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Okay, the ants have found my mantis enclosures. <_< They were first scouts, and then now like 30 are here. I killed most with finger power. Tommorrow, there will be 100. What can I do to ant-proof my containers? Thanks.

 
I'd distract them with honey - or - drop as many DLL spiders as you can - they will make a short work of them :lol:

But to be reasnable - just move your mantids somewhere else - no insect killing spray - we had an idiod that used Raid to get with of the mosquitos in his room and his mantids died the next morning...

If you can't move them - figure out something thay would be sticky - something like two-sided adhesive tape - ants will be ensnared and they will die shortly...

 
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First thing to do is find how the ants are getting in. Follow the trail back and see if there is a crack or other small opening that the ants are entering through. If possible, seal the opening with silicon sealant. You may have to seal several openings and it could take several days of following the ants. Seal one opening and the ants will try to find another!

Second, until the ants are sealed out, make your mantids unreachable. Place the enclosures in a pan of water if possible. You can use cookie sheets. If all of the enclosures are on a shelf unit, you might be able to place the feet of the shelf into water. The ants will have trouble crossing the water. Just make sure they have no other way to get to the enclosures.

Third, KILL the ants!! If you can not find how the ants are entering, feed them toxic baits. You can use the bait stations sold in stores. They do work IF you read and follow the directions! Chances are this will take a long time to work. You probably have Argies or Odorous House ants. Both species make VERY large colonies.

 
Get a pie tin if you containers are small enough ... set the mantis container int he middle ... add water to the pie tin ... ants cant get in and you have humidity in the area ... :)

 
I use bug spray. We get horrible ant intrusions during the summer and that is the only thing that keeps them out of my room. For me it isn't a matter of protecting my mantises, but my crickets. My mantises have mesh cages with screen so fine the ants can't pass through. My crickets however are in a 20 gallon tank on the floor. I first remove my mantises from my room, then spray along the perimeter of my room and a wide square around the cricket cage. I also follow up by spraying outside along the edge of the house. As long as I do it every 1-2 months the ants stay away during the summer months. Naturally I make sure the mantises aren't permitted to crawl anywhere near the areas I spray. The mantises have never shown any ill side affects to the spraying I do.

 
Krissim,

Have you tried to locate entry points? You may be able to seal those and keep the ants out permenently. Have you tried to locate and treat the ant colony directly? Depending on the ant species, you could wipe the colony out with a commercial ant bait. A bait called Amdro works well on a large number of species in the US. Sometimes you just need to grind it into smaller pieces. HAve you tried to spray just the exterior of the house? Treating the exterior may be enough and you don't need to hit the interior at all!

 
Ouch! Sounds like pharoh ants! Those keep producing queens and they make a lot!!!! I say go and put somthing like honey out and they will go nuts over it they sometimes even take the queen out if its good! Then all you have to do is follow them to the nest and cover the entrance and spary them. Sometimes you can poison the honey.

 
Actually, if it's Pharoh ants, you may need to get "profesional" help. They do not make a single colony outside. All colonies will be located inside the structure. Sprays and other residual-type pesticides worsen the problem by causing colony budding! The only way to eliminate Pharoh ants is to be patient and feed them several kinds of toxic baits. I have treated for Pharoh ants only once and it took 4 months to achieve elimination! I hope they aren't what have been found in the bugrooms!!

 
OOps! Sorry for not posting feedback. Well, I found the source. (My closet. <_< ) and I sprayed bug repellant there. It's been keeping them away, and it's far away from my mantises.

Thanks for your helpful suggestions everyone!

 
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Find where they're coming in and put down some ant spray/killer.

 
Well, I found the source. (My closet. ) and I sprayed bug repellant there. It's been keeping them away, and it's far away from my mantises.

Thanks for trying to help.

 
Hypoponera said:
Krissim,Have you tried to locate entry points? You may be able to seal those and keep the ants out permenently. Have you tried to locate and treat the ant colony directly? Depending on the ant species, you could wipe the colony out with a commercial ant bait. A bait called Amdro works well on a large number of species in the US. Sometimes you just need to grind it into smaller pieces. HAve you tried to spray just the exterior of the house? Treating the exterior may be enough and you don't need to hit the interior at all!
Click to expand...
Locating entry points would mean I'd pretty much have to tear up all the corners of my carpet and there is to much furniture in my room to do that without a major days worth of work. Normally I do most the spraying outside the house, and just a little indoors. I realized by my post it sounds like I go kamikaze with the spray but it is mainly only half a wall indoors that I bother with normally. As for baits, I doubt that would work/last very long. Living in South Florida you kill off one ant colony and another is just going to move straight in. I've found it is far easier just to encourage them to avoid coming in the house than taking out the colony/colonies surrounding our home.
 
It was a good thing I either killed the scouts, or they were more interested in my garbage. My mantises were safe. If I used bait, the ants that ate it might walk around, and my mantises might accidentally eat the poison. :blink:

 
Well no one knows for sure if it's pharaoh ants. Spraying actually makes things worse as it only kills ants in the area sprayed. For every one ant that dies, there are 1000 to replace it. They'll just keep following their chemical trail. One way to kill them is do get a small dish, soak the napkin in water, add alot sugar, pour some boric acid(which you likely don't have). You can replace boric acid with eye drops or even spray a little bit of raid in the napkin, but not too much. Optional, but you can also add a tablespoon of honey to stop the napkin from molding so quickly.

Now just put it outside your house or where you think they are coming from. They should eat it and share it with the colony. The colony will slowly start to die off. Ants are simple minded so they won't know what's killing them. They will just keep going back for the poison. They'll share it with the queen and you should be able to stop them for a couple of months.

 
Yes, boric acid is common in ant baits. I have bought it as afine ground powder from pharmacies. Mixed with mint apple jelly makes the perfect pharoh ant bait. As long as you keep the dosage low, the ants never catch on. But boric acid is very slow acting!

 
I actually do have Boric acid. My mom was using it to attempt to kill ants. It actually worked. I was ant free for a whole year. >.<

 

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