6 replies to this topic

[Myrmarauder]

I saw one in my outworld maybe a week or 2 ago and thought I removed it along with that night's dinner. I think they hitched a ride on some superworms. 

Does anyone have experience dealing with non-parasitic mites? I haven't seen any on my ants but I do see some in the formicarium now (not just the outworld that I removed to clean it and bake the sand). I'm not sure they're causing direct harm but I don't want the population to balloon to the point where the outworld is infested. Would that happen? I saw something about beneficial mites that help with cleaning, I guess similar to springtails in a vivarium, but I feel like it's better to be safe than sorry right?

Really considering ordering a new formicarium from Drew for them to just start fresh (or perhaps just go all out with one of his large C fragilis colonies he still has)

 

Also, I have been having constant die offs and I can't figure out why. I have the colony in an incubator t a constant 83-84 degrees. I just had a new worker born this week and I saw her stumbling around the outworld last night. Found her dead in the same corner I found the rest of the colony's workers. They were my first colony (C. fragilis) so I think there were some growing pains in the beginning but I thought we'd turned a corner with the incubator and steady flow of superworms (they're picky eaters and I'm terrible at going out for crickets).

Sorry this post kind of turned into a 2-for but any help here would be amazing!

 

got some pictures (looping because that has more detail than the stills):
 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Myrmarauder, March 21 2019 - 2:40 PM.

[Joehostile85]

I wasn’t able to see the video on my phone for some reason. But they could be grain mites. I get those in my fruit fly cultures. And they could be in the food/bedding your meal works came in. If it’s those I don’t think they harm the colony, but they are annoying to look at inside the ant nest. I think they just eventually die if they don’t have grain to eat. The more worrisome kind would be the kind that actually attaches themselves to the ants.

[Myrmarauder]

Thanks Joe, that's good to know because I spotted one in my Formica francouri's outworld today also. I hope I got rid of them by cleaning the C fragilis outworld and baking the sand... or at least rid of any chance they'd lay eggs (since I think I saw one in their nest after I detached the outworld).

I'm pretty sure they're grain/food mites. I just don't want them to proliferate to the point where the ants are miserable and die. I haven't seen any on or near ants just kinda roaming the outworlds mostly.

I'll try to fix the image - it makes sense that they're actually videos once I make them loop and I've only been able to post videos on here through youtube I believe.

[dspdrew]

Oh I think those are some kind of spider mites. I have them in pretty much all of my colonies. They are beneficial actually and never harm the ants.

[TennesseeAnts]

I have these in my colony's outworlds too. They are really good in my Brachyponera terrarium because they eat the left-overs.

[Myrmarauder]

Thanks for the replies, Ant_Dude and Drew!
It's so good to know I don't have foreign invaders in there that can cause real harm.

Drew I don't know how you're so active on here and hold down a real job. I was stoked about keeping a journal on here... that lasted all of like 2 weeks haha

[TennesseeAnts]

Drew I don't know how you're so active on here and hold down a real job. I was stoked about keeping a journal on here... that lasted all of like 2 weeks haha

That is one mystery I have been thinking about too, lol.