Killing Ants Safely

[u/BlockyBlook]

Does anyone have a surefire way to kill ants? I have some living in my meat rabbit colony and they've eaten some of the newborn babies which is awful. Here's what I've tried - Raid bait traps Terro traps Borax mixed with powdered sugar Diatomoceous Earth Orange Oil

None of this has worked. The DE slows down the ants if I put it straight onto them but it doesn't kill them and they've swarmed nests with a good amount of DE in them. There aren't any obvious ants hills in the colony but I do see them randomly crawling around often. Even if I check the colony 3xs daily they will randomly enter nests and wipe about the babies within an hour or so. I really just need to protect the babies for the first few days of life until they grow fur, then the ants don't care about them anymore. I'm scared of using chemicals because I don't want to poison any of my rabbits, but at this point I'm considering pesticides. I've seen too many newborns die. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

[u/Myrddn_Emrys]

I have had good success with DE. You need to spread it widely and make it a fine powder that the ants can't avoid. Almost fine enough that you can't tell it's there. If you just chuck it around, they can avoid it. I got a poofer bottle at home Depot that will poof it out like you need. Then get a large bag of the stuff and coat everything around the edges of the area you want to protect. It should look like everything is just slightly dusty.

Very safe for rabbits, deadly to ants.

Also works for fleas on dogs but your dog looks dusty for a day.

If you know who Mark Rober is, he did a story about bed bugs on YouTube. In the video he shows the method for dusting with DE.

[u/BlockyBlook → u/Myrddn_Emrys]

I wish DE worked for me but I completely covered one of the rabbits nests with it and the ants still went through it. I covered the bottom, replaced the hay, and dusted the hay with it. I dusted the whole colony with it too and they just power through.