15 replies to this topic

[kellakk]

       They went after some of my roach colonies today.  Of course they couldn't choose the colonies that I don't care too much about, or that have huge numbers. No, of course they went after one of only 2 Blaberus giganteus adults I have left. Of course.

[drtrmiller]

Put Fluon on the outside of the container.

[kellakk]

Put Fluon on the outside of the container.

I have 3 problems, though. 1) I don't yet have Fluon, and 2) the ants can access the containers where they touch other things and 3) I have over 30 species of roach in my collection.

 

Luckily, they're terrible at killing their prey and only managed to kill 3 individuals, one of which had just molted.  I caught it in time so I removed all the surviving roaches and quarantined those tanks affected.

[drtrmiller]

Once Argentine ants find a food source, they will not stop until they have overtaken it.

 

You will have to use a combination of tools and skill to prevent the ants from locating sources of food.  

 

The only alternative would be to relocate the roach bins every time they are found.  Always remove any ants, and clear their trails on the outside of the containers with a wet cloth, before relocating.

[Gregory2455]

Fill a large bin with about an inch of water, and set your ants and stuff in it, so that it acts like a moat.

[drtrmiller]

Fill a large bin with about an inch of water, and set your ants and stuff in it, so that it acts like a moat.

 

I would have advised that, except I didn't figure 30 species of roaches would be contained in a number of setups that would fit in any such moat smaller than, say, a swimming pool.

[dermy]

Stay up for the rest of your life and catch them 1 by one haha! Joking! You can try other barriers, Cooking Oil, Vaseline ect. Find out what works.

[kellakk]

 

Fill a large bin with about an inch of water, and set your ants and stuff in it, so that it acts like a moat.

 

I would have advised that, except I didn't figure 30 species of roaches would be contained in a number of setups that would fit in any such moat smaller than, say, a swimming pool.

 

That's about accurate. 

 

This isn't the first time my colonies have been attacked.   My parents gave me some ant chalk (I guess it's technically not allowed here, but oh well)  and drawing lines of that everywhere will stop the ants without harming the roaches.  I just hadn't redrawn the lines in a while, so the chalk had eroded away.

[Crystals]

Ah, the old Ant Chalk.  A low concentration of insect poison in chalk form.  Not easy to get in the USA or Canada.  I believe it is illegal in parts of the US, but can still be found in certain areas of china towns.

I have never seen it here in Alberta Canada, but I have never looked for it either.

[Gregory2455]

drtrmiller, another thing I would do is that for say tables, put a bowl under each leg and fill them.

[dspdrew]

I still don't get why you don't just buy some fluon, move any objects away from the top edges of the containers, and apply a band of fluon to them.

[Vendayn]

A long time back, I had Argentine ants invade my Subterranean termite colony I used to have.

 

Termites 1

Argentines 0

 

I looked in and saw a ton of dead Argentine ants and a few dead termites...the Argentine ants ended up losing. Funny thing is...there were dead Argentine ant queens too. Guess they wanted to nest inside my termite colony (probably for the moisture).

[kellakk]

I still don't get why you don't just buy some fluon, move any objects away from the top edges of the containers, and apply a band of fluon to them.

The reason I said I don't yet have fluon is that it's on the way.  I'll be getting a bottle within the next week. As soon as I get that I will be doing exactly as you say.

 

Vendayn, Argentine ants seem to be very bad at killing things. They can only do it with overwhelming numbers, and even then they take forever.  That's why they only killed three out of the thousands of roaches I have.

Edited by kellakk, January 23 2015 - 3:29 PM.

[AntsAreUs]

A long time back, I had Argentine ants invade my Subterranean termite colony I used to have.

 

Termites 1

Argentines 0

 

I looked in and saw a ton of dead Argentine ants and a few dead termites...the Argentine ants ended up losing. Funny thing is...there were dead Argentine ant queens too. Guess they wanted to nest inside my termite colony (probably for the moisture).

That would be really fun to watch happen!

[Vendayn]

Yeah, Argentine ants can barely kill Pogonomyrmex. Colonies of Pogonomyrmex exist all around in my current area amongst millions of Argentine ants. They don't do much, I'm surprised they can do anything even with numbers. But it is no wonder most other invasive ants tend to drive them out of their established areas.

[BugFinder]

It's a bad idea to attempt any kind of pesticide on ant trails for Argentines.  If you can't get them to accept a bait they'll take back to their nest, you're better off not trying to poison them at all.