help! ants in the bunny room!!!!

[cainan]

Eek, so now that I’m on the first floor (and in an older house) and it’s been raining so much lately, I’ve apparently inherited an ant issue.  The teeny weeny you can barely see ’em unless they swarm type of ant. YUCK.

The place they’ve decided to swarm is, unfortunately, the bunny room!  Any ideas on how to safely get rid of them?  I don’t want to have to relocate the buns and certainly don’t want any poison around them!

[Tate]

Baby powder is what worked for me.

[cainan]

The bunnies didn’t try to eat the baby powder?

[Monkeybun]

vinegar. spray some across their path indoors, and they will lose the scent

[Tate]

I haven’t tried the baby powder with bunnies, but I did have two dwarf hamsters that were fine with it. I just used it to fill in the holes in the wall where the ants were coming in. Ants can’t go through baby powder because it completely dehydrates them when they touch it.
The vinegar may be a safer bet though, as I’m positive that is rabbit safe.

[BinkyBunny]

You can use ant traps as long as you place them in areas that you are 100% sure the bunnies will not get too. You don’t have to place the ant traps right in th ant path. Many times the scent of the ant trap draws the ants to them.

Here are some links to some past posts that may be helpful (Note the sugar and baking soda one has to be used up and away from your bunny!) Just make sure to read through the whole thread as one person will offer a good suggestion, but then further safety advice is given.

https://binkybunny.com/FORUM/tabid/54/aft/52669/Default.aspx
https://binkybunny.com/FORUM/tabid/54/aft/103073/Default.aspx

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

I’m not sure I’d use baby powder-they don’t use it on babys anymore because inhaling it causes lung problems.

I’d put duct tape sticky side up in the doorways and windowsills-or a sticky ant trap? I haven’t had issues with bugs really -we live quite far north and only have bugs a few months of the year-not much time to come in and take residence, but the tape couldn’t hurt.

[Michelle&Lolli]

You can use ant traps as long as you place them in areas that you are 100% sure the bunnies will not get too.

I got ants at my first apartment and I used the traps. I had to keep them on the floor, but would pick them up when Eddie was out of his pen. It worried me naturally, but I don’t think he even knew they were there. He got close to sniff one in a “this is new” way, but I snatched it up and he didn’t bother anymore. So maybe he smelled the poison and wasn’t attracted to them? I don’t know. He just never really acted like they phased him in the least so they must’ve not been that exciting. LOL

[cainan]

Okay, I’m through with this! The ants were in Merry’s -litter box- when I got home! GAH!

I did put traps down (tried the vinegar, but they didn’t seem to care) and they are definitely fewer in number, but come on – her pen is 4 feet away from the wall to the outside and yet there were ants in her box? >insert mad face here<

[HoneybunnySara]

Can you use cornstarch instead of baby powder? It is the talc in powder that is the problem ( for humans, babies). You just use regular cornstarch from the baking section instead of powder, and it is dirt cheap.

Just thought of something, grits also works on killing ants, they eat them and they swell up inside and kill the ant don’t know if they are bunny safe so be sure to check that out too.

[RabbitPam]

I know we don’t like to use chemicals, but many exterminators and products are known to be pet-safe, because they are chemicals that have no ill effects on them and dry almost immediately so a bunny never really ingests or inhales them. I have tried one kind with no bad effects on Sammy.

I am using the Ortho Home Defense Max spray bottle. What you can do it take the bunnies out of the room for play time elsewhere for an hour or so. Close their room and use a stream of this along the baseboard up against the wall, not in a wider spray, just right at the seams. Do the windows as well.
Let it dry and wait to bring bunnies back in. Also, when you spray, move anything of theirs, cage included, about a foot away from the wall so it doesn’t get hit. This stuff works with one use for months. I moved into an infested house, cleaned it up, sprayed this stuff generously, cleaned it more and moved in a week later. I have only seen a couple of dead ants since, and no live ones.

If you are still reluctant to do it in there, go outside your home and give a huge spray of this stuff all over the outside windows and ground of the walls. It is highly recommended for Outdoor use as well, and once they get it, they do not come back for weeks or months. What that may do, however, is send them inside your house just before they die off within the walls. But it’s the next best thing to spraying their room.

[Author]

Messages