From:
sukiec@optonline.net
Date: 2006-07-17 16:47:05 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] RE: ants
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Author wrote:
> I've used mint extract from the grocery store with good results. Just
> put it on a cotton ball and run along the baseboards and the base of
> the ferrets' cage.
Same here, and sometimes we also use a citrus oil, usually lemon or orange also.
It pays to try to find where the ants are coming from. We usually have the large ones come up along the pipes, so we put ant baits in those cabinets because we have outside child locks which work to keep our ferrets out, so then the ants go no further and just take the bait back down the pipes to their nest and die there.
Years ago we had one nest of large ants in a wall. Knowing that the oil in citrus peels is toxic to many insects we tested a concentrated lemon oil cleanser (which we sadly have not been able to find for a couple of years now; it was also great at removing dried on ferret BMs) on some ants and they died rapidly even just from being cooped up near it, so we squirted a good amount of it under the baseboard till we found the places where it went down easily, and then squirted more in those locations, and then cleaned the baseboard and we caulked. We got lucky. It worked. If it hadn't we would have had to have the ferrets with a friend and then had an exterminator in because they can do a lot of wood damage.
In our house the little ones usually come in at the bases of doors or windows so we also place peppermint oil, lemon or orange peel oil, or both at those locations, too.
Once we found a nest of small ants in a flower pot with a tree inside. The tree had aphids the ants were farming.
Ants are often very successful little critters.
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