Expert: Chrys Meatyard - 12/6/2006

Question
in particular ants in the food dishes. I'm writing from our business in Panama, Central America. Some of our cages were easy to put dishes in dishes with some water but for some, especially the big macaws, their dishes needed to be fastened to the walls of their 3 ft wide x 6 ft long x 8 ft high pipe and mesh cages. I know I can't poisen the ants even in the outside perimeter because of fumes and the ants carrying the poisen in, but are their any alternatives or natural repellents, or for that matter something simple I'm just overlooking?

Answer
Dennis.  I was reading your comments in the rating you gave me and it made me think perhaps you could also use double-sided tape (clear or not).  Chrys
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Hi, Dennis.  Thanks for posting!

I'm not used to dealing with pests like this when it comes to parrots because most parrots are kept indoors.  However, there are a couple "home" remedies I've heard of.  Some say ants won't cross a line of iodized salt.  Some also say ants won't cross an area that has been cleaned with bleach.  Where I live, people paint white circles around their tree trunks in order to keep ants from climbing up the trees.  Perhaps painted white lines across areas where you don't want ants to enter would work.  

I don't know if you have these where you live, but you could try using glue traps (usually made to catch mice).  Place the glue traps where you see ants/pests entering and when they walk across the glue, they become stuck to the glue.  These glue traps don't emit any toxic fumes and as long as your parrots can't reach them, they would be safe to use around your birds.  I even had a parrot get stuck to one of these one time and I used warm water to remove the bird from the trap (and to remove any excess glue).  The bird preened it's feathers afterward with no ill effects.  Also, it would help to remove any fresh food dishes as soon as your parrots are finished eating their fresh foods.

Chrys