Ants in the hutch

[Alicia]

I've just been down the garden to check on the guinea-pigs and their are quite a few ants in Marmalade and Amber's hutch. I clean out their hutch every 3 days and use a hutch disenfectant and the guinea-pigs are on vetbed. Their hutch is on the floor which must make it easier for the ants to get in but I can't really buy a new hutch. Will the ants do anything to Amber and Marmalade? How can I get rid of them?

 

[Mother Hubbard]

Hi,

I'm not sure about how to get rid of ants effectively without warming your GP's but I'd certainly recommend you get the hutch off the ground. But don't worry - I'd recommend getting a couple of bricks for each corner, it's surprising what you can pick up locally or skips....I'm not a bin diver or anything but anyone with a skip in front of their house normally means a few bricks or pop down to the local builders merchants, you can easily pick up 8 bricks for little money. Worth a punt and won't the price of a new hutch.
|)

 

[caviaporcellus]

Ants don't like vaseline or vinegar or strong spices.

You could make some tiny 2.5 cm legs for your hutch to lift it off the ground (if this is practical) and put vaseline around the legs so that the ants cannot climb up.

If raising the hutch up is not an option, you could dig a moat around it (OK this is a bit extreme).

Alternatively, you could spray vinegar around the outside to ward them off.

 

[caviaporcellus]

We must have posted at the same time. Bricks sound much simpler than making legs but I would still recommend the vaseline.

 

[Alicia]

Ok thank you There's some bricks in my garden that we aren't using for anything so I'll use them to raise the hutch up a bit and I'll put some vaseline on them.

 

[happysaz133]

Yes bricks work well! I have bricks keeping my hutch up

 

[Mother Hubbard]

It's weird isn't it, we always seem to have some bricks hanging around in the garden! I've used mine for tonnes of things. Vaseline is a great idea. Blimey that stuff gets used for everything...{:|