What to do, if your cat food attracts ants?

No, I am not showing you a food dish swarming with ants, although I could – but it is disgusting, so…… Just use your imagination.

Hello everybody,

I don’t know if that happens to you, but especially this summer my food dish gets invaded by hordes of ants. And it is not because mom does not clean – she cleans every day, and around my dish more often than that. But the weather outside just drives ants inside – and they stop for nothing.

I admit I am a messy eater. I bite my food in half and sometimes the other piece just falls on the floor beside the dish instead of into the dish. And that attracts ants.

So what do we do about those ants?

Well, there are some very expensive moat food dishes out there – they cost like $40.00. And there is no guarantee that the ants cannot get to your food.

So mom is trying out some different options.

1. mom washed my food dishes really well and cleans the floor with dishwashing soap (we have marble floors, so we cannot use lemon or vinegar). Then we moved them to a different spot in the dining room – we did that a couple times, but the ants find the food, no matter what.
2. she rubbed the cast iron stand, were my dishes sit in, with dish soap. Well, between you and me, I do not like the smell, but it is ok. That works maybe for a day and then the ants are back.
3. she put a plastic lid from a mixed salad box underneath. The way it was shaped, the inside was higher and there was a groove on the outside that could be filled with water – so creating a moat. It worked for 2 days until I spilled some chicken in the moat and overnight the ants were back in my dish.
4. dad told mom that he was using the larger stainless steel dish and fills it with water and then puts in the smaller one with food. Well, that only works if I do not push the smaller dish to the rim of the larger dish. Unfortunately I did. Sorry Mom. So this morning we had ants again in my food.
5. today mom took a larger dish, filled it with water and a little bit of olive oil (not dishwashing liquid) – just in case I decide to drink the water, and then she put in my food dish. Also my dad is going to bring some petroleum jelly to rub the outside of the larger dish. That makes the surface too slippery for the ants to get up. At least that is the idea!

This latest setup has a 1″ space between the rim of the large dish and the smaller dish, hopefully preventing the ants from jumping over.

It is amazing that those tiny ants find their way in. Dad sprayed outside and we have ant traps everywhere. It is difficult keeping bugs and ants outside when you live on the first floor.

Mom does everything to keep the kitchen clean. There are never any crumbs anywhere, or food sitting outside, or dirty dishes in the sink. It is always clean and still we have those tiny mini ants.

There have a few more things mom can try, like using chalk to prevent the ants form getting to the dish or some Diatomaceous Earth Powder (make sure it is food grade), which is also supposed to prevent the ants form getting to the food dish.

So we will keep on reporting on our progress. If you have any solutions on how to keep ants away from your cat food, please, let us know. We will be forever grateful!

A big miau to everybody!