Fire 🔥Ants, Big Birds, and Danger Noodles: How to Protect Hermann’s Outside?

[Quixx66]

Hi All,
I’m thinking of putting my Hermann’s outside for the summer in a plastic pool or wooden enclosure (or at least a couple of days a week). Dangerous animals are what’s stopping me.

We have fire ants and I’m afraid of them building a nest inside the pool or wooden enclosure on the ground. Hawks and snakes that ate all our goldfish until we stopped keeping them. We even had a screen over the pond at the end but it wasn’t good enough or the correct gauge I guess.

I’m thinking about housing Matteo in a raised bed on legs to combat the problem. Will ants climb up a raised bed to make a nest or get to the soil? Will they do it to a kiddie pool? Would plants or other organic measures help deter them? What to do about birds and snakes?

Thanks.

 

[Ink]

Fire ants killed my tortoise. Hopefully someone can help you with that and snakes. They can climb. Good luck. An expert will be able to help you.

 

[Tom]

Hi All,
I’m thinking of putting my Hermann’s outside for the summer in a plastic pool or wooden enclosure (or at least a couple of days a week). Dangerous animals are what’s stopping me.

We have fire ants and I’m afraid of them building a nest inside the pool or wooden enclosure on the ground. Hawks and snakes that ate all our goldfish until we stopped keeping them. We even had a screen over the pond at the end but it wasn’t good enough or the correct gauge I guess.

I’m thinking about housing Matteo in a raised bed on legs to combat the problem. Will ants climb up a raised bed to make a nest or get to the soil? Will they do it to a kiddie pool? Would plants or other organic measures help deter them? What to do about birds and snakes?

Thanks.

The thing with ants is to kill them early and often. Eradicate them as soon as you see them and keep pushing them back farther and farther away from the center of your property. The farther away you push the boundary, the less likely they are to invade your tortoise area.

If you make and area like this with 1/2 x 1/2 inch hardware cloth, nothing will be able together in or out:

You can put a bottom on yours too, if you want. Hardware cloth covered in the native dirt, or plywood.

 

[Quixx66]

Fire ants killed my tortoise. Hopefully someone can help you with that and snakes. They can climb. Good luck. An expert will be able to help you.

Thank you for the info. So sorry about the loss of your tortoise this way.

 

[Quixx66]

The thing with ants is to kill them early and often. Eradicate them as soon as you see them and keep pushing them back farther and farther away from the center of your property. The farther away you push the boundary, the less likely they are to invade your tortoise area.

If you make and area like this with 1/2 x 1/2 inch hardware cloth, nothing will be able together in or out:
View attachment 342227
You can put a bottom on yours too, if you want. Hardware cloth covered in the native dirt, or plywood.

I guess I’ll have to treat the yard. We have two acres, and fire ants are everywhere. Was hoping to use the yard for organic gardening but I guess not. Or I’ll wait until after their gone. That’s probably the best thing. 😀

Thanks.

 

[Tom]

I guess I’ll have to treat the yard. We have two acres, and fire ants are everywhere. Was hoping to use the yard for organic gardening but I guess not. Or I’ll wait until after their gone. That’s probably the best thing. 😀

Thanks.

I have not experimented with fire ants in the south, but out here the ant granules dumped right on top of their mound will be carried underground and kill them all. So you don't have to treat the whole yard, just the ant spots, and then just keep pushing them back outside the edges of your two acres. I do this on five acres, so it can be done. My southern friends tell me it works on the fire ants too. Amdro ant granules. I found it at Home Depot in GA, so you should have it in LA too.

 

[Quixx66]

I have not experimented with fire ants in the south, but out here the ant granules dumped right on top of their mound will be carried underground and kill them all. So you don't have to treat the whole yard, just the ant spots, and then just keep pushing them back outside the edges of your two acres. I do this on five acres, so it can be done. My southern friends tell me it works on the fire ants too. Amdro ant granules. I found it at Home Depot in GA, so you should have it in LA too.

Thanks so much. I’ll get on it as I want him to be outside sometimes.

 

[Chariya]

You can also use sugar mixed with Borax soap 50/50 mix, they'll carry the borax into their nest with the sugar and eat it. My mom used it to get rid of the ants on her property.

 

[Tom]

You can also use sugar mixed with Borax soap 50/50 mix, they'll carry the borax into their nest with the sugar and eat it. My mom used it to get rid of the ants on her property.

That doesn't work as well in the southeast because of all the moisture they get. Here in the southwest we are so dry that the ants want the water and are highly attracted to any water source. Not so much with the fire ants in Louisiana where it rains darn near every day and the ground is always saturated.

 

[Starlight_kitsune]

Still very new to torts, but I am an ant and spider nerd. So I have a suggestion for the ant concern specifically.

If you do decide to do the outdoor enclosure, if you do a raised bed, you could smear a thick layer of petroleum jelly around part of the legs, most ants can't/won't climb over that. About a 2-3 inch band should be more than enough. Baby powder (the talcum kind) and rubbing alcohol mixed can also make ants slip and unable to hold onto the surface. In ant keeping, you want to be careful not to use too much since that could coat your ants and kill them, but since the goal here is keeping a tortoise safe, I really don't think you can use too much in this instance. I personally prefer petroleum jelly, my fire ant colony that I used to have only ever had three or four get out over a couple of years. It does need reapplied sporadically but its pretty effective at deterring them.

 

[Gijoux]

Still very new to torts, but I am an ant and spider nerd. So I have a suggestion for the ant concern specifically.

If you do decide to do the outdoor enclosure, if you do a raised bed, you could smear a thick layer of petroleum jelly around part of the legs, most ants can't/won't climb over that. About a 2-3 inch band should be more than enough. Baby powder (the talcum kind) and rubbing alcohol mixed can also make ants slip and unable to hold onto the surface. In ant keeping, you want to be careful not to use too much since that could coat your ants and kill them, but since the goal here is keeping a tortoise safe, I really don't think you can use too much in this instance. I personally prefer petroleum jelly, my fire ant colony that I used to have only ever had three or four get out over a couple of years. It does need reapplied sporadically but its pretty effective at deterring them.

Wow! You actually raised Fire Ants? Whatever for?

 

[Starlight_kitsune]

Wow! You actually raised Fire Ants? Whatever for?

For fun but also to help out my friend. He got "volunteered" for a work transfer to Canada and he couldn't legally bring them with him. It was supposed to be 6 months but became 2 years. But on the fun part, their care is interesting, the colonies grow pretty quickly, they have an insane feeding response and honestly, they're fascinating to sit and watch. By the time he came back, the colony was about 4 times the size it was when he left. I only ever had any problems with them a few times. They had definitely outgrown the space I had for them by the time I gave them back. Plus I wanted to get back into tarantulas and tarantulas and ants aren't a great combo.

 

[Yvonne G]

I'm not an expert on danger noodles, and I really don't like them but my thought is I don't think a snake poses any sort of a problem for a tortoise.

 

[Tom]

I'm not an expert on danger noodles, and I really don't like them but my thought is I don't think a snake poses any sort of a problem for a tortoise.

Some of the bigger LA snakes could swallow a small tortoise, but I agree with you when it comes to larger tortoises.

 

[Quixx66]

You can also use sugar mixed with Borax soap 50/50 mix, they'll carry the borax into their nest with the sugar and eat it. My mom used it to get rid of the ants on her property.

Thank you!

 

[Quixx66]

Still very new to torts, but I am an ant and spider nerd. So I have a suggestion for the ant concern specifically.

If you do decide to do the outdoor enclosure, if you do a raised bed, you could smear a thick layer of petroleum jelly around part of the legs, most ants can't/won't climb over that. About a 2-3 inch band should be more than enough. Baby powder (the talcum kind) and rubbing alcohol mixed can also make ants slip and unable to hold onto the surface. In ant keeping, you want to be careful not to use too much since that could coat your ants and kill them, but since the goal here is keeping a tortoise safe, I really don't think you can use too much in this instance. I personally prefer petroleum jelly, my fire ant colony that I used to have only ever had three or four get out over a couple of years. It does need reapplied sporadically but its pretty effective at deterring them.

Thanks so much. I’m going to try the raised bed with Vaseline, etc. I went camping so I haven’t had a chance to really get back to people or do anything.

 

[ComeNT8kIt]

Still very new to torts, but I am an ant and spider nerd. So I have a suggestion for the ant concern specifically.

If you do decide to do the outdoor enclosure, if you do a raised bed, you could smear a thick layer of petroleum jelly around part of the legs, most ants can't/won't climb over that. About a 2-3 inch band should be more than enough. Baby powder (the talcum kind) and rubbing alcohol mixed can also make ants slip and unable to hold onto the surface. In ant keeping, you want to be careful not to use too much since that could coat your ants and kill them, but since the goal here is keeping a tortoise safe, I really don't think you can use too much in this instance. I personally prefer petroleum jelly, my fire ant colony that I used to have only ever had three or four get out over a couple of years. It does need reapplied sporadically but its pretty effective at deterring them.

Spot on. I’ve never done this for an outdoor enclosure but it works great on my tarantula shelf. Have never had an ant issue again since I started using it

 

[ComeNT8kIt]

For my little hermann’s (2 yo) I keep him outside almost year round. His layout is super simple. Stock tank on top of the pallet and a basic wood and chicken wire lid. Around the pallet bass I’ll use some ant killer and I’ve never had an issue. We do have a lot of stray cats and other night time predators (opossums, raccoons, owls, foxes) so I also have a large puppy play pen gate that goes around it to keep them from getting on top of the lid

 

[Tom]

For my little hermann’s (2 yo) I keep him outside almost year round. His layout is super simple. Stock tank on top of the pallet and a basic wood and chicken wire lid. Around the pallet bass I’ll use some ant killer and I’ve never had an issue. We do have a lot of stray cats and other night time predators (opossums, raccoons, owls, foxes) so I also have a large puppy play pen gate that goes around it to keep them from getting on top of the lid

Those ramped water bowls are dangerous. Just wanted to mention that in the hope of preventing another tragedy.

 

[ComeNT8kIt]

Those ramped water bowls are dangerous. Just wanted to mention that in the hope of preventing another tragedy.

I keep it on the cool side and shallow enough that if he were to flip over he’d be able to keep his head out no problem. I know My anxiety will regret me asking this but are there other issues I haven’t thought of yet?