3 replies to this topic

[Alza]

Does anyone know easy ways to kill off mites, or let alone tell if you have them ??? I fear some of my argentine ant queens might have them.

Edited by Alza, November 2 2014 - 10:22 AM.

[Gregory2455]

I had mites once. They killed one of my four original Formica cf. fusca colonies. Smaller ants are able to pick the mites off of each other, as my original Solenopsis xyloni colony survived that incident. I do not know if this works, but I have heard, "Offer them a little piece of lemon, they will know what to do with it."

[Alza]

sounds like someone was joking but, worth a shot 

[Gregory2455]

Here is some information from the Beginner's Guide on this forum:

 

Parasites

Sometimes your queen’s parent colony will have a mite infestation, or she picked some mites before you found her, or perhaps some food you gave her was contaminated.  In any case, if you see extremely tiny (like pinhead size) dots on your queen or running around your tube, it’s likely you have mites.  Unfortunately there’s not much that can be done about a mite infestation in ants.  With reptiles, they have mite powders that will dry the mites up without harming your pet, but I’m afraid these products are just as likely to kill your ant(s) as they are to kill the mites.  Fortunately not all mites are detrimental to your ants so it may not be a problem at all.  One thing you can try is offering lemon or orange juice (freshly squeezed from the fruit) on some cotton.  Ants are smart, they know if they have a problem and how to deal with it.  It's possible they'll use the acidic lemon juice to dry out and kill the mites taking care of the problem on their own.  With 1-2 larger mites on a newly found queen, it may be possible to remove the mites with tweezers.