7 replies to this topic

[CozmoDog]

Hello guys so I come to you professionals looking for help once again so my Camponotus sanctus colony of 8 workers and brood is living inside a nest that i made for them using grout the outworld is on the same build and where i place their food so I noticed way back some small round brown bugs on the dead mealworms and dubia roaches that i was placing inside their outworld now those bugs at least some of them have found their way inside the nest. I looked around on the ants the brood and the queen but I didn't see any stuck on them the 1 or 2 I have seen generally roam the nest and the outworld and are interested in the dead bugs I place is the colony in any danger what can I do to kill these things ?

[dermy]

If they are just on the food and not on the ants themselves, then really all you need to do is clean the Foraging area of those dead bugs and that should at least reduce their numbers, remember to keep the foraging area dry and free of debris, since that can cause more then just mites [mold, if it isn't ventilated enough and fungus gnats sometimes]

[Loops117]

That face you make when you colonize the wrong bugs better then your ants.....

[drtrmiller]

Be aware that there are detritivorous mites that eat decaying matter and are not harmful to ants. Small ants will even eat larger, soft-bodied mites.

 

Parasitic mites are highly specialized, and not too commonly encountered in a captive colony. If the mites you're observing are on the ants themselves, there is a chance they could be parasitic; however, sometimes the mites will just go away over time.

 

Often, parasitic mites thrive when conditions for the ants are poor—too much or too little heat or moisture. Because mites are usually far more tolerant to environmental changes than ants, there is no known remedy for ants parasitized by mites. At best, you will find many poorly educated guesses as to how to get rid of them.

 

[CozmoDog]

I keep the the formicarium without a lid so no mold problems but yeah the mites are only interested on the dead insects but I don't know what to do like I have a big dry sea shell and that's where i put the dead insects I used to just lay them on the outworld but i thought that my help if the dead insect isn't in direct contact with the dirt of the outworld but they still find their way on the insects

[drtrmiller]

If they are eating the dead insects, I wouldn't worry.

 

I don't know of any opportunistic parasitic mites, and so there is not really any chance that these mites would start to parasitize your ants when the decaying food disappears.

[CozmoDog]

I see thank you very much for the information.

[dspdrew]

Most of the mites I have found on my ants have just been phoretic, not parasitic.