Ants

[Paige Lewis]

Hi all,
It has been a very long time since i last posted on here, been a bit of hectic year. I was after some advice on ants. They are your regular black ants. I have a large cold frame in Jimmy's outdoor enclosure, it has been there for a year with no problems with ants however as i had just placed it on the soil water was soaking through the soil when it rained into the cold frame so that the soil was wet inside the cold frame.
So i dug bricks down into the soil around the inner perimeter of the cold frame in order to stop the rain water from soaking inside, this involved me having to disturb the soil a lot and i went out today and now there are a large volume of black ants inside the cold frame and climbing over it (enough that i wouldn't feel comfortable with Jimmy going in there), this was never a problem before. They are only inside it and not out. I was after advice on getting rid of them and i want the most humane way as possible, i really would rather not have to poor boiling water on them (i had seen this as advice on the internet).
I was going to wait and see if it calms down as this has only been a problem today and then if not try removing all the soil inside the cold frame and put fresh soil in. I want to sort this as quickly s possible as i am in the process of creating him an outdoor heated area so that he can be left out throughout our awful british summer.
Sorry for the long post and thanks in advance for any advice!

[Laura1988]

Apparantly ants dont like Vinegar, peppermint oil, cinnamon, black pepper, cayenne pepper, whole cloves, and bay leaves. However, some of these might be harmful to pets. But to get rid of them quickly from the surface you could try dipping a sponge into soapy water then wipe the sponge down, collecting ants.
But boiling water is probably you best bet to get rid of them quickly, without leaving anything potentially hazardass for your tortoise.

[Easter Bunny]

My dad had a problem with ants coming in the house so he put a few ant traps around, the ants go inside and take the poison back to the nest.
You would have to keep your tortoise out of that area for a while though. x

[Gordon]

I have had this problem for a few years now in my conservatory they come in and seem to feed off of the tort food and no mater what i tried they still come back i have even taken the table apart to try and find where they come in too but still they come GRRRRR.

But i think i have found a solution to the problem this year, as we live in a mad house we took on a baby quail from a friend and it loves ants two or three times a day i put it in there and it eats the little sods they do seem to be getting less and less so if you want to get rid of them get a quail

[alley cat]

Or get an Ant Eater

[Ozric Jonathan]

I also have an ant in coldframe problem and no solution. Boiling water discourages them but only for a short time.

[Lisamn]

Me too Ozric. It's a pain in the bum.

[Paige Lewis]

Thanks all for the advice, i am so frustrated by these ants, Jimmy should have been out today as the weather has been gorgeous but i really didn't want to put him out there with all the ants. I tried drenching the soil in the cold frame with water but this did nothing they were pretty much dancing in it. Has anyone had any luck with the food grade Diatomaceous earth? Would it be safe for me to dig down and find the nest and put some Diatomaceous earth around that area?

[Easter Bunny]

Honestly my dad swears by the ant traps..got rid of everyone of his x

[Gordon]

Originally Posted by Easter Bunny

Honestly my dad swears by the ant traps..got rid of everyone of his x

I tried them but no good for me