Cat yes, ants no

July 31, 2019 6:06 AM

What is a cat-safe way to get rid of mystery ants?

We have garden ants coming into the house. Mercifully, so far they've only appeared when something has been spilled on the floor. But sadly, we cannot totally control our cat and sometimes, despite our best efforts, cat food gets on the floor when we're not around...and then there are ants! This is new. We've lived here for ten years.

I can't find the nest and assume that it's hidden somewhere around our very porous very old house.

What can I use to get rid of the ants that is also safe to have around the cat? We can't afford any solution of the "spend several thousand dollars to have professionals do expensive things to the house itself" variety.

posted by Frowner to Home & Garden (16 answers total)

Try food grade diatomaceous earth - you can order it on Amazon - sprinkle it where the ants are coming in, like around the baseboard / where counter meets wall / etc.
posted by beyond_pink at 6:14 AM on July 31, 2019 [6 favorites]

By far the most effective ant bait I've found is the Terro liquid stuff, but it's not good for cats. We get around this by either setting it somewhere the cats can't get it (tricky!) or setting it up in a ridiculous fashion like "under a box with a little hole cut out for ant access, and something heavy on top so cats can't move it," which is ridiculous but gets the job done.

But! I just acquired some of these new (or at least new to me) "multi-surface" versions of the bait which look like they'd be cat-proof. But I haven't actually taken them out of the box yet since we have maybe, fingers crossed, beaten the ant invasion without needing another round of bait. They seem promising, though.

There are some other baits that cats can't get into - I think Raid makes some - but I've never seen them actually catch any ants. I gather different kinds of ants like different baits, though, so they might be worth a try.
posted by Stacey at 6:21 AM on July 31, 2019 [5 favorites]

Diatomaceous earth is what I use. I identify spots they're coming through the floor and dump some there. The stuff is deadly to things with an exoskeleton but fine for kitties. Bonus - it's cheap.
posted by bile and syntax at 6:24 AM on July 31, 2019 [3 favorites]

Whenever they show up to enjoy a spill, trace them back to where they're getting into the room and then lay down some diatomaceous earth there. Replace the diatomaceous earth after cleaning or every couple of days until the ants stop showing up.

You could also just put down a thin layer of diatomaceous earth around the whole room like it's a salt circle for warding away demons, but if you do the whack-a-mole method you might get a better idea of where the nest is (which I'd guess is most likely outside your house rather than inside).

Diatomaceous earth is totally pet-safe because it's not a poison. It physically degrades exoskeletons and causes exoskeletal critters to rapidly desiccate. For non-arthropods it's pretty much harmless. (It can do bad things to you if you're inhaling it over long periods of time, but this is more of an occupational hazard for workers that mine and process it than something you need to worry about for home use.)
posted by tobascodagama at 6:26 AM on July 31, 2019 [3 favorites]

You can squirt the liquid baits inside the cracks the ants are disappearing into, then the cat can’t get at it. It’s by far the most effective thing.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:26 AM on July 31, 2019 [1 favorite]

I live in Houston, where tiny ants are nearly impossible to avoid without some kind of intervention. I, too, have had TREMENDOUS success with the Terro bait traps -- and we have cats. For us, the area of concern was the kitchen, so we put them down in the back of cabinets as well as on countertops behind a couple appliances, and the problem went away.

We also had, separately, a roach issue, and honestly in a place like Houston the diatomaceous earth approach isn't great. It's too humid, even in the house. Plus, you have white powder everywhere.

What we ended up doing was finding a local exterminator, and talking with them about what to do. He comes quarterly, and the material he uses is pet safe. Since we did this, we've had no more insect incursions.
posted by uberchet at 6:35 AM on July 31, 2019 [2 favorites]

Yeah the liquid bait in a syringe is good in corners, cracks, on walls, where walls meet ceilings, etc. We've had a lot of success with it against different kinds of ants in different parts of the world. If you can trace a trail back to something that is not the floor, you can probably make this work!
posted by olinerd at 6:43 AM on July 31, 2019 [1 favorite]

Are your cats indoor cats? Just place some Terro traps outside. Place them where you think they may be entering the home.
posted by JoeZydeco at 6:51 AM on July 31, 2019

Terro, by the way, is borax mixed with sugar syrup. You can make a pretty serviceable version at home for dirt cheap. I did this year and it works just as well as the store-bought stuff though it seems to dry out a bit quicker.
posted by jquinby at 7:26 AM on July 31, 2019 [5 favorites]

We've had success and no trouble with the little Terro bait traps that uberchet mentioned. YMMV, though; our cats have never been the type to play with things like this, and yours may be, and might spill them if they do. It's possible to tuck them away in corners or other hard-to-reach places, but it's also possible that cats will view them as a challenge and then whack them like hockey pucks.
posted by dlugoczaj at 7:26 AM on July 31, 2019

My vet recommends the Combat Max bait traps. The active ingredient is fipronil, which is also used to fight flea and tick infestations on both cats and dogs, so it's about as safe a substance as you'll find.
posted by Faint of Butt at 8:33 AM on July 31, 2019 [2 favorites]

Terro now makes relatively pet-tamper-proof little traps that stick to upright surfaces like your molding. The liquid is entirely encased in the trap. Our cat and dog have no interest in them as they just blend in with the molding, and they'd have a very difficult if not impossible time getting the poison out of the trap. The only way I could do it myself was to take it off the vertical surface and literally dump it upside down. I needed opposable thumbs.

They killed out ants quite dead.
posted by juniperesque at 9:58 AM on July 31, 2019 [2 favorites]

I like to use Orange Guard spray for this - you can sometimes find it at Ace Hardware locally, but I have also ordered from Amazon. It seems to work pretty well for ants, doesn't smell bad, and I do not think it is harmful to pets once it has dried.

We used it around our bird, as we had to be really careful with bug spray, etc around her, and it didn't seem to bother her or our pug.

I have also used the Terro traps (awful ant infestation in our bunny room...) and they worked well!
posted by needlegrrl at 10:14 AM on July 31, 2019 [1 favorite]

We've used cinnamon, liberally sprinkled where the ants come in and our cat doesn't care about it. We also have some tea tree oil based sprays that we got in the home pest control aisle at Home Depot that have helped.
posted by sleeping bear at 11:07 AM on July 31, 2019

Tea tree oil is actually not really safe for cats (most essential oils are not). Diatomaceous earth is safe to eat, but it's not great for them to breathe in continously (same for humans FYI, but they are closer to the floor). As long as it's tucked in corners instead of next to their food it should be ok. I've had very good results with the sugar+borax thing because the ants take it back to the nest and it wipes them all out, rather than DE which just kills the ants that walk on it. You can mix up a borax + sugar solution and rig up a little trap with a dish and a small box that has ant-size holes that the cats can't get into. I put it in a small water bottle laid on its side with the cap off, taped to the ground (to prevent accidental spills) with a little ant-bridge up to the mouth of the bottle. Put it between where they're entering and the cat food, they will take the easier meal.
posted by 100kb at 11:23 AM on July 31, 2019 [3 favorites]

nth-ing diatomaceous earth. Only thing that works on crazy ants. I also use a mixture of boric acid and cornstarch.
posted by cross_impact at 10:14 AM on August 1, 2019