problem with housing my finches in an outside aviary

[beton562]

Hey everyone, I have a question for any of you that also house ur finches in an outside aviary. I've noticed lately that there's more and more ants in my aviary. And just today I saw them in one of the nests full wit chicks. I was too late they had already killed one but I managed to move the others to a cage with their parents. Does anyone know the best way to keep those ants away from the cage?

[wellingtoncdm]

I put sevin dust or diatomaceous earth in the nest boxes.

[Nerien]

you may have too many to see decent results, but ants do not like mint. We drove the ants out of our cabinets and kitchen by sprinkling crumbled dried mint leaves inside everywhere. I would think this would be safe to do in nests?

I would put some of those outdoor ant traps outside the base of the aviary. The kind that look like a round plastic disk on a plastic stake that you press into the ground to anchor it. The ants will take the bait from the traps back to their nests where it wipes them all out, but since the bait traps are outside the aviary, the birds can't get to them.

[beton562]

Thanks Charlie and Nerien, I think I'm gonna try all of these ideas to see wat works better.