Red ants and guinea pigs ?

[Froggay]

So I have been wanting to move my guinea pigs into a large hutch but we haven't been able to because of red ants. They are currently living inside a greenhouse right now so the move will not be too extreme, and we don't have any dangerous animals that could potentially kill them.

The only thing that concerns me is the red ants, their bite isn't poisonous but it stings badly, and they are everywhere where I live. There is red ant bait that temporarily gets rid of them, but it's extremely expensive.

Do any of you have any experience with guinea pigs and ants? Will they bother the guinea pigs?

 

[JourneyGabrielle'sPiggies]

You should probably keep them away from the ants because your piggies will feel a lot better.

 

[Siikibam]

I wouldn’t keep them anywhere that the ants can get to them. You’d have to make sure that the hutch has no gaps which they could climb into. Which is difficult given they have a mesh at the front.

 

[Claire W]

I agree. You don’t want your piggies anywhere near the ants and making the hutch ant proof could be difficult

 

[Thrymskvida]

One way I've found that keeps ants from accessing a particular area (though I must stress I haven't tried this for keeping them from pets, only trees and food) is to build a kind of raised moat around it. This can be tricky if it's a large area, because the moat has to be constantly filled with water and not have any bridges (e.g. the join between two containers you are using to form the sides of the moat). I custom built a wooden frame for protecting a tree, and had to paint the inside with waterproof paint, so it's possibly kind of impractical. I think all in all it's best to err on the side of caution (and ease) and not put your Guinea pigs anywhere where the ants can reach them.

Ah, an added thing I just thought of and that basically makes my suggestion very bad: still water is going to be heaven for any mosquitoes to lay their eggs in, and your piggies will definitely suffer from that!

 

[RedLoredAmazon]

Hi! Welcome to the forum! I also live in the US in Indiana.

Do you live in the south? Are the ants fire ants? It's really difficult to keep ants away if they are interested in a place unless you use sprays (which aren't safe for piggies). I was bit by a bunch of fire ants when I was a baby and even to this day I react very badly to any ant bite.

 

[GuineaPigGrandma]

My grandmother used to look after my guinea pigs when i was on holiday and she had red ants (uk) in her garden and we tried to move them in to her garden so it was easier for her to look after them, but the poor guineas were bitten within minutes and would scream. So they ended up staying in our house and grandmother had to move instead. Sorry I know thats not helpful.