Aussie Finch Forum

So a quick update on this. None of the birds were affected by the fluon or the fumes. It was used in a well ventilated place outdoors though. Seems to work OK but it is expensive especially as it needs to be reapplied every couple of months. Apparently a mixture of rubbing alcohol and talcum powder painted on will also work. I think that would be cheaper and less likely to harm birds. But I have no idea how weather resistant it would be.

Are the avairys fixed or mobile? If mobile you could put the legs in bowls of water that you keep full, and the ants cant swim that well. If fixed you still have the option of building little moats round the legs. Greasing the legs would also work, but be less pleasant to apply, and not so nice to look at.
LML

Please excuse my ignorance,but what is a Pobblebonk?.

A P....B... is a kind of frog

Probably so named for its vocal utterances

A Pobblebonk is an indigenous burrowing frog. Also called a Banjo Frog WIKI

Aviaries are mobile but on concrete so moats are out. Any kind of grease or oil is out as one of my dogs would lick it off (Yes even Vaseline. Shes a little odd that way). I was originally going to go with putting the legs in water but I was concerned about rust and keeping mobility. I need to be able to move them so I can sweep out the dropped seed.

I will try the rubbing alcohol talc blend and see how well it handles weather. I can't imagine that it would work very well at all but I'll try. I will also look for non-residual ways to kill off ants that won't harm the amphibian population. I'll come by and update again once I've found anything out just in case the info is useful to anyone else.

Putting the legs in bowls of oil would also work, and not cause rust, but more messy. Good luck in your search for an environmentally friendly solution.
LML

In my opinion you are totally obsessed with these ant problems. Coopex won't harm frogs from eating insects killed by it. Borrowing frogs don't live on concrete unless you live in a swamp that covers it.
If you are that worried about your frogs get rid of your birds, problem fixed. There has been numerous remedies suggested that have been used by experienced bird breeders that work that does not affect birds/animals and amphibians.
Alcohol and baby powder is a ridiculous idea as the alcohol just evaporates leaving a platform for ants to walk on.
Please do yourself a favour and buy some coopex and say goodbye to your ants and hello to your frogs.

From the research that I did online Coopex kills amphibians. If you can show me some evidence otherwise please send me a link to the information. The frogs live under the concrete slab and come out at night to hunt on the concrete. So spraying it with Coopex would be a problem. This is why I'm looking for alternatives.

The talc/rubbing alcohol suggestion came from people who use it to keep ants from escaping their enclosures so it obviously has some validity. Most likely ants don't like walking through talcum powder which is all that would be left after the alcohol evaporates. As I said earlier though I don't think it would work outdoors as it wouldn't handle exposure to weather.

Just because something works doesn't mean that there isn't a better way to do it. I only bothered to update this as I thought maybe the information might be useful to others. I won't bother trying to help in the future.

Coopex from memory does say - dont spray near aquariums or ponds - so I supect it could be a problem to frogs if the spray were to get on them. It does not seem to have an effect on quail who can eat copious quantities of bush cockroaches that have been poisoned with it. Ditto the crows and ravens that eat the dying roaches. Don't know if this is because it is ingested as oposed to being absorbed through the skin, or if it is the difference in frogs and quail/birds. Totally understand your desire to do right by the frogs but. And thanks for the info re how it went.
LML