I live in a place with serious ant problems (i sure that many do) and it is no problem if we keep food in the ref, but as soon as i put that dog food out, the ants are in it and my dog is just not interested

2 solutions:

1. put pesticide in the dog food, or bowl (a not so good solution)

2. stop the ants from getting to the food by physical barrier (a better solution)

a simple moat of water around the food would prevent the ants from getting to it. a feature like this could easily be incorporated into a dog food bowl, preferably one where it is a food and water bowl.

not a solution for larger pests, like mice or roaches (maybe for them, make a wider moat, but i have a chiahuahua) but ants, yes, it would work no?
-- twitch, Nov 04 2006

*Sigh* http://tinyurl.com/ybepn6
Reference work on the subject. [egbert, Nov 04 2006]

Simple and effective. Get it patented.
-- jmvw, Nov 04 2006


The dog would drink the water and the problem would still exist. Why not take care of the ant issue?
-- Chefboyrbored, Nov 04 2006


The dog may live outside. If the dog drinks all the water, the bowl was too small or has been neglected.
-- jmvw, Nov 04 2006


I got two dogs and let me tell you, they are not the neatest of eaters. We have the food dish about 6 inches away from the water dish and they still manage to get dog food into the water.
Which makes the water dirty.
Which means I have to get my wife to clean it.
Which means we have a fight because I'm not gonna do it and she's the woman and she better get to work...
Which means I'm having a 'time out' on the sofa that night nursing the lump on my head from the frying pan.
Which means I gotta clean the bowl the next day and then feed the dogs.
Which makes the water....

So no, I don't think it'll work, at least not in my house. There's also lemon oil or orange oil wiped around the floor around the dish? I don't think ants like it. Not going to do the research- my head hurts from the frying pan.
-- NotTheSharpestSpoon, Nov 04 2006


Spoon, the inner rim of the bowl could be raised a lot? As long as it isn't so high that the dog can not comfortably eat from the bottom of the bowl.
-- jmvw, Nov 04 2006


hey, this ain't no shallow moat. it is a deep moat. it will probably be tapered to start wider at the top and narrow at the bottom of the moat, so that you get the protection you need, but your dog is not able to drink all the water (because toungue cannot fit all the way down the moat).

I got this idea from when i lived in the philippines, out in the countryside. they use this concept to protect everything. they put cups on the bottom of the legs of their tables so the ants can't crawl onto the table.
-- twitch, Nov 04 2006


//Spoon, the inner rim of the bowl could be raised a lot? As long as it isn't so high that the dog can not comfortably eat from the bottom of the bowl.//

The problem it that some dogs will take some of their food away from the bowl before they eat it. Then it falls out of their mouth during the transportation stage.
Damn the transportation stage!
-- NotTheSharpestSpoon, Nov 04 2006


"I say I say Isay. my dog's got no toungue"
"No toungue? How does he drink?"
"Well he laps up the water using that pink thing in his mouth."

Linky.
-- egbert, Nov 04 2006


Ants float and move around easily on water. I'd need an experiment to convince me they wouldn't deliberately cross the moat.
-- Shz, Nov 05 2006


Perhaps if you got an anteater instead of a dog, the whole problem with feeding would go away?
-- DrCurry, Nov 05 2006


I've had ant problems with cat food, and came up with something similar to this idea. I tried all the bowls in my kitchen until I found a tall heavy one that would stand up in a short wide pan full of water. It worked great, at least for the ant problem. (I never saw any indication that the ants were making bridges across the moat.) So almost a bun for the idea, it's a solution to the ant problem.

But, and this is a big but, the food-in-water problem mentioned above was stinkier than I could believe. It reeked after a few days, especially when the metal pan started to rust. Design around that, and I'll give you a croissant for your doggy.
-- baconbrain, Nov 05 2006


Could try with a dinner plate.
-- jmvw, Nov 05 2006


Oooh a bowl with a half tube that runs all the way aroung about the mid section of the bowl, deep ehough and broad enough for a good amount of water... then a inverted half tube that is slightly wider than the first, it hangs over the water-filled one and shields it from food dropping in.
-- PollyNo9, Nov 05 2006


//Oooh a bowl with a half tube that runs all the way ...// A good thought, any normal dog would chew that apart.
-- Chefboyrbored, Nov 06 2006


//Perhaps if you got an anteater instead of a dog//
I've actually had the same thought before.

I've read that ants hate the smell of peppermint. Maybe float the bowl in peppermint schnaps?
-- Zimmy, Nov 06 2006


Not my pepemintsh shnanpss, you donsht, you don'tsh. You sons of a bitch.
-- NotTheSharpestSpoon, Nov 06 2006


The Spanish make some lovely earthenware fruit bowls with a built in saucer for precisely this reason.
-- wagster, Nov 06 2006


Could you link that Wagster?
-- Chefboyrbored, Nov 06 2006


I was actually thinking it could be made of metal.
-- PollyNo9, Nov 06 2006


That was humerous yes.. sad I only caught it now.. well you caught it.

I called myself twitch because my body twitches almost uncontrollably when I am sleepy. It is dangerous for me to drive late at night, might start twitching on the gas pedal.

I'm fine with ants though. I get bit by them all the time, by atleast 6 different species.
-- twitch, Nov 23 2006


{twitch}, what's the sitch? Being bit by ants where I live is no simple matter. The bites swell up in pain & form white corpuscles. I hope you are not regularly dealing with such. (That's my hope, anyway.)
-- Zimmy, Nov 24 2006


I guess we don't have those species of ants that cause a lot of pain, just a little redness and irritation. Some say it is only a matter of time before those species such as fire ants, reach Hawaii. I'm happy i've never had a pussy corpusle from anything biting me, ants, bees wasps and other things. I must be allergic to fleas because when they bite me it itches so bad I almost always scratch skin off making it bleed bad sometimes.

Thanks for the link on the Hipnic jerk, i've been wondering.
-- twitch, Nov 24 2006


Solution for the food-in-water problem: the moat part is up on a wall where the dog won't get it. Out of the moat comes a long metal arm which reaches nearly to the floor, but still out of ants' reach, and at the end of that the bowl is attached.
-- caspian, Nov 24 2006


I love ridiculously unnecessary terms. From the 'hypnic jerk' link - \\In extreme cases, this may be classified as a disorder called periodic limb movement\\. I'm sure most, if not all of us suffer from some variety of periodic limb movement disorder. Look, I'm doing it now.
-- hidden truths, Nov 24 2006



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