Don't have access to any of the fancier, covered plastic sandboxes available in bigger cities, so just curious if others have done sandboxes for their kids and had success in keeping the critters out. If so, what did your setup look like?

Cats are easily thwarted by a simple cover, even a tarp will do the trick although it needs to be fastened down with bungees to stop them going underneath.

The bungees will also reduce the chances of snakes getting in but it would be wise to check before play commences. Snakes like cool dark places so the cover that stops the cat may well encourage the snake

A tight fitting wood lid will keep both cats and snakes out

Ants are going to be more fun. Putting the box on a concrete area will discourage them, aided by some ant repeller. How about making something on legs like this http://www.bigtoyexpress.com/Step2-Sand-Wa...amp;category=17 you can paint the legs with an ant repeller or possibly stand the whole thing in water.

Either way, if the box isn't in use every day a thorough check before allowing the kids to commence excavations is in order.

Edited February 9, 200917 yr by Crossy

Thanks, Crossy.

We tried the tarp thing before and it was a pain to get it secured properly as the cats were mighty determined. And never did find a solution for the ants.

Like the idea of trying to do some sort of table setup. Will take some photos to the local woodshop here and see if they can put something together for me, as they did a decent job creating a table for my son's train set not too long ago from a handful of photos. Then should be no problem to keep some bowls of water under each leg. I know if I put the whole thing over water, the kids would just get distracted by the water and never bother with the sand...