Ants killed all my crickets!

[Captnsarah]

So I've had the common little black ants raid my house the last few days, they started off raiding the kitchen sink, and now I've discovered they have killed all my crickets! They were in a 5L plastic container that had some small holes drilled into the top sides and a big hole cut into the lid with fabric covering it for better ventilation.

I'm so angry ants are the one bug I absolutely dislike.

I don't use bug spray for the fact that I have stick insects and the pray mantis (As well as birds), as well as we only have a small unit. I'm going to go get some ant rid and maybe some power to put around the windows.

But I have to get more crickets and I was wondering if anyone has any ideas at all how to keep the ants away from them?

Would keeping them in a different room be enough?

 

[Crazy4mantis]

you could put the cricket container in a large dish and make a "moat" of sorts. Of course that would be a lot of work.

 

[Aryia]

Ant poison is a possibility, though the poison will kill whatever cultures the ants can get into as well. (Maybe ant traps?) Though I've had ants raid my fruit fly cultures because there were a couple points in the lid where they managed to chew holes into. I fixed the lids and they haven't bothered me ever since, I know they are still around though, they occasionally take scraps that are dropped. Best way might be to re-modify your ventilation sites with mesh that ants can't get through/chew through if it's possible.

 

[Captnsarah]

Thanks guys! We used ant rid on the outside of the windows and ant powder on the insides, hopefully that keeps them out for now. I cleaned the tub I had them in and put some rocks in it and used a kitty litter tray filled with some water as a moat, got new crickets too. I also moved them to the spare room so hopefully they don't find them, and if they do let's hope they don't learn to bloody swim lol

 

[TheBeesKnees]

moats around the cricket enclosure works 100%
Living in thailand, folks here are no stranger to these tiny and numerous little ants that get into *everything*.
There are little "spirit houses" that people have to honor the spirits that live inside their home. They pay respects to the spirits by giving them a sweet, red water that--as you might guess--the ants love. So to avoid having the ants steal the spirit's red drink, people place the little bowls of red juice into larger bowls of plain water. The ants can't get past the water, and so they never make it to the sweet red drink located in the center of it.

I don't see why the same wouldn't work for your crickets And this way, you don't risk poisoning your mantids by having poison in the house. (I've seen my mantises catch and eat the small ants that stray into their terrarium, I'd hate for one to snack on a stray one carrying poison in its gut)

 

[Captnsarah]

moats around the cricket enclosure works 100%

Living in thailand, folks here are no stranger to these tiny and numerous little ants that get into *everything*.

There are little "spirit houses" that people have to honor the spirits that live inside their home. They pay respects to the spirits by giving them a sweet, red water that--as you might guess--the ants love. So to avoid having the ants steal the spirit's red drink, people place the little bowls of red juice into larger bowls of plain water. The ants can't get past the water, and so they never make it to the sweet red drink located in the center of it.

I don't see why the same wouldn't work for your crickets And this way, you don't risk poisoning your mantids by having poison in the house. (I've seen my mantises catch and eat the small ants that stray into their terrarium, I'd hate for one to snack on a stray one carrying poison in its gut)

Yay! Hopefully that keeps the buggers out then awesome! I remember being in Phuket in july and I brought a packet of mentor just to find tiny little ants in them! Blah! I think because it's coming up to summer here now they seem to be coming out more not cool!

 

[TheBeesKnees]

yuck, gross!
It's not uncommon to order a cold, sweet beverage here and find ants in them, too.
Eventually, you just learn to accept them as a staple part of your daily diet lmaaoooo

 

[Captnsarah]

yuck, gross!

It's not uncommon to order a cold, sweet beverage here and find ants in them, too.

Eventually, you just learn to accept them as a staple part of your daily diet lmaaoooo

Hahahaha noooo! That's one of my nightmares drinking water to find ants in the water! I have a tad of a fear of ants... even teeny weeny little ones!

 

[Captnsarah]

Here is my solution, a moat and 'cricket island' in the tub used two rocks to hold it down better in the water, they seem to enjoy them and the upside down plastic pot.

 

[MWAInverts]

Yeah it's a major pain when ants invade. I have 6 B. lateralis roach colonies and ants tried to invade one of them yeesterday out of the blue. They failed though because I seal all my colonies up with thick cloth so not even flies can get in

 

[Ranitomeya]

I use a little vaseline on the outside of the feeder bins to keep them from crawling in--it's a little messy because you'll get vaseline on yourself and anything that touches it when you move the feeders, but it works. I also use talcum powder on the floor along the walls to dissuade ant invasions. It usually works until something gets leaned or pushed against the wall and the ants find a new way to cross the barriers.

I've tried cloth, but the ants can chew through cloth. The vaseline on the inside of the container for dealing with climbing roaches also failed to keep ants out--they were placing bits of chewed up feeders on the vaseline to make stepping stone paths to get out once they found their way in.

I used moats in the past, but it's a hassle finding shallow containers larger than the ones I keep my feeders in and I always forget to add water to replace what evaporates.