Are cats ok around vinegar?

I'm having a terrible battle against ants invading my kitchen...I can't keep any food anywhere, not even in the garbage can. I am fed up with them, and online some suggestions are spraying vinegar mixed with water on the ground. I just want to make sure this won't be anything toxic for my pets.

Thank you so much.

spraying and stuff is not a permanent fix....
you need to follow the and trails to the source....
hopefully they are coming out of ONE hole or one area and then you can either plug up that area permanently with anything from plastecine to grout....

so the best way tofind the trail would be to ...
TOTALLY clean your kitchen and then leave a bit of food in one spot and wait for a trail to form....

you may find that after you plug up one hole the ants come back so then you need to repeat the process and see where the other hole is.... and then keep plugging up the holes.... eventually you will solve the problem but spraying is just not going to work out in the long run....

you can also , once you find the hole get a type of ant poison from the hardware store where you leave the little box full of poison near the hole... then he ants come out go into the box, and carry the poison home.... this is not really THAT effective because if you have a LARGE colony.... only some ants get nuked.

Vinegar is not at all toxic to your pets, one of the reasons I use vinegar in much of my home and floor cleaning is that it's safe for the cats.

Vinager is often reccomended for cleaning up cat pee, suppsedly they don't like the smell, so you wouldn't want to use it where you want them to go.

There is an ant bait in little round cannisters that the cats can not get into, that worked really well when my other half put up some hard candy for the next grandkids visit and forgot about it. I got it at the dollar store, and in two days the ants were gone.

What worked for my ant problem was I mixed Borox with icing sugar (ants love icing sugar). What they do is take the icing sugar back to the colony of ants to feed them. Not knowing that it isn't all icing sugar and some is Borox. The Borox kills the colony. I would be careful where you place it....do not put near the cats food just incase it gets into their food. Keep away from the cats....

Good luck!

p.s. I feed my cat a raw diet and he drags the meat onto the kitchen floor. I use vinegar to clean up his mess all the time.

Ants can be very invasive and difficult to exterminate. The more ants, the more likely they have colonized, or attempting to, within this area. I am a gardener/landscaper and what we use as an organic/natural spray is a tablespoon Ivory dish soap, a teaspoon rubbing alcohol per gallon water. This works for most small insects, especially aphids when it comes to plants. Aphids have a symbiotic relationship with ants. Ants are especially attracted to sugar water/nectar which aphids produce.
My suggestion is since you aren't treating plants, you can use a stronger mixture of Ivory dish soap, rubbing alcohol, and water....directly spray areas to the point of saturation. This is safe and the more you apply the more effect it will have. I would keep applying it several times a day.......

Originally Posted by bookworm

Vinager is often reccomended for cleaning up cat pee, suppsedly they don't like the smell, so you wouldn't want to use it where you want them to go.

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The vinegar removes all odour, so the cat's won't re-mark that spot it isn't the actual vinegar that keeps them away it's because there is no lingering odour.

Vinegar is okay to use around cats and most other pets. I use it as a cleaner and have used it as a spray when ants got into my previous place. It worked to deter them for a while, but a few hours later, they would come back.

Originally Posted by KatGoddess

Vinegar is okay to use around cats and most other pets. I use it as a cleaner and have used it as a spray when ants got into my previous place. It worked to deter them for a while, but a few hours later, they would come back.

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Because vinegar doesn't kill or deter them........ Once again......
"a tablespoon Ivory dish soap, a teaspoon rubbing alcohol per gallon water. This works for most small insects, especially aphids when it comes to plants. Aphids have a symbiotic relationship with ants. Ants are especially attracted to sugar water/nectar which aphids produce.
My suggestion is since you aren't treating plants, you can use a stronger mixture of Ivory dish soap, rubbing alcohol, and water....directly spray areas to the point of saturation. This is safe and the more you apply the more effect it will have. I would keep applying it several times a day......"

I used diatomaceous earth for my ant problem. It also ended the rolly polly invasion I had. I sprinkled it in the problem areas inside my house and all around the outside of my house.

The best product I've found is Amdro Ant Block. It is a yellow granular product you sprinkle around your house on the outside, and it keeps the invaders out.

I need to buy some more, and haven't used it outside recently. Yesterday I awoke to finding a trail of ants in the kitchen and down the hall. I sprinkled this stuff along the trail in several places. After about 3 hours the ants had all disappeared. This stuff has no odor or sticky smelly spray. After the ants were gone, I swept up and discarded the granules.

The ants take this bait back to their nest and the ants in the nest are also killed.

My cat has never been interested in this stuff, and the only toxic warning is around fish.

I bought it at Home Depot. It is packaged in a white jug with a green label! Best stuff I've ever found! I'm buying more today.

Nope - I've used a vinegar rinse when washing my cats for shows (makes sure all the soap is out of the coat). Won't hurt them a bit.

Thank you for all the replies, I really appreciate it!

One more voice

I had ALLOT of success drowning my ant colonies (they were out on our front walk-way) a little dish-soap and some water cleared them right up!

We also did the Borax & Sugar and it worked well (although not as well as plugging the holes) but I'm too worried to use it in areas that the pets/child can get too.

Also ants won't cross chalk, or petroleum jelly (I suggest chalk, the petroleum jelly gets really gross when you forget its on the edge of the fridge & stick your fingers in it in the middle of the night, then freak out!!).

Best of luck!