Ant problem and where to put my crickets now?

[Gavin van den Berg]

History:

I've been noticing a lot of ants the past few weeks in my house and haven't thought much of them. That is until I noticed they were all over my cricket tubs last night. I feed my T's only crickets at the moment but I am considering roaches at a later stage. I keep my crickets high up on a shelf where the cats can't reach them, but I didn't think about ants.

Question:

Where and how can I keep my crickets safe from ants? Any tricks of the trade I should know about?

Any help/advice would be appreciated.

 

[Ceratogyrus]

The best I find is an attack from all angles.
I firstly out down some ant traps (Green round plastic disks that you can but at Pick n Pay, Spar, etc). This attracts the ants, but once they take the liquid inside back to the nest, it will kill them off.
At the same time I use a special ant chalk that I used to find at Spar, but seems that it is being discontinued as it is harmful (I'm still alive though...). This stuff is potent though and a line will instantly kill any ant that walks over it. On the safer side, you could always just use baby powder or else regular chalk to make a line along skirting boards/walls to keep the ants away.
Another safe option is cinnamon. For some or other reason ants can't stand this, so spreading that around the cricket tub will keep the ants away as well.

 

[Gavin van den Berg]

Thanks for the reply Ceratogyrus. I'll definitely follow your suggestions.

Should I perhaps do the same around my T enclosures? I am petrified of the thought that I could come home one day and find all my T's swamped by ants. It's a very scary thought.

 

[Ceratogyrus]

I line my entire wendy house with that ant chalk and have ant traps inside and underneath the wendy.

 

[Gavin van den Berg]

Thanks. I'll do that to my whole house then. lol.

As long as it is not detrimental to the T's then it's something I HAVE to do and soon too.

 

[Ceratogyrus]

The poison chalk that I use will probably affect the T's is they were to walk over it, but I try to keep escapes to a minimum. Normal chalk and cinnamon should have no harmful effects.

 

[Tongue Flicker]

I stand my bug feeders on a wide tray with an inch of water. Some crushed bay leaves stuffed where they hide also proves helpful to some as they contain something that causes a mild sedating effect to insects. Chalks and lining your tubs with baby oil is also effective as long as they stay