Keeping Ants Off Outside Cat Dishes

[alphakitty]

Hey,

I expended a fair amount of time developing a strategy that actually works, that is, keeping ants off of feral cat feeding dishes and-or autofeeders. The solution is incredibly simple. Get yourself a jar of motor oil, not cooking oil...motor oil. Stick your finger in it or you can use a small paint brush (I'm an AlphaKitty guy and fingers work just fine!), and paint a line around the bottom of the feeding dish. It must be one continuous track of oil. Half inch wide is fine. The kitties won't get their little paws in it, they won't track it all over the porch. But it keeps the ants off and it lasts nearly forever, through winter, summer, spring? And you might consider repainting once a year, although it doesn't really require doing so, but the oil smear will collect dirt and dust and become rather grimey in appearance. However, if you are particular about such things, washing the oil with soap & water, and repainting with 1/2 inch of motor oil around the base will again remedy that!

Best Wishes,

AlphaKitty
ps, if you have ants inside your home, spray the entrance area that the ants are coming through with 'OFF Active' insect repellant. They won't come back to that entrance. Works much better than insect poisons, because they evaporate, while OFF is oil based.

 

[Norachan]

Oh, I really don't think that's a good idea. Petroleum products and motor oil are highly toxic to cats. If the cats get any of the oil on their paws or fur and lick it off they could become very sick.

The easiest and safest way to keep ants away from an outdoor food dish is to place the dish in a wide, shallow dish or plate of water. Ants can't swim, so they won't be able to get to the food.

 

[alphakitty]

Oh, I really don't think that's a good idea. Petroleum products and motor oil are highly toxic to cats. If the cats get any of the oil on their paws or fur and lick it off they could become very sick.

The easiest and safest way to keep ants away from an outdoor food dish is to place the dish in a wide, shallow dish or plate of water. Ants can't swim, so they won't be able to get to the food.

Dear NoraChan,

Oops, apparently I wasn't clear enough in my description...

I shouldn't have said, <<paint a line around the bottom of the feeding dish>> but rather, my description would have been more clear if I had said, "around the outside near the bottom of the bowl."

All the kitties I've seen don't walk on the vertical sides of a bowl, nor do they lean up against the bowl while eating. Maybe your kitties are different?

And as a matter of reference, I had a colony of nine (fixed) mostly socialized 'feral' colony kitties who did walk in some motor oil. It was a feeding-bowl experiment that worked, but was rather messy, and none of them died, or got sick, at least in any manner that I was able to observe and I was out there every day with them. So in difference to your theory, I have actual experience in the matter. But I don't recommend kitties walking around in motor oil either, and I would suffer great emotional duress should any kitties in my care become sick or otherwise ill; however and fortunately they did not.

I have expended many hundreds of Dollars taking ill feral kitties (causes not associated with anything I did), to vets. The most recent was "New Mommy", who had a foxtail under her eyelid. That little deal cost me around $400? in vet visits, and I had to drip eyedrops into her eye every six hours for around six weeks. It was a bit dicey in the beginning as she was feral. But now she's a little sweetie and every day, I put her in my lap for our daily grooming and scratching her ears and chin session. Heh! Tonight I just made her a quickie hooch (Vietnamese bush lingo for 'shelter') as the nights are becoming cold here. I will fabricate something more suitable this week. I don't want to see either her or any of the other colony kitties being cold at night. I saw on the 'Net some storage container ideas, so I plan to purchase materials from Hombre-Despot for fabricating a few hooches.

Ad rem...the new keep-ants-off strategy has been in use for over three years. It works. All the other strategies that I researched, mainly via the 'Net, either don't work, or are only effective, as learned from practice, for a short period such as a few hours. One strategy uses moist coffee grounds, another employed fresh crushed mint leaves, but as soon the grounds and the leaves dried out, ants made a freeway through it. Then there was the cayenne pepper. I found that info on a vet site..caused the kitties to sneeze uncontrollably, but it kept away the racoons and opossums. There were some other things that didn't work very well either. My solution, works, essentially forever; is simple to implement, anyone with a brain can do it, is non-messy and requires no other items aside from...well a finger or cotton swab or a small paint brush and about a tablespoon of clean motor oil.

Use it, don't use it. I'm sharing what I've learned.

Best Regards,

AlphaKitty - Retired Military Engineer
TNR'd over 450 feral kitties to date, & paid for all of their shots!

 

[NY cat man]

I had built a shelter to keep rain and snow off the food dish, and had trouble with ants. My solution was to put double-stick carpet tape around the base of the shelter, where the cats could reach the food easily, but the ants could not. After a few days, and a few dozen trapped ants, they seemed to give up and go elsewhere. No more ants.

 

[alphakitty]

I had built a shelter to keep rain and snow off the food dish, and had trouble with ants. My solution was to put double-stick carpet tape around the base of the shelter, where the cats could reach the food easily, but the ants could not. After a few days, and a few dozen trapped ants, they seemed to give up and go elsewhere. No more ants.

NY Cat Man,

That's a good simple idea.

AlphaKitty

 

[Norachan]

I shouldn't have said, <<paint a line around the bottom of the feeding dish>> but rather, my description would have been more clear if I had said, "around the outside near the bottom of the bowl."

I get the picture, but if the bowl got nudged to one side isn't there a risk that the cat would be able to step in the oil or get some on their fur?

I think I'll stick to my double water dish method, I've had too many emergency vet trips with cats who've ingested or coated themselves in something they shouldn't.

Great job with all the TNR you've been doing.



Norachan. Teacher and wannabe carpenter.
Over 40 cats TNR'd, 12 re-homed.
Currently working 2 jobs to make sure the remaining cats have everything they need.