More of the same
Irradiated by LabRat
Tonight was spent recording the latest Vicious Circle, which I can report adheres to all previous standards of production values, decorum, and topicality. Which means it’s more of the same group of friends delivering snark on which your mileage may seriously vary. Given that I’ve spent the entire weekend catching up on what was apparently a large sleep deficit, that’s left, once again, little room for serious organized content production.
So, instead I’ll answer a question that’s clearly burning in the minds of Americans, given that it came up on said podcast.
“Will eating ants hurt my cat?”
No. No it will not. Eating ant POISON will hurt your cat, which is why there are a number of sources out there for dealing with ants when you have pets you don’t want eating poison. (Short version: borax probably won’t cause any problems as long as your cat isn’t a total retard, diamotaceous earth is totally safe, and something brand-named as “Terro” also works.) Ants contain hard shells and formic acid, which may eventually upset your cat’s stomach if he has a sensitive gut, but no real harm will be done.
Keep your cats the hell away from fire ant mounds, though- a swarm of pissed off fire ants can kill kitty with no ingestion required.
This has been your Burning Question of the Day.
May 25th, 2009 at 8:26 am
If I wanted to know if my cat could eat ants, you’re the first person I’d want to ask!
May 25th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
It’s possible that eating enough fire ants can kill a cat. There have been numerous reports here in the South of fire ants killing Bass. Seems that when it rains, some of the ants get washed into the creeks and rivers. The fish see them and eat them. Their poison actually inflames the poor little fishies stomach/intestines to the point that they end up starving to death.
From what I’ve read, it takes as little as just a few ants to do in a fish.
May 25th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
I wasn’t aware eating ants could hurt anyone; they are good as a spice on food in when you are out “living off the land”. A few of them mashed onto meat or in a stew can be tasty.
May 25th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
I have a different, yet related, ant question… What kind of ants do people get in their yards that are common but not fireants? I live in Southeast Texas. We get little bitty sugar ants in the kitchen sometimes, and every few years I’ll see the big black carpenter ants outside, but we really only consistently seem to have fireants. When people say “ants” around here it is just assumed that they mean “fireants”. I’ve never known anyone or their pet to die from them because we get them the hell off of us after the first couple of bites, then put poison on the mounds. It seems like you’d have to be dumb enough to just keep standing there to get sick or killed. Yet people from other parts of the country talk about “ants” being a painful pest, then “fireants” being some horrible thing that can take down an adult water buffalo in ten minutes. What kind of weak-ass ants does everyone else have?
May 25th, 2009 at 10:41 pm
Good to know, Bob. I like a bit of spice in my food. Protein content?
May 26th, 2009 at 10:55 am
OK then. I can feed ants to a pet cat, but not a pet Bass.
I suppose feeding a cat to my pet Ants would be OK?
May 26th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
No protein to speak of; most spices are for taste only.