How to Keep Ants out of Pet Food

Ants are a common problem for pet owners because pet food is a readily available food source in the homes of most pet owners. You may work diligently to clean up your own messes in the kitchen, yet leave Fido’s food on the floor all day. Ants will quickly find this resource and establish a trail to the food. Whether you’ve already found ants in the pet food or you simply want to prevent this problem, there are many ant control solutions that you can try.

Keep Things Clean

Image via Flickr by sanchom

Your pet’s bowl needs frequent cleanings to stay sanitary. According to NSF International, pet bowls are the fourth germiest items in the home. They can harbor E. coli, salmonella, yeast, mold, and other hazards. In addition to these dangers, your pet’s food bowl accumulates a grimy buildup of pet food that’s very attractive to ants. A clean, empty pet bowl doesn’t hold any appeal for an ant, but even an empty bowl can attract these insects if it’s covered in residue from previous meals.

Wash your pet’s bowl daily in hot soapy water. Once a week, put it through a sanitizing dishwasher or soak it for 10 minutes in a gallon of water with one tablespoon of bleach. Rinse thoroughly and allow the bowl to air dry.

Use an Ant-Proof Bowl

There are many tips and tricks for desperate pet owners wondering how to keep ants out of cat food or dog food. We’ll discuss some of these below, but the easiest option is to simply purchase an ant-proof bowl. These are carefully constructed to prevent ants from climbing up the side and into the dish.

Ant-proof bowls don’t touch the ground around the rim. Instead, a small stand in the center keeps the bowl elevated. The slope on the inside of the bowl is formed in such a way that ants can’t navigate up the stand and into the bowl. If you’ve been worried about how to keep ants out of the dog food bowl or cat food bowl, this is the fastest and most hassle-free answer. You don’t need to commit to as much maintenance as you do with other methods, and the food stays ant-free.

Create a Moat for a Standard Bowl

If you want to stick with a standard pet food bowl but you’re still wondering how to keep ants out of dog food and cat food, you may want to try a moat. A moat works by keeping ants from crossing the water to get to the pet food. Simply place your pet’s dish in a shallow plate or pan of water.

This method requires regular maintenance, as pets typically knock some of their food into the water. The food may dissolve, creating a gunk that’s prone to mold. Too much spilled food can also give the ants a bridge to cross into the bowl. You’ll need to change the water in your moat regularly for this to work.

Stop Free Feeding

Free feeding is a method of feeding in which food is always available to your cat or dog. Leaving the food out all day for your pets also means that you’re leaving it out for the ants. If you leave the food bowl out for a short period of time, ants will have less time and opportunity to get into it. Switch to meal feeding, where you put the food out for a short period and remove the bowls promptly when your pet walks away, which limits ants’ opportunity to get at the food.

Relocate the Bowl

If you’ve already found ants in dog food or cat food in your home, these insects have marked the location of that food source and left a pheromone trail to help other ants find it. Relocate the bowl as you apply some of these other measures to keep ants out of the food. Changing the location will make it more difficult for ants to find the food again.

You can erase the existing ant trail by washing the floor with soap and water where the ants have been crawling. For added effectiveness, use a substance that repels ants where the trail used to be. Mix cinnamon, lemon, or mint essential oils with soap and water and ants will not want to come near the area.

Use Ant Repellents

Discourage ants from coming to the space where your pet bowl now resides with liberal use of repellents nearby. Some things that ants dislike include:

• Lemon juice.
• Orange juice.
• Peppermint.
• Cinnamon sticks.
• Bay leaves.
• Coffee grounds.
• Cornmeal.

Placing these substances around windows, doors, baseboards, and other likely entry points will keep ants away. Since they’re less likely to investigate the area, there’s a smaller chance that they’ll find your pet food. This, combined with meal feeding, makes it unlikely that a new trail of ants will establish itself after you’ve moved the pet bowl.

Quickly End Ant Infestations

If you have a serious ant infestation in your home, you should take care of it as quickly as possible. Other preventive measures may still fail if you have a well-established ant colony living in the house. The first step is to identify the type of ant you have. A pest control professional can take a look at the visible foraging ants and tell you what you’re dealing with.

Once you know what type of ant you have, you can better locate the nest. Carpenter ants prefer to nest in rotting wood. Crazy ants like to nest in electrical devices or near wires, while other ants will head toward wall cavities or other parts of the home.

Baiting is usually the best solution for an ant infestation. The foraging ants will take the bait back to the nest. Once the queen eats the bait and is eliminated, the rest of the colony will die off quickly. Spraying visible ants is less effective because the queen is still able to replace them and continue growing the population.

With the right precautions, it is possible to keep your pet’s food away from ants. Try these tips for a pest-free home for you and your furry friends.