Puppy And Ants

[Seeker]

Hi hoping to get some advice for my brother who recently bought a puppy.

Basically whenever they go outside onto the grass for a play the pup gets bitten by bull/green ants (dont know what they are called). The poor little mite is ends up biting his sore paw for about 10-20 minutes afterwards.

What can he do to stop this happening? Are there products out there that could get rid of them and is safe for the pup?

Thanks

[dunnwarren]

Poor puppy, I heard from a friend of mine that museling powder (used for sheep) is good for getting rid of ants. Just sprinkle some where the ants are and they dissapear. Wont hurt the dogs and they don't seem to eat it anyway. It can be purchased at a stock agent store she tells me. Im going to try it as we have lots of meat ants here.

[Pixie's mum]

Our dog obedience club spray skintastic 'off" (human insect repellant) onto the bites and it takes the sting away immediately.

[pebbles]

I use the muelsing powder for the little black ants here and it works very well. The big black ones, meat ants, don't take any notice of it - just walk straight through it so there's all these white ants running around. The pest exterminator who recommended it to me said it wouldn't work on the big 'uns just on the tiny ones, Dunnwarren, so see if you can get a small amount to try first 'cause it aint cheap but last a long time.

[dunnwarren]

Lol thank you pebbles, trust me to have ants it wont work on, but we have lots of little black ones too so will see if I can find a nice farmer who will give me some to try out.

[raffikki]

I sprinkle corn flour where ever I see ants, apparently after they carry it back to their *nest* they all eat it and die.

I found this after googling a while back

Just sprinkle corn meal over the ants nest. It takes a few days and works better after a rain. Ants can't digest the corn meal after eating it.

Edited November 15, 2008 by raffikki

[rainbowsmiley]

Thanks for your replies. I'll tell him to try the cornflower since these are the big ants. Any more suggestions?

[Nicole...]

We used to have the same problem here with green ants when we got Lomani. We found stingose worked well to calm her down fast.

I had a pest control guy here to treat termites in our retaining wall and asked him what we could do about the green ants. He said it would cost me a fortune to get him or any other professional in to treat them as it takes numerous visits but told me how to do it ourselves. You buy Pyrethrum (?sp) at Bunnings etc, mix it up in a watering can and go around your yard to find all the green ant nests. Soak about a litre on each nest. The nest dies and that area of soil can't be used by the ants again so they go somewhere else. A few weeks later you hit the new nests, repeat this over a couple of months and the ones that are still alive end up giving up and moving next door! We're on top of our green ant problem now, and have been for months! The pyrethrum is only dangerous to dogs when it is first applied, so we were told to keep Lomani away from it for an hour or 2 until it dries, but is otherwise safe.

[rainbowsmiley]

Thanks for that mntgood! I'll pass that on. Thanks for the suggestions everybody