Prevent ants from crawling into pet food - tips

Video: How to Keep Ants Out of Your Pet’s Food Bowl

Content

Steps
Advice
Warning

When a pet's food has been invaded by ants, they may quit eating the food. When you find ants crawling into your food, you may have a pest problem in your home. The following guidelines will help you keep ants from crawling into your pet's food, to prevent infestation. In addition to preventing ants from crawling into your pet's food, you can also prevent them from crawling into food placed outside for wildlife around your home. The key is to create a chemical barrier that ants cannot cross and not harm pets, wild birds, or any other animals you want to feed.

Steps

Method 1 of 3: Storing and preserving pet food

Keep the food in sealed containers. Coffee boxes, plastic boxes, and plastic zippered bags are containers for ants that cannot be entered. You can add one more box outside to make the fence more effective. Food stored in a zippered bag in a sealed box will form a solid fence against ants.
Make a fence of water. Place a dish of clean food in a pan of water, not too deep (eg cake mold). The water pan will act as a trench and keep ants out. Another solution is to use two stainless pet food plates, one slightly larger than the other using iron glue to glue a small tile or flat stone underneath the small plate, wait for it to dry, then allow water on large plate. Place a small dish with tiles or ice on it in a large dish of water. Water acts like a trench, keeping ants from crawling into the food, and bricks or stones help keep the plate from tilting when the dish is raised above the water.
- Place dishes with water in different parts of the house for 2 days or more. The ants will no longer stick the board to places where food is usually available.
Buy a pet food dish for animals. Many pet food plates are commercially available to prevent ants from entering. Some dishes are used for pets in the home, and some have been modified for outdoor pets.Choose the type of plate that will work best for your pet, whether it's indoor or outdoor, a dog, a cat, or another pet.
- There are also several types of trenches that allow you to put a plate of food in, to protect the food from getting in.
Keep the area around the place where the dish is placed. Place the dish on a removable surface, such as a plate, and place it elsewhere to clean up after eating. Ants often track the pheromone secreted while walking to lead them back to where the food source is. Wipe the floor where the dish is placed with soap and water to remove the pheromone stains, preventing ants from coming back.
Use peppermint oil. Mix 15 ml of 100% peppermint essential oil in a glass of water and shake in a spray bottle. Spray near indoor ventilation ducts to keep insects out. The insect odors will be blown away to prevent them from coming back after using peppermint oil. One good way to keep ants from crawling into pet food with peppermint is to put a drop of essential oil on a cotton ball and then wipe off wall edges and other surfaces near where the ant can crawl into your home. You can also wipe around pet food storage or essential oils around food plates. advertisement

Method 2 of 3: Prevent ants from crawling into pet food

Freeze food that has been crawled by ants. If ants have crawled into the plate, cover the dish and put it in the freezer. Keep the food in the freezer until it is frozen and the ant is dead. You should be able to remove ants from the food when you feed the pet again.
Remove dry food from refrigerator freezer. Now ants are dead. Pour the food onto the sieve, and sift it vigorously until the dead body falls off. This will help avoid wasting pet food, as you can reuse it now.
Store pet food again. After the pet food is free of ants, put the food in a sealed jar to prevent the ant from crawling again. Using the methods outlined in method one, try to keep ants from crawling next time. You may have to go through some steps more than once to get rid of the ant completely, so continue if you are unsuccessful on the first try. advertisement

Method 3 of 3: Prevent ants from crawling into bird food containers

Use oil wax. To protect bird food containers attached to windows, cut newspaper into circles or large hearts. Paste it inside the window to make the mold. Then, use your finger to draw a Vaseline fence outside the window. Place the food container in the middle. This works best in cool shade. When the weather is warm, Vaseline will start to melt or melt away.
Make an oil-wax fence with a hanging food container. For a hanging food container, make a hole in the center of the lid through the margarine or other lightweight material and thread the food container string through the hole. If necessary, tie a knot on the cord to secure the lid. Apply oil wax to the lid or other part. Ants can crawl to the lid, but they will not be able to get into the food container, and the other ants will walk away.
Use paper fly traps. Wrap a strip of fly trap paper on the top of your food container, or place it on a window or corner of a door. Fly trap paper has glue on both sides, so ants will not be able to crawl through the paper. Do not place fly traps on the food containers as birds can get them. If the fly trap paper falls off due to the high temperature, fix it with double-sided tape so that ants cannot crawl. advertisement

Advice

Ants will return to the place of food in a few days. Move the food as far as possible. Do not put food in the same place for 2 days or more.
Oil wax (Vaseline) works best at around 24 ° C outside. If it's too cold, ants can crawl up there. If it gets too hot, it will melt on the window and make a mess.
Try to be more creative. No matter how troublesome the problem with ants is, you need to figure out how to make a pet safety barrier that ants can't get through. Water, oil, Vaseline, butter, or soap bar (painted like chalk) are eco-friendly solutions, but only serve as a temporary solution.
Place the pet food dish in the center of a towel or cotton cloth and leave at least 5 cm of the towel around the plate.
Whenever hanging hummingbird food, be careful not to drop it any Any sugar drops. Even a drop of sugar attracts ants. Spray water on the ground or yard if you think food has fallen there.