Ants + dry cat food = trouble city. Setting dry cat food outside here in Arizona is an ant magnet (troops of them). To keep them out of kitty's food, I take a pie tin, set kitty cats bowl in center, then fill tin with water. Ants don't want to cross over, and the few that do don't make it - sorry guys! Now if you've got slugs and snails, well you know this wouldn't work -boy howdy- but, copper wire surrounding will.
By Pamela Rochelle Woodworth from Sun Lakes, AZ
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I was getting ants around their food dishes. I read somewhere to put vinegar on cotton balls and place them around the food bowls (under food mat edges, etc.). Bingo no ants and pet safe!
If you get ants in your pet's food bowls, try this. Set your pet's food bowl in a larger shallow bowl, like a pie pan. Fill half full with water (like a mote ), no more ants. It is simple, but it works. I have been doing this for 40yrs +. I change the mote water every day.