How to get rid of ants in my house safely with a cat, no pesticides?

There isn't a great answer to your question, i.e. nothing that is absolutely completely safe to use, however you can mix boric acid (1 part) and powdered sugar (3 parts) and sprinkle it in the areas where your cat can't access, and where you have seen the ants (i.e., under cupboards). It's not completely safe because the boric acid can cause GI upset if ingested, so if you can keep your cat from walking through these areas and subsequently grooming the substance off his/her feet, it will eventually work. It takes a bit of time, maybe a couple of weeks, but the ants will carry the mixture back to the queen and eventually all will die. Hopefully you can keep your cat from this area of the house for a couple of weeks, until this method works.

I would not use essential oils. There are many that are toxic and aren't safe to have around cats. Ant bait stations are safe for cats and you can find ones with low toxicity. I recommend getting those to kill the ants. I hope this helps!

Hello, thank you for using PetCoach. Great question! Unfortunately, permethrins of any kind are not safe for use around cats. Permethrins are very toxic to them. I would not risk it. ( https://icatcare.org/advice/permethrin-poisoning/ )

I'm sorry to hear about the loss of your cat! How awful. It's very unlikely that the ant traps would have had anything at all to do this with this - borax is fairly non-toxic, and would require ingestion of a really large amount in order to cause any serious problems. Exposure to traces of it from simply being in the same area as the traps should not cause any issues at all. Again, I'm very sorry for the loss of your kitty.

Most household cleaning products are fine to use around your cat. There is no serious harm here if you are using products and then allowing them to airdry. The main concern is that some aerosolized cleaning products can cause irritation of your cats airway in some cases. However, most of these products will also cause you discomfort as well, so use your best judgement here. In most situations if you can handle exposure to the product, then so can your pet. As far as ingesting products go, you just have to make sure not to leave out any buckets of cleaner that your cat could potentially get into, and you are basically covered here as well. If you are still a bit worried about your pet, you can also switch all your household products to more organic cleaning products such as Green Works or the Mrs. Meyers products, which are derived from 98% natural products. I hope that this helps! Best of luck with your kitty and safe cleaning practices. Take care.

This should not cause any problems. Cats can be sensitive to very concentrated permethrin products (>1-2% concentration), but the concentration of this spray is much lower than that (around 0.02%) so we would not expect to see any toxicity issues related to this. I would recommend making sure that the area is completely dry before allowing your cat back in, but once it's dry it should be fine.

Below is a link with information on some products that are safe for pets. Read the label before applying any products. You could also call an exterminator and ask that they use a pet friendly product. https://roachtreatment.com/pet-safe-roach-killers/