my son is 2 and he has the worst case of ant infestation i have ever seen in his toy box so my question is..is what is a good ant repellent that is safe and non toxic to kids?
I heard that cinnamon helps keep the bugs away. Buy a huge container of cinnamon and mix in with the sand.
He's obviously dropping some crumbs in there or chewing on toys and the ants are hungry.
Clean out the toy box with mild soap and warm water. Then clean every toy.
No pesticides.
None. I had this problem with a toybox we had on our back porch. I had to take everything out, wash it out with Comet (plastic toy box), and then I washed all of the toys with a wet rag. I also used vinegar around the outside. I did put little ant baits behind it. We did not have the problem again.
Just clean it, ants only go where there is food.
You would have to clean everything because ants leave chemical communication trails that they follow. Vinegar helps to make them dissolve.
There is an ant killing gel that I found, in a very small tube. If there is room under or behind the box and your son can't pick it up and move it, you can put some of the gel there. Just a dot is enough. Or if you know where the ants are coming FROM, put the gel there. They take it back to the nest, I believe, and the ants are gone. I'm not a big fan of killing bugs, but ants can take over when they get inside.
I would not use any pesticides in a child's toy no. Or on their toys.
Remove the toy box, clean it and the toys thoroughly and maybe put an any bait or two in the room -- somewhere where your child can't get at them.
No food source--no ants!
First you need to trace the ants back to where they are entering the room. Once you know that, I suggest that you remove all the toys from the toybox, vacuum it out, and wash it out with a 10% bleach solution. Let it fully air dry. Might as well wash the toys too.
Now, back to the ants' entry point. I suggest putting a borax/terro bait at the entry point and putting a piece of furniture over it or in front of it (depending upon where it is). The bait isn't non-toxic, but you can keep the child away from it, and it works in very short order (2 days or so).
Take the toy box and put it outside for a day or so. The ants will go away. Once you disrupt their trail, ants leave.
Meanwhile, get an ant bait, one of those round black ones, and put it in the spot in your son's room from which the ants are emerging, and in a couple of days, the ants entering from that spot will be poisoned and will stop coming in.
I don't think you should, or need to, spray any ant repellent on your son's toys. It wouldn't hurt to wash the toys, but I don't think it's necessary.
I asked my brother what to do for ants because they come in our house like crazy but we have sugar glidders that you are not supposed to spray anything around. They live in my boys room so anything that comes in there can not be sprayed. He sugested oatmeal. He said they will eat it and they can not digest it and it makes them explode.
I use Terro Spider Spray in the orange can. It works the best and keeps the ants away.
I haven't found anything that works, only spraying Lysol all purpose cleaner. It's a aqua color bottle. I spray where I see them and instantly dead. And they don't go near were I spray it too. So I'm just cleaning everything with Lysol all purpose cleaner and so far I only have a few ants around lingering in odd places lol! :-)
Vinegar supposedly works, well windex made a spay bottle with vinegar in it, I hate the smell of vinegar so I didn't get it you could try that too.
cinnamon..used it when my kids were comin up n still use it today..plus it smells good
