113 replies to this topic

[Monarch]

Dang, man. Sorry to hear this. Is your colony still alive? Can you try to remove them for now, so they can recover?

In the future, I'd advise growing the colony much larger (at least 1,000 workers) before trying this. There's not a decomposer alive that would bully a full fledged RIFA colony.

 

Your totally right and I'm not sure if its still alive.  I see foragers walking around but just here and there.  I'm not even sure where their nest is.  Who knows, maybe I'm overreacting but for now looks pretty dead.  I'm in the Dallas Texas and getting my 10 gallon ready.  I'm still going to work with this one until i no longer see ants!

 

 

How can i remove them?  Just dig em out?

[AntaholicAnonymous]

Damn that's sad my lasius colony I had lost great numbers because I added creatures too quick I had to handpick ou a lot of stuff. But they still recovered very good.

My new tank I have now has many well established insects so when I add my Manica Rubida colony I gonna take a close eye on how good they can compete. But bigger ants tend to be better at claiming food in my experience so I'm confident

[AntaholicAnonymous]

Also I'd put in a good amount of food for everyone til you can reduce the numbers of competitors. Food that the ants can carry back home is also good so they don't have to secure it out in the open. I like to use fruit flies

[Monarch]

Also I'd put in a good amount of food for everyone til you can reduce the numbers of competitors. Food that the ants can carry back home is also good so they don't have to secure it out in the open. I like to use fruit flies

that's a really good idea!  Ima try to research a good way to capture the pill bugs, as many as i can.  worse comes to worse, I'll just take a needle and begin purging.  But i don't think i could do that T_T

[AntaholicAnonymous]

A good way of getting them is provide hideouts that you can flip over and just collect them by hand.
There are also foods that they care about but the ants don't. like a piece of salat.
Place it next to a piece of wood they can hide under and you got the perfect Hotspot to pick them off

[Monarch]

good idea!  these are sowbug though.  They are sooooo freagin fast!.  Not like pill bugs that just roll up when threatened

[AntaholicAnonymous]

I love solving problems in natural setups. lol

What I would do for them is to take something like a plate or a jar that you can bury in the ground like sort of embed in the tank so you can just lift that up when you want.

And in the jar you'd put in hiding spots and those foods that only these bugs want like some vegetables. It's like you put that Hotspot in a trap that you can just remove and dump in another container and sift out what you wanna keep and release the ones you don't want.

I think that's pretty fail safe if the trap is attractive enough. Keep it more moist so they will feel cosy inside

[Monarch]

or take some tweezers and become what i was always meant to be.... a guy with tweezers.

 

but that's awesome idea! gonna try tonight

Edited by Monarch, March 8 2020 - 5:49 PM.

[justanotheramy]

I see foragers walking around but just here and there.

That doesn't necessarily mean the colony is unhealthy or distressed.
My aphaenogaster longiceps are mostly out of sight now they're dug in. Foraging workers is a good sign — if there's not too many that probably suggests their needs are met and they're happy for now?

[Monarch]

 

I see foragers walking around but just here and there.

That doesn't necessarily mean the colony is unhealthy or distressed.
My aphaenogaster longiceps are mostly out of sight now they're dug in. Foraging workers is a good sign — if there's not too many that probably suggests their needs are met and they're happy for now?

 

 

Man talk about giving me hope and making my day o_0  Gawd i really hope that's the case

[justanotheramy]

Happy ants are kinda home-bodies, as far as I can tell — in their nest, grooming their brood and each other, hanging out, maybe snacking, maybe making slight adjustments to the position of the brood if humidity changes.

Even my aphaenogasters, who are compulsive tunnellers and make their presence known with big dirt mounds — I'm still not seeing many actual ants now that the first flurry or nest-establishment is over.

[justanotheramy]

If you wanted to liven things up could you… add another queen?
Are solenopsis invicta willing to form super-colonies? Is there any other species they'll tolerate within their territory?

[Monarch]

ia ctually added a queen that refused to lay eggs about 3 months ago....they massacred her.    I noticed also MANY MANY small white bugs in the terrarium- I'm assuming springtails? My guess is they too outcompeted my ants.  I'm drastically cutting down on the food added.  My next terrarium I'm making, will be 100% controlled and hopefully have learned from my mistakes.

 

 

any way to clean new house mates before adding?  I use to have an aquarium and would feed them pomegranate extract for about a week to kill parasites an bacteria on the fish before adding.

[profitjudi]

We just had a massive infestation of ants at our house (like, everywhere on the counters), and no matter how many traps and sprays we used, they just kept coming back. Heck, we even tried spraying the colony at one point with no results. I tried to keep my house as clean as possible so they won't find many food sources. I also sealed up the cracks I saw them coming from. Did all this but still no success. We had to hire https://ajverminator...rol-sunderland/ to get rid of those little [censored].

Edited by profitjudi, June 1 2022 - 1:15 AM.