ants will make my cresties sick. any help would be great thanks

[calia]

Do you have a natural setup (with dirt-type substrate) or use paper towels?

Unless the ants are able to make a nest inside the tank, then they are coming from elsewhere in the house, probably to eat the CGD. If their nest is in the tank, you'll need to do an overhaul of the entire enclosure, basically clean everything and start from scratch with new substrate. If they are coming from elsewhere, you may want to put some ant traps outside the tank. If the tanks are on a stand or shelves, you may want to temporarily wrap duct tape around the legs of the stand, sticky side out so the ants get stuck. Scrub and clean the stand to break up the ants scent trail, which is what they use to "remember" where the food is.

[gmanning]

use a paper towel substrate and just done a total scrub down this past weekend. so they are coming from outside. Just got me puzzeled cause i never see them till the next morning in the food dishes.thanks for the ideals think i will try the duct tape first have been little leary about traps or bait just afraid a posioned ant my make its way into tank. thanks

[lennart]

Cleaning the ants scent trails away was what helped me the most. I had them coming through my window and entering my enclosures. After several attempts with tape or traps, i simply cleaned all the floor and the tables that my enclosures are on.

[kscheben]

If you can find the path the ants are taking to the tank, try putting some diatomaceous earth powder along their trail. It really throughs them off and clogs up their breathing holes, ultimately suffocating them. Worked like a dream for me this spring when the ants invaded my Leachie tanks. Literally got rid of them in 1 day. Now if I could keep the fruit flies out, I'd be all set!

[OctagonGecko729]

Ant traps work pretty good if you can find the type that they take back to the nest.

Another method is to take your cages and put them ontop of a tray of water. If you can get all of the contact points of the cage to the ground in water that will solve your problem.

[acpart]

I sometimes get ants in my cricket cage (10 gallon aquarium). I've had good luck spraying the top few inches all around on the outside with cooking spray.

Aliza

[pakinjak]

What kind of ants are we talking about here?

[lauraleellbp]

Terro brand ant baits work quite well for sugar ants.

[gmanning]

thanks for all the great info good cleaning and few ant traps did the trick