When you get an ant infestation here in California, you need to make sure your kitchen is clean with nothing to attact them. But if you have pet food out, they will find it.
In theory, ants won't crawl over some materials like vaseline. But if you coat the bowl rim with vaseline, it will get in the pet's hair.
So I suggest a wide pet bowl with a deep and large groove near the base which you can squirt something like vaseline into. It must be wide enough that ants can't do the living bridge trick to cross it, and deep enough that pet hair won't get into the vaseline. That stuff should stay around for quite some time before needing a refill, though if you dishwash the bowl, you will lose it.
How about a bowl with a moat? Rather than deal with the vaseline thing, why not just a bowl in a bowl with the outer bowl just containing water and the inner bowl having the pet food.
And then there is this: http://www.pest-control-supplies.com/images/bowserbig.jpg
wont work they actually swim
wont work they actually swim
A moat around the food works
A moat around the food works pretty well.
And, it's already patented, and sold at various places including Amazon.
You can just put your pet dish in a big plate and fill the plate with water, but the pets usually push it to the edge and the ants can crawl in.
ant free food/water dish
water moated bowls, yes there's a patent, but they do not work. As soon as a few pieces of food are dropped in the water, the ants use that to crawl over. I have tried them all, so far the only one that has caught my attention and i am currently using is one called "The Antzer". I volunteered with a cat rescue for almost 10 years, and we had a back yard and we tried everything on the market. The moats were the worse, don't waste your money, but if you want some good idea's go to The Antzer's website and also check out www.sani-moat.com. Actually both the antzer and the sani-moat have moat's but their trick is, is that it's enclosed. That's the trick, that way there's no food or debris that can get in the open moat's for the ants to walk.
Ants DON'T swim, they drown.
Ants DON'T swim, they drown. I was an exterminator and trust me, the ants we have in California cannot swim.
We found that ants won't cross surfaces wiped with cinnamon oil. (Rainbow Grocery in SF carries an inexpensive cinnamon oil in bulk.) We've been spreading a lot of it since the rains started.
Another sensible approach is to take advantage of materials that ants cannot cross. One used to be able to buy diat. earth ant sticks that drew a line including rough DE patches. DE is made from small, sharp, fossils that are sharp enough to cut ants as they try to cross. This leads to a dead ant at the boundry before enough of a trail is established to bring enough ants to cover a path with dead ants.
DE is a mild carcinigan, and thus not legal for continued sale. Still a sharp material may be sufficient. Probably positioned in an inset to avoid excessive scrubbing or handling.
Ant Barriers for Food Holders
I am very familiar with the Ant problems in California because I live there. Why don't you all take a look at www.sani-moat.com . The "Sani-Moat Ant Barrier" alleviates the problems people have with Ants getting into their Food Holders. Pet Dishes, Food trays, Camping, Garbage cans, etc., it is a Non-Toxic deterrent that uses regular household products in a covered moated area. Makes virtually any Bowl, Dish, Tray, Platform, Container or Planter "ANT FREE".
Amazing - I just had the
Amazing - I just had the exact same idea and googled for "ant-proof cat bowl" and yours was the first hit. Currently I'm just liberally sprinkling cinnamon powder on the floor around the bowl, but as you can guess it's pretty messy. The groove/moat idea was exactly what I was thinking.
Now to figure out how to go about manufacturing this :P
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