Ants swarming in hedgehog feeding station
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Hi
I have a wooden feeding station (re-purposed hedgehog house) which has been working really well. When I went to clean/refill it today there were zillions of ants crawling in and over every surface. I’m not sure when they arrived but they weren’t there yesterday morning. A lot of food (dry cat food) had been eaten by the hogs overnight so it doesn’t look as if they were put off by them.
When I lifted the house it looked as if there was an ants nest underneath. I thoroughly jetsprayed the house to get rid of all the ants and put it in a different location to dry. When I went to reassemble it this evening it was swarming with ants again. So it looks as if they’re attracted to the wood and want to move in.
A couple of questions, if anyone can help please:
Do hedgehogs eat ants?
Are hedgehogs bothered by ants?If they can co-exist I’ll continue to jetspray the house every morning and leave it at that. If not, I could take the house out of action for a while and either leave a bowl of food out (which will get gobbled up by cats probably) or not feed the hogs for a few days. From their droppings it looks as if they’re finding insects to eat.
I’m tempted to spray the house with Nippon but I imagine that’s not a safe thing to do. Also, I have a green woodpecker that comes down to eat ants on the lawn so, no, ant killer really isn’t a good idea 🙂
Well, it didn’t stop the hogs eating everything in the feeding station last night, so I guess ants and hedgehogs do co-exist. I guess they do in the wild, so why not in a feeding station? 🙂
Got some great videos of them going in and out of the house in its new position.
I have an igloo which has been used over winter. I’ve put food out all winter and a couple of weeks ago I know hedgie came out fed, left me a couple of hifts in and around the feeding station. Since then the food is disappearing but not all of it. I put the camera out last night and the feeding station is overrun with rats/mice. I’m worried they are now nesting in the igloo as I can tell something is going in and out but I have real doubts that it’s a hedgie. The camera has been out on several nights with only mice or rats filmed.
I want to clear the igloo out and stop putting food down for a few nights to hopefully deter the not welcome visitors, I would appreciate your views on this.
Hi antique
Sorry I don’t recall seeing any specific mention of whether hogs eat ants or not, just that they do eat insects.
Not sure why the ants would be attracted to the hog house, unless you’ve had something sweet in it. But once you’ve pressure sprayed the ants away, you could try to clean the hog house with boiling water, making sure it gets in the joints of the wood, which is the method recommended to kill parasite eggs (ticks/fleas).
I agree – definitely no to ant killer. Not only bad for the hogs, but may also deprive you of the vist from the green woodpecker, which must be lovely to see.
If all else fails, maybe a new hog feeding box?! That’s what I had to do years ago when a hog decided to build a nest in one!
Good luck and happy hog watching.
Hi jackietb
Don’t worry too much. It happens all the time. I’ll respond on the version you’ve put on the other thread.
I have been having the same problem. My feeding station is plastic and I have cleaned, disinfected and thoroughly dried it but still there is always loads of ants in there. I feed my hogs wet and dry cat food. I have never had this problem before and I have been feeding them for years. Should I move the feeder? Any advice is greatly received.
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