This happened late last night and I just now had a chance to post. When I went to check on Maja and make sure the temp in her habitat was alright before I went to bed, I noticed the "soil" (it's that coconut bark stuff that comes in compressed bricks) looked a little funny. I looked closer and guess what it was? ANTS.

Somehow, ants had gotten into the habitat and were starting to make a nest in one corner. I'm pretty sure this wasn't the best idea, but I decided to immediately change the "soil" so I could get rid of the ants that were already there. Before I put the new stuff in, I sprayed some orange oil on the outside of the tank and around the general area, since that's the most natural ant repellant/killer I know of.

As far as I can tell, it's the "soil" that they were attracted to, but I'm not sure what else I could use for Maja's habitat. Any suggestions? I know I can't use cedar and cypress seems to be absolutely non-existant around here (believe me, I've looked). What I'm thinking of doing is maybe using the same kind of fluffy stuff that I use in Nikita, Lucy, and Sadie's cages, then getting a slightly larger water dish (if I do in fact need to keep a water dish in there).