18 replies to this topic

[Lillyrose]

The humidity in the ants world went up a lot when I added heat and now the Fluon got wet.

Ants are able to climb up now but seem to die.

I don't know what is happening. Is the Fluon killing them cause it's wet?

[KitsAntVa]

Make sure all the ants are in a safe place, or put the ones in the outworld into a different container. Plug the nest and clean the outworld of all fluon and make sure there is no condensation left. Don't put the heating mat under the outworld or the cable under it. Make sure that either of those is only on the very corner of whatever nest you have them in. They honestly don't even need heat to thrive but it can help them during colder months.

[AntaholicAnonymous]

The fluon doesn't kill them.
If they die since you added the heat then the heat itself is probably at fault.

I'd remove the heating completely and see if that changes anything.
If you give them heating elements you always have to give them a temperature gradient so they can pick the perfect spot.
So KitsAntVa's advice should solve that issue

[Kaelwizard]

They could be drowning in condensation if any is there. I'm sure fluon can be harmful to them if it is also too wet. If you are putting water in their outworld, I would stop doing that (unless they can not be given water in their nest).

[MinigunL5]

What species? What are you feeding them? What are they housed in?

[AntaholicAnonymous]

They could be drowning in condensation if any is there. I'm sure fluon can be harmful to them if it is also too wet. If you are putting water in their outworld, I would stop doing that (unless they can not be given water in their nest).

I use fluon a lot so I have to ask if you know that it gets dangerous to ants if it gets wet or where you have the information from.
I know when the solution dries it's not harmful I never really thought about rehydration making it toxic that would be good to know

[Kaelwizard]

 

They could be drowning in condensation if any is there. I'm sure fluon can be harmful to them if it is also too wet. If you are putting water in their outworld, I would stop doing that (unless they can not be given water in their nest).

I use fluon a lot so I have to ask if you know that it gets dangerous to ants if it gets wet or where you have the information from.
I know when the solution dries it's not harmful I never really thought about rehydration making it toxic that would be good to know

 

Well I don't know if it gets toxic when wet, but for ants I'm sure it can be harmful if ingested accidentally.

[ANTdrew]

The fluon was definitely not the cause of death here. Fluon is not toxic to ants in any way, dry or wet.

[Kaelwizard]

The fluon was definitely not the cause of death here. Fluon is not toxic to ants in any way, dry or wet.

Then it must be the condensation.

[Lillyrose]

So I think I literally stressed them to death. They really liked the heat and would sit in the water from condensation rather than leave the heat.

I think I took them out when the house wasn't warm enough. Then I changed their housing too often and too fast. I dropped them once too. I def didn't do well with the little fellows.

I ended up letting the ones that were still alive out on a warm day buy then realized a little later that most of them were still there and had hidden behind some cotton on the rock.

I was very upset.. I didn't mean to but I was a very bad ant keeper. I will not make the same mistakes again but I feel like a massive A hole.

[ANTdrew]

Don’t beat yourself up too much. These are the most common ants by far in our area. Just learn from the experience and refrain from collecting established colonies from the wild in the future. It is much better to stick to newly flown queens.

[Lillyrose]

Don’t beat yourself up too much. These are the most common ants by far in our area. Just learn from the experience and refrain from collecting established colonies from the wild in the future. It is much better to stick to newly flown queens.

Yes, I definitely shouldn't have been taking in whole colonies but I really didn't know better at first. I will be much better about that next year.

I do have a single queen with a couple of workers or those tiny starter workers from last year. She's a pavement ant (I forgot what those are called) .. she's gonna stay in a test tube set up for a while.

I can't wait to take her out of hibernation. She's been in long enough to take her out now if I really wanted to but with the cold weather I wanted to wait. Even though she's living at 49 degrees and that's a much milder winter for her. I don't want to rush her.

[ANTdrew]

Cool. Do an ID thread to be sure what species you have. I recommend keeping things basic with the test tube placed in an escape proofed container. Pour a bit of hydrostone or grout in the bottom of the container.

[AleeGuy]

The humidity in the ants world went up a lot when I added heat and now the Fluon got wet.

Ants are able to climb up now but seem to die.

I don't know what is happening. Is the Fluon killing them cause it's wet?

I'm pretty sure it is beacuse of the condensation, they are drowning in it, they can drown even if the water droplets(on condensation) are way smaller than the ants. Plus fluon's for ants are intended to make them hate the smell of it to not make them try to walk on it and slowly erase the fluon layer, so there is no chance that they digested it.

Edited by AleeGuy, February 18 2021 - 4:15 PM.

[MinigunL5]

 

The humidity in the ants world went up a lot when I added heat and now the Fluon got wet.

Ants are able to climb up now but seem to die.

I don't know what is happening. Is the Fluon killing them cause it's wet?

I'm pretty sure it is beacuse of condensation, they are drowning in it, they can drown even if the condensated water droplets are way smaller than the ants. Plus fluon's for ants are intended to make them hate the smell of it to not make them try to walk on it and slowly erase the fluon layer, so there is no chance for them to digest it.

 

Fluon works because it's slippery and hard for ants to grip. Not because of they don't like its smell.

[AleeGuy]

The humidity in the ants world went up a lot when I added heat and now the Fluon got wet.

Ants are able to climb up now but seem to die.

I don't know what is happening. Is the Fluon killing them cause it's wet?

I'm pretty sure it is beacuse of condensation, they are drowning in it, they can drown even if the condensated water droplets are way smaller than the ants. Plus fluon's for ants are intended to make them hate the smell of it to not make them try to walk on it and slowly erase the fluon layer, so there is no chance for them to digest it.

Fluon works because it's slippery and hard for ants to grip. Not because of they don't like its smell.

Yes lol. They don't like the smell too, make an experiment by applying fluon in a circle shape and on a horizontal surface, then put the ant on the middle of it so it would be trapped in it. If you see the ant try to walk on it(but will slip) then it will mean that the fluom doesn't have a smell and they are not trying to get on it *only* because it is slippery.

[MinigunL5]

 

 

 

The humidity in the ants world went up a lot when I added heat and now the Fluon got wet.

Ants are able to climb up now but seem to die.

I don't know what is happening. Is the Fluon killing them cause it's wet?

I'm pretty sure it is beacuse of condensation, they are drowning in it, they can drown even if the condensated water droplets are way smaller than the ants. Plus fluon's for ants are intended to make them hate the smell of it to not make them try to walk on it and slowly erase the fluon layer, so there is no chance for them to digest it.

Fluon works because it's slippery and hard for ants to grip. Not because of they don't like its smell.

Yes lol. They don't like the smell too, make an experiment by applying fluon in a circle shape and on a horizontal surface, then put the ant on the middle of it so it would be trapped in it. If you see the ant try to walk on it(but will slip) then it will mean that the fluom doesn't have a smell and they are not trying to get on it *only* because it is slippery.

 

I don't think you can really conclude that ants don't like the smell of fluon just from that experiment.

[steelplant]

Yes there would be no pheromone trail to follow.

[Lillyrose]

The humidity in the ants world went up a lot when I added heat and now the Fluon got wet.

Ants are able to climb up now but seem to die.

I don't know what is happening. Is the Fluon killing them cause it's wet?

I'm pretty sure it is beacuse of condensation, they are drowning in it, they can drown even if the condensated water droplets are way smaller than the ants. Plus fluon's for ants are intended to make them hate the smell of it to not make them try to walk on it and slowly erase the fluon layer, so there is no chance for them to digest it.

Fluon works because it's slippery and hard for ants to grip. Not because of they don't like its smell.

Yes lol. They don't like the smell too, make an experiment by applying fluon in a circle shape and on a horizontal surface, then put the ant on the middle of it so it would be trapped in it. If you see the ant try to walk on it(but will slip) then it will mean that the fluom doesn't have a smell and they are not trying to get on it *only* because it is slippery.

My ants didn't seem to mind the smell.. they did seem to mind touching it. They would step one foot and then back up quickly. I think just cause they couldn't gain traction.