# I found ants on its cage!



## darkestz (Aug 8, 2010)

I found a few ants on his igloo and I'm worried that they might be going to my hedgie as well. How do I keep them away ?


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## jdlover90 (Jun 14, 2010)

Is your cage inside or outside? I've never heard of ants randomly being on a cage? :O


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## Hedgehog Grove (Jul 21, 2010)

A hedgehog's cage should never be outside for living quarters. They are indoor pets. 

Now as for the ants, they are going for the food not the hedgie. Find out where they are coming nto the house from and spray with a natural pet safe bug spray.


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## jdlover90 (Jun 14, 2010)

Agreed. Find where the ants are coming in, and try and get rid of them.


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## jinglesharks (Jun 15, 2010)

If you search, you'll find many threads related to this issue. I agree that cutting the ants off where they are coming in is the best option, but that can sometimes be tricky to suss out. There will be many suggestions if you read those threads- I can't remember what exactly since I've never had this problem.


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## susanaproenca (Aug 14, 2010)

Can you put an ant bait or coffee ground OUTSIDE the cage (in a spot not near your hedgie)? That might work. We use coffee ground here when we have ants and it gets rid of them all. 

Also, maybe try to clean all the crumbs left behind every morning. 

Hope that helps!


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## tracie (Jun 16, 2010)

susanaproenca said:


> Can you put an ant bait or coffee ground OUTSIDE the cage (in a spot not near your hedgie)? That might work. We use coffee ground here when we have ants and it gets rid of them all.
> 
> Also, maybe try to clean all the crumbs left behind every morning.
> 
> Hope that helps!


Coffee grounds get rid of ants? How does that work?


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## susanaproenca (Aug 14, 2010)

tracie said:


> Coffee grounds get rid of ants? How does that work?


Someone told me some time ago that used coffee grounds repel ants. At first I didn't believe it (I'm extremely skeptical and need to see things working and have concrete proof and all that blablabla to believe something), but then we were having ants inside our house and my boyfriend put some coffee grounds in a small plate on the kitchen counter. We have done that in two different occasions and it worked.


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## tracie (Jun 16, 2010)

susanaproenca said:


> tracie said:
> 
> 
> > Coffee grounds get rid of ants? How does that work?
> ...


You put coffee grounds on the kitchen counter and it repelled all of the ants from the house??


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## susanaproenca (Aug 14, 2010)

tracie said:


> You put coffee grounds on the kitchen counter and it repelled all of the ants from the house??


we only had ants in the kitchen. It wasn't that bad.


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## tracie (Jun 16, 2010)

susanaproenca said:


> tracie said:
> 
> 
> > You put coffee grounds on the kitchen counter and it repelled all of the ants from the house??
> ...


Oh ok. That's still really cool. I've never heard of that, I'm gonna remember that.


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## jinglesharks (Jun 15, 2010)

I just remembered peppermint. Apparently ants don't like it and if you fill a spray bottle with water and 10-20 drops of essential peppermint oil and spray it around where they are, they'll be gone. Now, I don't know if this actually works since when I tried it, we ended up having exterminators come in a couple days later for fleas and that killed the ants as well, but it did make the place smell lovely!


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## susanaproenca (Aug 14, 2010)

jinglesharks said:


> I just remembered peppermint. Apparently ants don't like it and if you fill a spray bottle with water and 10-20 drops of essential peppermint oil and spray it around where they are, they'll be gone. Now, I don't know if this actually works since when I tried it, we ended up having exterminators come in a couple days later for fleas and that killed the ants as well, but it did make the place smell lovely!


That's good to know! I love peppermint smell (better than the smell of used coffee grounds :lol: )


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## Hedgieonboard (Nov 15, 2009)

We get fire ants and the fastest acting stuff I have used to date is an all natural soybean oil spray that I believe I got at either Walmart or Lowe's. The stuff works instantly and is safe. If these are the kind of ants you are getting another trick is to walk around the house and see if you can find any close to the house and then sprinkle uncoooked grits on the pile. They will usually be gone the next day and it won't hurt any outside animals and its not a lot so won't effect the birds either.


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## darkestz (Aug 8, 2010)

Actually I keep him inside but the ants come through my window! I'm going to spray peppermint on them.


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## zorropirate (Aug 13, 2010)

Coffee grounds! Will have to try that. We've been having issues with big black wood ants in our kitchen, they come up and in through the window screen some how.  I have tried peppermint oil, I actually put it in all my homemade cleaning products now in hopes of it working, but they are still around. I also tried drawing lines with chalk as they won't cross that apparently, but nope, didn't work. 

Someone also mentioned on another post today about parsley bunches, so I think I'll pull out the aeorgarden and plant a batch of parsley and see how that works out. 

Well I'll also try the coffee thing too!


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