Guys after 10 days in holiday i came back home yesterday and i realized that in some of my messor colonies have red dots.. what's going on?? can anyone help me
Ugh. I just got shivers.
Hope they recover!
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Unidentified Myrmecocystus
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Undescribed "Modoc"
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Camponotus or Colobopsis yogi:
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Camponotus us-ca02
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Unidentified Formica
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Too late, it seems. You need to be careful with food you give to them.
That colony is dust, unfortunately. Those mites are bad bad mites. Maybe you can put them in a tub lined with fluon (those mites don't climb very well from the start), separate the queen, and try to pull every one of them off of her. It's probably easier for me to say since I have a microscope and a micro tweezers though.
They look like pomegranates. Or those french burnt peanut candy. But not.
Edited by nurbs, June 20 2015 - 8:09 AM.
Instagram:
nurbsants
YouTube
California Ants for Sale
Unidentified Myrmecocystus
https://www.formicul...ls-near-desert/
Undescribed "Modoc"
https://www.formicul...mp-ca-5-4-2017/
Camponotus or Colobopsis yogi:
https://www.formicul...a-ca-1-28-2018/
Camponotus us-ca02
https://www.formicul...onotus-us-ca02/
Unidentified Formica
https://www.formicul...l-ca-6-27-2020/
Pencil Case and Test Tube Formicariums
https://www.formicul...m-and-outworld/
Bloodworm Soup
https://www.formicul...bloodworm-soup/
To me they look similar to these parasitic mites. These things completely wiped out my colony of Pheidole megacephalla.
Will the fridge help?
The colony is done. But if you want to do this, you will want to save the queen and a few (one or two) workers. Ants should have more resistance against freezing than mites due to their bigger bodymass, so you can try placing them in a freezer for ... a few minutes. I don't know how long. You need to make the ants just cold enough not to die while hoping that the mites will die, which is going to be tricky as hell.
Some ants can handle cold temperatures more than others. I'll tell you one creature that seems to be invincible in cold temps, and that has been mites in my experience. I'm pretty sure by the time you freeze any mites, your ants will be long dead.
What killed mine quickly was lack of food and water. They were dead in less than a day without anything to eat or drink. But of course removing the food and water is exactly what you're trying to do.
I have got mites on my T. Sessile. The were debris mites, but I wasn't taking any chances. I used a tiny bit of lemon juice, but it wouldn't work. However, when I severely overdosed it as a last resort, these mites died. I left the whole colony in a cup of lemon juice/ water. Some of the ants died, but so did the mites. I don't know about your ants, but T. Sessile is almost impossible to kill. If Messor is nearly as hardy, how about insecticides? Just a thought.
Edited by William. T, June 20 2015 - 2:18 PM.
Species I keep:
1 Lasius cf. Neoniger 30 workers
1 Camponotus sp. 15 workers
20 Tetramorium SpE 30 workers
1 T. Sessile 200 workers
I have a Myrmica colony that is current co-existing with compost mites. They've been co-existing for over a month now. Mites mind their own business which is breaking down mealworm leftovers ,and ants mind their own. The mites never climb on ants.
But those mites, they are the nasty ones.
Edited by dean_k, June 20 2015 - 4:30 PM.
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