3 replies to this topic

[Lazarus]

I thought I'd researched the toxicity of cyanoacrylate glues (A.K.A "super glue") before using it in a formicarium build, but I believe I underestimated the 'gassing' period for the fumes to completely be eliminated and paid the price with the death of 30-35 ants overnight. From what I read (can't remember where but possibly in the forums here somewhere) the glue itself is not toxic, but the fumes being 'gassed' off while it dries is.

 

Now with that in mind (and to eliminate the fumes 'fogging' the acrylic in my nest) I actually had a huge fan going full blast as I used to glue. The irony was that the nest itself did not originally have any cyanoacrylate glue, but I decided to add walls to form smaller inner chambers in the large open space within the bead box I was using. The formicarium was actually used for a brief period last year but had some flaws that I decided to improve on so I took it out of commission until I could get the repairs I wanted and at that time decided the new smaller inner chambers could be added as well.

 

 

I believe my mistake was that after letting the glue dry overnight while the box was open and being aired out. I then closed the box for a few days and then hooked it up to one of my Camponotus Novaeborancis colonies. The next morning I noted a few dead ants but was not immediately alarmed thinking maybe the bodies were some that were already dead from their existing main nest (a bit harder to see in there) that they just brought out to this 'new space'. But as the day wore on and the bodies started pilling up it was clear that the new setup was to blame. I quickly configured a powdered tube that would have emerging ants drop into their outworld and by the end of the day the surviving ants had all evacuated that way.  I'm not sure if some of those exposed have been fatally injured, but so far they look and act OK.

 

 

But now I am hesitant, especially as I have a second completely new formincarium that I made as an almost duplicate of the first in which I also added those same inner chamber with the cyanoacrylate glue.

 

Can anyone confirm that have successfully used well dried and cured cyanoacrylate and that it is OK?

 

 

[TheAntGuy]

Have you considered that the cyanoacrylate glue may not be the issue? It cures in like 10 minutes and after it cures, it is completely inert, there shouldn't be any offgassing after 24hours of cure time whatsoever

[Lazarus]

Have you considered that the cyanoacrylate glue may not be the issue? It cures in like 10 minutes and after it cures, it is completely inert, there shouldn't be any offgassing after 24hours of cure time whatsoever

Yeah, but I can't see any other reason for the sudden-die off.

 

It was nothing in their food as I always feed all my colonies at the same time and with the same food. Not one of my other colonies exhibited any noticeable deaths, much less such a staggering toll as this colony did.

 

The coincidence that this was an add-on for that colony just 24 hours earlier certainly points to it being something about this added formicarium and about 75% of the dead bodies were in the new formicarium. Aside from the newly glued inner walls, the only other changes I made from when I briefly had them in last year was the addition of two more screws (It used to have only four corner screws, but the problem was that it left just enough of a gap in the middle that some of the smaller ants could escape where it bulged in the middle). I also spray painted the outer rim (the purple) so that less light would come into the sides allowing me to make a darker nest when covered. But that is all exterior paint and it too was allowed to dry for well over a week.

 

So the most likely thing is the glue I used for the inner walls.

[Serafine]

Cyanoacrylates can fume out for quite a while, I'd leave the nest to dry for at least two days (actually I'd wait for a week just to be sure).

I've used Cyanoacrylates a lot for tabletop miniatures and I stopped because the fumes can seriously destroy the paintjob. They take a lot longer to fully dry than ten minutes.