9 replies to this topic

[Kaelwizard]

Should I quarantine the worker or use some other method? How do you guys get rid of mites? This is my new Formica colony that has the mite. Can they use acid to kill it or have another worker pull it off?

Edited by Kaelwizard, June 13 2020 - 6:14 PM.

[ponerinecat]

No need to overthink it. If its a single mite on a single worker chances are its simply hitching a ride or may even be there by chance, simply seeing the ant as another surface to forage on. If the mite appears to cling on the ant without moving, then it may be a problem, however chances are likely its just phoretic. Best to take a sample and try to ID it before panicking, mites arent the demonic killers the pet hobby makes them out to be. More often than no they're harmless or beneficial.

[TechAnt]

No need to overthink it. If its a single mite on a single worker chances are its simply hitching a ride or may even be there by chance, simply seeing the ant as another surface to forage on. If the mite appears to cling on the ant without moving, then it may be a problem, however chances are likely its just phoretic. Best to take a sample and try to ID it before panicking, mites arent the demonic killers the pet hobby makes them out to be. More often than no they're harmless or beneficial.

I agree with this, most are harmless, unlike the way some people make them out to be...*COUGH* ANTSCANADA *COUGH*

Submit a off-topic ID request I guess, and see what people say. I have heard lemon works to get rid of kites though if it becomes a problem.

[Kaelwizard]

It looks exactly like the ones in his videos (orange and unmoving).

[ANTdrew]

Another good reason not to dig up established colonies.

[Kaelwizard]

I wouldn’t say they were very established. There were C. pennsylvanicus majors all over the nest trying to kill the colony. They most likely would have been killed if not for me. And I wasn't looking for a whole colony. I was looking for founding queens, I just happened upon this small colony when I flipped over that piece of wood.

Edited by Kaelwizard, June 14 2020 - 6:30 AM.

[ponerinecat]

It looks exactly like the ones in his videos (orange and unmoving).

Are they clinging to the ants, and if so where are they mostly located. Again air conditioner is one of the least reliable sources out there.

[Kaelwizard]

It looks exactly like the ones in his videos (orange and unmoving).

Are they clinging to the ants, and if so where are they mostly located. Again air conditioner is one of the least reliable sources out there.

I meant they looked like those mites. It was clinging onto one workers leg like the mites in his videos did. It was only a single mite and I think that worker may have died or the mite was removed as I can’t find it.

[ponerinecat]

there's probably no need to freak out over a single mite that dissapears.

[Temperateants]

Happened to me, an orange mite that was in the ants' garbage.