Question Re Gingerbread House

Do you have a cake dome you could put over it?
Just wondering. I guess it would have to be a short house or a tall dome.
We get the ones from Trader Joe's each year. One year Christmas was so busy we did it for Valentines instead. :)

(um Diane, just wondering, so if you freeze the moth eggs, aren't they then still *in* the flour?)

I've made one every year since I was very small (so think about 40 years of making houses), and it's never attracted bugs. If you don't have an ant problem in general - if you can leave a bowl of Halloween candy on your counter for a week without attracting ants - no reason to think the gingerbread house is any different.

I do have tons of gingerbread house making tips though, if you want them. The first is buy some milk in a quart size container, cut the top off, and use that as the structural support for the house. You use frosting to stick the gingerbread (or graham crackers) to the milk container, and that way your house walls won't keep falling in while you try to build it :)

ETA: Oh, you asked how long we keep it. When I was a kid, we made them about 2 weeks before Christmas, and were not allowed to eat them until Christmas day. I personally think some of the candy doesn't say good that long (anything gummy gets hard), so my kids only leave them on display for a few days, then I let them crack into them.

I'm Jewish, so I'm useless to you on the gingerbread issue - LOL! Love the milk carton idea.

However, there are plenty of harmless deterrents to ants, so start there - pepper sprinkled in key locations or a 50/50 vinegar/water spray for counters and baseboards are two ways to start. And totally harmless for you, your 3 year old, and any pets. I use a cayenne pepper spray in the garage to keep out the mice and squirrels looking for a warm spot to spend the winter.

Also, small insects or their eggs can lurk in the ingredients for many baking projects. I had a big problem last year with pantry moths (which lay eggs in flour, pasta, even dog treats, etc. which the hatched larva then eat), and while I used some cheap traps to catch the adult moths, I also followed instructions to get rid of the eggs to prevent new hatchlings. I put all my flour and sugar and similar products in the freezer for a week, and then I stored them in canisters or zipper bags. Haven't had a problem since. So put your sugar and other powdered ingredients into the freezer, even if you rotate them through because you don't have room, and zipper-bag the rest while they "wait their turn" to be frozen. Everything that could be a "home site" comes in from the supermarket and goes right to the freezer. I replaced my traps but they are empty so I think if you do the same thing, you'll likely get rid of pests.

How nice that you are doing this tradition with your child!

ETA: Nervy Girl, yes, but probably shriveled and rendered inert. But pretty much everything you bring home from the store has insect parts in it. There are actual FDA standards for how much is allowable, same with rodent hairs and so on! Same goes for what you buy at the farm stand. So we can't avoid it - unappetizing as it is to think about. The point I was making for Ebird is that you can't avoid every insect, but you can reduce the "swarm" or infestation she experienced with her gingerbread house!

We've done gingerbread houses for years, and yes, one year the ants found it. I have no idea why but it didn't stop us from doing it again.
This year my daughter and I made one the day before Thanksgiving and it's still sitting on the kitchen table, looking as fresh as can be. I'm sure it will be there until New Years.
Baking your own is VERY tricky so I suggest buying one of those kits, along with extra candy for decorating.
OR, you can google a recipe for "gingerbread icing" and build small houses out of graham crackers.
Tip: frosted mini wheats make adorable rooftops!

I've always used a milk carton as the structure of my house, like mynewnickname. The key to success that I have found is that I need to rinse the milk carton out very well to get rid of any milk residue (you don't want a sour milk smell, trust me). Then I dry the carton out for a day or two, making completely sure the inside is totally dry (You don't want it to mold either, or get a mold smell.)

I wonder if this is part of your problem...something not being dry, and attracting bug that way. Or do you have a small ant infestation in your house already? I know that sometimes we get sugar ants, and we have to deal with that before we do any kind of projects. heck to ale sure your sugar is clean before you proceed.

We get the gingerbread house kits made by the cake decorating company Wilton and have never once had an issue with ants or other critters--surprising, as we have a very "porous" house that gets a lot of bugs etc. all year long. Maybe it's because the icing dries to cement hardness and the candy decorations are also rock-hard! We display it on the dining room table, so any ants would have to trek quite a way into the room and up the table to get to it (not that that deters them all, but we do get ants and I've never found them on the dining table or seen evidence that they had been there nibbling). Try the Wilton kit and combine it with the cake dome idea below, a terrific thought. I also suggest you phone Wilton or look at their web site and see if there are tips on there for preserving their gingerbread houses somehow. Wilton likely sells some kind of spray you could use on it. Maybe also check Pinterest or other crafting/food sites for ideas to preserve it from bugs.

If you want to do it on a smaller scale that might be more doable with a three year old, use graham crackers instead of gingerbread to make a small gingerbread house and use softer icing and candies. Then eat it when you're done decorating and taking photos. That's what my daughter's class did years ago in elementary school. Cute, quick enough for a young kid to do without getting bored, and fine to eat (which the Wilton ones are not--they are fully edible but you won't want to eat it as it's slabs of very hard gingerbread!).

Mine has been up since Dec 1st and no ants. Never have had ants - but it's cold here (no ants this time of year). We biff ours directly after Christmas.

Is it the icing sugar/glue that attracts them I wonder? If so, you could use hot glue maybe. My friend does something like this so that it is more sturdy.

Because you are dealing with a 3 year old, you could use graham crackers and other kid-friendly treats to decorate, take a picture, then let her eat it.

my son has done one with his gf and her family ever since they were too young to be anything but playmates. ants have never been an issue.
i mean, sometimes a house will get ants, and you have to deter them. but that's not gingerbread-house-specific. that's simply taking steps to keep ants out of your house in general, by whatever method you usually use. we don't like pesticides here, both because of the furbabies and the environmental impact. fortunately ants are pretty easily deterred. diatomaceous earth where they're getting in has always done the trick for us.
we've kept our gingerbread houses as a centerpiece from early december through the new year. it's not edible by then, of course, but he wasn't making 'em to eat.
when we undecorated they went to the horses.
khairete
S.

Well, you just keep the ants out of your house. If you have ants they will attack the any food you have out.

So the best way to have anything out is to not have ants.

Otherwise you can make it on Christmas Eve day and then eat it up on Christmas Day evening.