Ants And Your Lorikeet

By Julia Kasprzak

Ants are attracted to the sweet food that we feed our lorikeets.  Lorikeets are attracted to ants.  Ants are a natural part of the lorikeet diet, but need to be eaten in moderation.  The problem is that lorikeets find ants rather tasty, rather like chocolate is tasty to humans.  Anything that tastes good is likely to be overindulged in at some time.

If a lorikeet eats too many ants it will vomit.  However not all lorikeets actually eat the ants, they tend to chew the juice out of the ant and spit out the skin, in the process swallowing the legs.  Therefore the vomit may contain no obvious signs of ant overindulgence, unless looked at under a microscope, which will reveal many little legs.Another indication of ant overindulgence is that your lorikeet will emit the formic acid smell of ants.

To prevent your lorikeet from overindulging in ants-

• Use a moat style feeder
• Sprinkle lots of cinnamon powder around the aviary or cage as an ant repellant.I put a chocolate colored towel under my lorikeet cage, and sprinkle copious amounts of cinnamon powder in a circle around the cage.  This deters most ants.  (Boiled cinnamon acts as a fly repellant).
• Ant poison can be used, but there is always the risk that the poisoned ants will wander into the aviary or cage and be eaten by your lorikeet.  Keep the poison out of reach of your lorikeet; I suggest you put it in a container in a cupboard.
• I have read of people putting a ring of boric acid crystals around an aviary, which kills the ants by desiccating them (drying them to death).  Although no mention was made as to the effect on a lorikeet if it ate any of the ants poisoned by boric acid.  [Note that the boric acid being referred to is probably the garden type and NOT the stronger type for pools]
• Spraying with a pyrethrum based fly spray is less risky as the ants die immediately and can be swept or vacuumed up and disposed of without your lorikeet having a chance to eat any.  The spray residue will need to be wiped up with a damp cloth so that sticky beak doesn’t get a chance to lick any up!

Last modified 23 December 2001.