Any suggestions on how to handle a summer ant attack on the cats dry food ? The 2MC's are also under a year and into everything so the ant traps have to be strategically located so they cannot get at them; but the ant traps don't seem to be doing the trick.

-- Anonymous, June 16, 1999

Answers

I may be wrong but I am assuming from your question that you leave dry food out all day for your MCs to eat. One way of stopping the ants getting into the food is to just feed your cats two or three times a day and pick up (and seal in a container) the food the rest of the time. We feed our cats in the morning, when we get home from work, and just before bedtime. They are not able to "graze" in between meals. This works well and keeps bugs away. If you have such a rampant ant problem that they would still invade the food while the cats are actually eating their 2 or 3 meals a day (brave ants!), perhaps you could place the cat food bowls in the center of a baking tray or something which has water in it. I doubt if too many ants would make it across a widish tray without drowning!

-- Anonymous, June 17, 1999

Dear Bob,

I have tried Lady Brit's idea of putting the cat dish in a pan of water (I used a rectangular cake pan) in the past and it works really well. Just make sure the bowls don't touch the edge of the pan they're in. Ants are hard to get rid of, but they don't swim at all.

Good luck!

-- Anonymous, June 19, 1999