Ants are getting in the cats' food dish

[marissa]

Every summer we get ants. I could clean all I want but they still find the smallest drip of food and with 4 kids that happens some times. Now I have ants around the food dish for the kittens. Any suggestions to get rid of them? We were told to open feed since the girls are 7 months old. I was thinking of putting cinnamon around the area since ants don't like it but wasn't sure since the cats will walk around the area.

[independencegirl74]

Order some food-grade diatomaceous earth and sprinkle that around all the edges of the room. It's a desiccant, which means the DE causes microscopic scratches in the ants' exoskeletons and makes them dry out and die. It works for fleas, too. We treated our whole house with it, and even rub it into the pets' fur occasionally. The food-grade DE is completely safe/non-toxic.

[So_Fetch]

we get ants at the sanctuary - we've resorted to putting the dishes of food inside small little pans with about 1/2 an inch of water on the bottom. The ants can't make it out of the water to get to the food.

[redheadbaker]

A woman that I cat-sat for would put the cat dishes in a shallow casserole dish, and put half an inch of water in the casserole. Ants wouldn't/couldn't cross the water to get to the food.

[mrs.jacinthe]

Do you know where they are getting in? That would be my first concern. Last year we had to recaulk around all the windows, but we finally must've gotten whatever crack they were using, because they disappeared.

FWIW, I use DE also, as well as instant grits (depending on what kind of ants they are.) DE makes them shrivel up and die, and grits does the exact opposite - causes them to blow up and die. Which makes me irrationally gleeful, picturing all those pesky ants exploding.

[lyndel]

The water trick that other posters mentioned works for us.

[marissa]

They come in through a crack in the tile area in our front door area. We tried putting a new weather stripping around the door and they still come in. My husband is as handy as Sheldon is well versed in the bedroom....I end up doing everything because he will tell me he's going to do something and I end up doing whatever it is I asked him to do. I know I should stop because it's showing him he doesn't have to lift a finger but there's not much I can do other than let my house turn more to shit.