Your Ants Will Never Escape Again
Anti-escape is one of the most common thing ant keepers screw up. Either they use the wrong type of anti-escape for the wrong species of ants, or they forgot to reapply new anti-escapes as it wears out over time. There are so many types of anti-escapes that ant keepers use to keep their ants from escaping such as baby powder mixed in rubbing alcohol, calamine lotion, petroleum jelly, PTFE, and water moat. However, not all of these anti-escapes are able to keep all ant species in.
Some anti-escapes that are very good turned useless when applied in different countries because of the humidity in the air, while some have strict instructions to follow. That is why as ant keepers, we need to trial-and-error in order to find the most suitable anti-escape for our ants. But until we found the right type of anti-escape for our ants, the entire colony probably had escaped completely or had died off because the formicarium is completely sealed off.
Being able to write this article means that I had already tried most of these anti-escapes so you don’t need to make the mistakes I did last time. So let’s dive into it.
#1 Physical Barrier
A physical barrier is basically any physical obstruction that is preventing the ants from escaping, in our case, slippery surfaces. The most common physical barrier is …
Baby Powder Barrier
If you are an ant keeper, if you don’t know anything about anti-escapes, just learn how to make this and you will be able to keep 60% of the ants available in this world. This method is so easy and common that everyone, including AntsCanada, is using it. It is the cheapest solution to keep your ants from escaping. Just mix one part of Johnson’s Baby powder into two parts of rubbing alcohol (surgical spirit), mix until all the powder dissolves, then apply it with a brush onto the surface that you want to prevent the ants from escaping from. Note that the surface applied must be a smooth surface such as glass, plastic, and acrylic. Any rough surface will not have any effect because the ants will be able to cross the barrier by grabbing onto the texture on the surface.
You can use any concentration of rubbing alcohol to make the anti-escape solution (common practice 70% alcohol or above). But for best effect, you can get 90% alcohol or above. Higher concentration of alcohol will allow the solution to dry faster after applied onto the surface, leaving the powder stained onto the surface. The logic behind this physical barrier is that the surface is now coated with grains of powder. Whenever an ant climbs onto the powdered surface, it slips off because the powder grain fell off together with the ants from the surface, just like a hiker stepped on sand while hiking and fell off the cliff, just that the ants did not splat like humans do.
This barrier is effective towards most of the ant species except for a few that I encountered. Ant species that walk through baby powder barrier are black crazy ants (Paratrechina longicornis), big-headed ants (Pheidole sp.), acrobat ants (Crematogaster sp.), ghost ants (Tapinoma melaniocephalum), and tramp ants (Monomorium sp.). Even though AntsCanada is able to keep his black crazy ants with baby powder barrier without escaping, over here in Malaysia this isn’t the case.
Some species can be contained by baby powder barrier but it isn’t a good option because it isn’t long lasting. For instance, a super-colony marauder ants (Carebara diversa), red tropical fire ants (Solenopsis geminata), and arboreal bicolored slender ants (Tetraponera rufonigra) can completely wear the barrier out in a week time, sometimes in days, until they started escaping from the outworld and infest your home.
However, there’s another type of powder barrier that is 10 times more effective than baby powder barrier, that is …
Talc Powder Barrier
Don’t you ever mistake talc powder from baby powder. Even though they look the same, they are not. I had been using the AntsDIY talc powder anti-escape solution and it has been super-effective in containing all of my ant species. There are literally none of my ants that can cross it. Fire ants, marauder ants, slender ants, carpenter ants, acrobat ants, black crazy ants, pharaoh ants, and even ghost ants, they are all unable to cross the talc powder barrier. It works like a charm. The most amazing part is that it lasted more than 6 months in my Carebara diversa setup and my Tetraponera rufonigra setup. Talc powder solution is extremely popular among ant keepers in Taiwan and China. The color of the applied powder looks thicker than the ordinary baby powder barrier. It is a lot smoother too.
With such different performance, why does baby powder and talc powder look so similar and named so similar to each other? This is because baby powder is made from talc. As a powder, it absorbs moisture well and helps cut down on friction, making it useful for keeping skin dry and helping to prevent rashes. It is widely used in cosmetic products such as baby powder and adult body and facial powders, as well as in a number of other consumer products. In its natural form, some talc contains asbestos, a substance known to cause cancers in and around the lungs when inhaled. That’s right, some talc powder is carcinogenic and can cause cancer.
In 1976, the Cosmetic, Toiletry, and Fragrances Association (CTFA), which is the trade association representing the cosmetic and personal care products industry, issued voluntary guidelines stating that all talc used in cosmetic products in the United States should be free from detectable amounts of asbestos according to their standards. So getting your own talc powder from your local talc mill is not a good idea unless they are able to show you that their talc is certified to be safe for use.
As for AntsDIY talc powder solution, we use cosmetic grade #1250 talc powder as our powder choice, which is safe and also the finest talc powder you can ever find on the market. It is completely safe to use, but most importantly it is super-effective on all ant species. The price is very affordable too. I don’t have any ant species in my collection that is able to cross talc powder barrier yet. If you have tried and do find it ineffective on certain ant species, do share your discoveries in the comment section below.
Although powder barriers remain the most popular anti-escapes among ant keepers worldwide, it blocks the ant keeper’s view in the outworld and some ant keepers like the anti-escape to be transparent so that they are able to have a clean view of the ants. This leads us to the next physical barrier.
Polytetrafluoroethylen (PTFE) or Fluon®
PTFE or Fluon® is a dry lubricating agent widely used in the machinery industry for lubricating sliding actions, and also for plain bearings, gears, slide plates, seals, gaskets, and bushings. It is also used to coat non-stick pan. Therefore, it became a very effective anti-escape and is widely used by inverts hobbyist. It is also known as insect-a-slip. Insect-a-Slip helps prevent some arthropods from climbing out of traps, cages, or other containers. A lot of ant keepers, AntsCanada, AntsAustralia as well, has been using Fluon® for a lot of their ant setups and ants did not escape. It is known to be long lasting, transparent, super-effective, and very expensive. it gives you a clean view in the outworld without having any powder obstructing your view.
However, it has a set of very strict instructions on how to use it. Fluon® is applied onto a smooth surface with a brush or cotton. Once it dries it becomes an invisible smooth coating. So before you apply it, make sure you turn the bottle around gently to mix things around. Never shake the solution. Once it is shaken it is not gonna work anymore. Different brands will provide different application tools. So if you have a brush that you are able to apply with consistent width then you can apply it at a linear motion. But if your brush is very small or the Fluon® bottle you got comes with a small application tip which I don’t like at all, it will be very difficult to get a consistent layer and you might waste it. You can soak cotton with Fluon® instead and apply it in a circular motion. Do note that Fluon® dries up almost instantaneously. The coating can only be applied once. If you apply it to more than one coat, the barrier will fail instantly because it becomes too thick. The tank that you apply Fluon® cannot have any silicon on the edge.
Even though Fluon® is popular for being very effective, its effectiveness on the variety of ant species is highly debatable. Ant keepers in western countries used Fluon® for most of their ant species including Crematogaster sp. that is known to be able to cross almost all types of anti-escape. Here in Asia, however, is not the case. Our humidity level is very high and Fluon® doesn’t really work well with high humidity. With Fluon®, I only manage to contain yellow crazy ants (Anoplolepis gracilipes), Asian bullet ants (Diacamma rugosum), Indian jumping ants (Harpegnathos venator), and brown sugar ants (Camponotus albosparsus). Solenopsis geminata and Carebara diversa can be contained as well, but it doesn’t last long. The rest are able to walk through the barrier without any issue, including black sugar ants (Camponotus auriventris) and golden weaver ants (Polyrachis dives).
So if you ask me whether I recommend Fluon® to others, my answer is an obvious “no”. It doesn’t have the advertised effectiveness (probably because I’m in Malaysia), it is expensive, it is tedious to apply, and you don’t know when it will wear out. Common practices are to re-apply the barrier every 3 months. But unlike powder barriers, you can’t see the condition of the barrier until you see ants walking through it. I’m not sure if it is because the brand I bought isn’t that good or was it shaken during delivery, because it just doesn’t have as good an effect as advertised. This is the one that I got from Amazon, perhaps you guys can share your experience with me in the comments. Or if you guys know a better brand, do share with me as well so that I can get it for my ants to try it out.
Alright, we have gone through the most important and basic anti-escape barriers. If you enjoy this piece of content and wants to receive more ant keeping secrets like this, subscribe to our newsletter. If you are new to ant keeping, get our FREE Ant Keeping Cheat Sheet.
#2 Hazard Barrier
Hazard barrier literally poses threat towards the ants that the ants will stay away from.
Sticky Surface
Sticky or greasy surfaces will prevent ants from passing the line because ants do not want to get stuck on it. In this case, petroleum jelly or Vaseline®, machinery grease, even double-sided tape, can be used as a hazard barrier. However, ants will instinctively cover these sticky surfaces with debris so that they can cross the barrier without getting stuck. So if you are using this kind of barrier, make sure your outworld is debris-free.
Sticky surfaces are only effective towards certain species such as Asian weaver ants (Oecophylla smaragdina), African big-headed ants (Pheidole megacephala), Carebara diversa, and Iridomyrmex anceps. This sticky surface is only used to deter ants from crossing the barrier. When the ants are calm, they will not cross the barrier. But when the ants are in panic mode, they will cross the barrier regardless of the stickiness of the barrier. Just look at my Carebara diversa workers in Fig. 7. Do note that any surface that has been applied with any oil-based substances will be impossible for you to apply any water-based anti-escape unless you clean it with soap. If you are using Vaseline®, I hope you enjoy the long hour of cleaning process.
Moat
We all know that fire ants are capable of forming rafts and float on water in order to migrate from one place to another during flood season. There are other ant species that are able to swim too such as Camponotus sp., Polyrachis sp., black crazy ants, yellow crazy ants, and Tetraponera rufonigra. Ant’s don’t really swim on water surface, instead they are floating on it due to the water surface tension. By paddling their legs, they will swim across the moat and escape. Some suggested to add some soap or oil into the water to break the water surface tension. But that will cause the ants to drown in the water. Furthermore, the ants will most probably drink from the moat as their water source. I wouldn’t want my ants to die because they drank water that has soap in it.
Although there are a lot of ant species that can swim, you can build a moat setup for one species that will never escape from it, that is Asian weaver ants (Oecophylla smaragdina). Weaver ant breeders in Thailand and Indonesia built their weaver farm over a basin of water. They harvest the brood to feed to birds. Some even mix it with some spices and eat it raw as their local delicacy.
One thing you need to keep in mind with a moat setup is that you need to keep the water free from mosquito larvae. Since you cannot add any additives into the water for the reason mentioned earlier, frequent water changes are needed, unless mosquitoes doesn’t exist in your place.
#3 Chemical Barrier
Chemical barrier deters ants from effectively laying pheromone trails. Ants communicate via a chemical called pheromones. If the smell of the chemical is strong at the barrier, ants will not be able to lay their pheromones there. Chemicals such as WD-40 lubricant, grease, or engine oil works very well as a chemical barrier. I have used WD-40 on my Solenopsis geminata colony and it worked perfectly. However, it only lasted for a few hours because it evaporated fast and the smell became weaker and weaker over time. I tried this with Carebara diversa, but it didn’t work at all. I haven’t try it with any other ant species ever since because I still feel it is more secure to use a physical barrier.
The Ultimate Anti-Escape Barrier
From this article, it is clear that there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. Every barrier has it’s own functionality, benefits, and drawbacks. Even though my personal favourite is the talc powder barrier, but not everyone is fine with the barrier obstructing their view. If I am making a vivarium to showcase some of the most interesting species of ants and they are able to be contained by Fluon®, I will definitely use it. but if is a species that cannot be contained with Fluon®, talc powder will be my default choice.
Perhaps by combining the 3 types of barrier together we can make the ultimate ant barrier where chemical barrier is used to deter ants from coming close to the wall, physical barrier to prevent those dare devils that actually crossed the chemical barrier, and finally a water moat as hazard barrier. This will require a huge setup like a vivarium. Perhaps the moat can be turned into a stream of river with fish and plants in it too. This sounded like a future project for AntsDIY.
Good post. I learn something totally new and challenging on blogs I stumbleupon everyday. Its always useful to read through content from other authors and practice something from other sites.
Thanks for your blog, nice to read. Do not stop.