Ants and my aquaria

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Barliman

Aquarium Advice Addict
Joined
Feb 20, 2016
Messages
2,212
Location
Los Angeles, 3rd door on the left
Hi all,

I recently had an ant infestation in my kitchen. Took care of that, but now I've noticed the occasional ant (probably a scout) around one of my aquaria. Since chemical warfare is out in this case**, how do I go about fending off these little invaders in a way that doesn't endanger my fish?

**("We had to destroy the aquarium in order to save it!" :eek: :shocked!: )
 
That's going to be a tough one being that I am a licensed exterminator and I also have fish tanks myself I can say the best bet would probably be to gel bait them. Well in all reality you should first find out what is causing this ant infestation, what sort of ant are we dealing with which really isn't to hard to identify if you can grab one to look at and fix that issue as well. Most ants are looking for water or moisture so check sinks and plumbing for leaks. Also make sure none of the trees surrounding your home come in to contact with your home that's a perfect highway for ants to easily enter. Make sure you aren't leaving anything out for them to feed on and if you find a trail clean it up with some Windex to help break there pheromone trail.

Good luck!
 
That's going to be a tough one being that I am a licensed exterminator and I also have fish tanks myself I can say the best bet would probably be to gel bait them.

Good luck!

Thanks for the advice. I'm not sure if anything specific attracted them; several apartments have been hit. I suspect they've noticed bit of food and drops of water, though. I never knew that about Windex. I'll keep it in mind if I ever find the entry point. (y)
 
If you live in multi family / apartment complex and it's not just you seeing them it could be something around your building I'm not sure how good your management is about taking care of pest problems but most of them are on it if a few tenants are having problems I'd bring it up to them or you could go the bait route and fight them off yourself.
 
Simple green kills ants too. It is less toxic than ant spray so I used it when I had kiddos running around, as I didn't worry about them touching items with over spray on them. Not that I would spray it into a tank... Since it is a pump sprayer, it could be used NEAR a tank, or wiped with a towel if it was very much next to the tank.

Great info sanjosalien, about the Pheromone trail!

I have used the little bait stations and they can work great. They were in a black plastic station and it might have been hot shot brand.
 
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Of course if you could bait them so they get into the water...
 
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