I suspect that there is an ant nest hiding somewhere in the substrate in the indoor enclosure for my Hermann's tortoise.
I have been trying to watch to see exactly where they are coming from but haven't been able to track it down yet. All I know for sure is that they are occasionally crawling over the top of the side wall and out and a bunch of them have ended up on my desk (and crawling on my arms/hands when I'm trying to work) as the exit line they are following is in the area where the tortoise enclosure extends above the corner of my desk.
I don't think these small black ants would actually be harmful to the tortoise or to me or to our cats, but I really don't want them crawling on me or on my computer, and I'd prefer not to have them in the enclosure or the house at all.
One option is to completely remove all of the substrate, scrub the whole enclosure, and then replace the substrate with new stuff, but I actually only did that about a month or so ago and I'd prefer not to spend lots of money to replace it all again.
Ant bait/traps would also work, but I'm concerned that when they carry the bait back to the nest to kill off the whole colony, that could present some potential harm to the tortoise. I haven't found any that are pet safe. A few say it in the "advertising", but the fine print says to keep away from children and animals...
The tortoise is spending most of his time outside right now but I do bring him inside if the overnight temperature is going to drop too low.
Any suggestions how to deal with this nuisance without hurting the tortoise or the cats? And preferably without spending a lot of money since I'm pretty much broke right now.
I have been trying to watch to see exactly where they are coming from but haven't been able to track it down yet. All I know for sure is that they are occasionally crawling over the top of the side wall and out and a bunch of them have ended up on my desk (and crawling on my arms/hands when I'm trying to work) as the exit line they are following is in the area where the tortoise enclosure extends above the corner of my desk.
I don't think these small black ants would actually be harmful to the tortoise or to me or to our cats, but I really don't want them crawling on me or on my computer, and I'd prefer not to have them in the enclosure or the house at all.
One option is to completely remove all of the substrate, scrub the whole enclosure, and then replace the substrate with new stuff, but I actually only did that about a month or so ago and I'd prefer not to spend lots of money to replace it all again.
Ant bait/traps would also work, but I'm concerned that when they carry the bait back to the nest to kill off the whole colony, that could present some potential harm to the tortoise. I haven't found any that are pet safe. A few say it in the "advertising", but the fine print says to keep away from children and animals...
The tortoise is spending most of his time outside right now but I do bring him inside if the overnight temperature is going to drop too low.
Any suggestions how to deal with this nuisance without hurting the tortoise or the cats? And preferably without spending a lot of money since I'm pretty much broke right now.
