Keep ants away: Best ways to protect your dogs food

Dealing with Those Pesky Ants in the Dog Bowl

Okay, let me tell you what I went through with ants getting into my dog's food. It drove me absolutely nuts. Every time I put the bowl down outside, especially in the warmer months, seemed like minutes later, a whole army of ants decided it was their personal buffet. Gross.

First thing I did, obviously, was just move the bowl around. Thought maybe they wouldn't find it if I put it in a different spot on the patio. Yeah, right. Those little things found it every single time. Didn't matter where I hid it. Cleaned the whole area too, scrubbed it down, thinking maybe some spilled kibble was attracting them. Nope, still they came.

Trying Stuff from the Kitchen

I got a bit desperate. Someone mentioned ants hate vinegar? So, I grabbed my white vinegar, mixed it with some water in a spray bottle. Went out there and sprayed all around where the bowl usually sat. It smelled... well, like vinegar. Seemed to work for maybe half a day? Then they were back. The smell faded, the ants returned. Same story.

Then I heard about cinnamon. Apparently, they don't like crossing a line of cinnamon powder. So, out I went again, this time sprinkling a circle of cinnamon around the dog bowl. Looked kinda weird, like some strange ritual. It actually did seem to deter them a bit better than the vinegar, for a while. But wind blew it away, or maybe the dog messed it up, I don't know. Point is, it wasn't a permanent fix. Plus, I was going through my cinnamon way too fast.

The Simple Trick That Finally Worked

I was getting really frustrated. Then I remembered something basic: ants don't like water. Or rather, they can't really cross it easily.

So, here’s what I did:

• I found a shallow plastic tub, just something a bit bigger than the dog's food bowl. Like one of those cheap storage containers, but the lid part wasn't needed.
• I put the dog's actual food bowl right inside this bigger, shallow tub.
• Then, carefully, I poured water into the bigger tub, just enough to create a little moat around the food bowl. Maybe like half an inch or an inch of water. Not too much, didn't want the food bowl floating or tipping.

Success! (Mostly)

And you know what? It worked! Like, really well. The ants would march right up to the edge of the water, walk around it, and then leave. They couldn't get across to the food. Problem solved!

Now, it's not totally zero effort. I gotta make sure the water doesn't all dry up, especially when it's hot. And sometimes my dog manages to splash food into the water moat, so I gotta clean it out every few days so it doesn't get nasty. But honestly, compared to fighting ants constantly? This is way easier.

I saw some fancy "ant-proof" bowls in the store later, looked like they had a similar moat idea built-in. But hey, my cheap plastic tub method does the exact same thing and cost me basically nothing. So, I just stuck with what I rigged up. It does the job, keeps the ants out, dog's happy, I'm happy. Simple as that.