11 replies to this topic

[Leo]

My small colony of odontomachus monticola recently arrived, and they have mites covering their heads and on their gasters (close to their stings). Anyone have any ideas on how to get rid of them? 

[Wa.Va]

Once i used the lemon method together with sollitation and alot of cleaning. I only had it once, but it disappeared after a while, each day i changed the lemon piece.
Hope this helps

Edit: there are a lot methods just by searching on the web. U will also see that there are kinds of mites that are actually harmless to ants. They are in a kind of stage, just hitchicking on the ants untill they grow. Patience is also very welcome in this situation.


Good luck!
May Saint Ambrose be with u

Edited by Wa.Va, December 15 2018 - 2:40 PM.

[CoolColJ]

A friend's queen was covered in mites

 

She tried predatory mites, 2 types, didn't work

 

queen died

 

 

Edited by CoolColJ, December 16 2018 - 2:04 PM.

[Serafine]

There are a lot of anti-mite products for beekeeping, most of them should work for ants as well.

 

Something that worked well for some people on the Antkeeping Discord Chat is offering a few grains of rice in the outworld (preferrably where the ants like to hang out/walk along). If those mites are grain/food mites they will love the rice and jump off the ants to feed on it. A wet sponge might do the same for some species of mites.

 

Two easy methods you could try if all else fails (both are immensly stressfull for the ants though):

- Brush the mites off with a flat painting brush

- Drop the ants into a bowl filled with water (ants can survive under water for quite a while as ants go into a sort-of hibernation state when they fall into water, the mites might quickly jump ship though)

Edited by Serafine, December 16 2018 - 3:08 PM.

[MegaMyrmex]

Leo, get us a pic of the mites, might be able to diagnose what type they are but maybe try lemon therapy or if the mites are grain mites maybe exposing them to some dry air but this kight not work since Odontomachus like humid conditions.

[Leo]

They are dying pretty quick =(

[Rstheant]

Have you tried the methods Serafine advised?

[Manitobant]

Antscanada has some good videos on the subject. Moving them into a bigger setup may help.

[Leo]

Only the queens left. They don't seem to have mites for some reason...

[Guy_Fieri]

This is just a guess, but maybe you could try using some wet soil in the outworld, or maybe as Serafine said, a wet sponge. I believe the mites need to get off of the ants to reproduce or lay eggs.

[Leo]

All the workers are dead '_'

[Manitobant]

All the workers are dead '_'

the mites were probably bloodsuckers then. You could try founding the queens again but it might not work. If none of this works and/or the queens get mites you maybe should release them but ONLY if they came from your area.