2 replies to this topic

[futurebird]

I keep my ants with outworlds filled with about 1cm of dry fine white sand, simple decorations such as rocks. Ants destroy just about anything else. Dirt substrate, even if very shallow will be lumped up into mound and they will make strange little huts. Leaves and plants are shredded. Even driftwood is iffy. They will hollow it out and make little condos. Ants are resourceful and love to transform their environment. 

So, "going bioactive" means basically having a natural nest and not seeing the ants in their nest anymore. This is how my Formica subsericea colony lives and it's nice, but I don't want to do that for all colonies. 

Long and short of it is every day I use the tweezers to collect the exoskeletons of their meals. Every few weeks I scoop up the trash piles of empty cocoons, dead ants, seed husks, and who-knows-what. The ants seem to use the trash piles as their poop spot too, so this has the bonus of clearing out THAT issue too. 

Then I just throw it all away. 

But, I've been thinking about getting some pet isopods. I don't plan on keeping them with ants just yet, but I'm thinking I can give them the garbage in the name of recycling. I also wonder if there are any dry-loving detritivores who could live in the trash pile. The ants seem to find their trash piles gross and don't use the trash to make little huts like they do with dirt. 

Have any of you had any luck "going bioactive" either by just having a crew in another container to eat their trash, or by finding some magical critter who doesn't need moist substrate to live but is happy to eat exoskeletons and ant garbage? The later seems unlikely but I thought I'd ask.  

[ANTdrew]

Book lice come to mind. I think some springtails could live in standard formicaria if you kept them on the damper side. This species might be worth trying: https://www.roachcro...ant-springtail/
Neither of these cleaners would eat exoskeletons, though.

[TypeD]

Yeah, book lice would definitely do this to some extent. I never introduced them myself, but apparently they were already in my apartment, and they've colonized every single formicarium in my room en masse. From what I've seen they breed prolifically in ant setups (particularly drier ones), and they do feed on the mold and detritus. That said though, they never seem to eliminate large volumes of mold/fungus/etc.; if there's tons of booklice in one of my formicaria, it will usually smell funky and have visible mold. I've had much better luck with springtails for controlling mold; but that's in vivaria. IME they really do prefer rich, moist substrate.

 

I do have a "desert" vivarium with a substrate mix that's around 65% sand, 20% clay, 15% soil, which is closer to what you describe. From what I can tell, the springtails I added didn't survive, but to my surprise some dwarf white isopods did: for more than a month so far, and they appear to be reproducing. Perhaps they could survive in the setting you describe too (though I'd definitely recommend supplementing their diet with plant material if you try). Also, you would have to moisten the substrate, because they're crustaceans that breathe with gills.

 

Book lice come to mind. I think some springtails could live in standard formicaria if you kept them on the damper side. This species might be worth trying: https://www.roachcro...ant-springtail/
Neither of these cleaners would eat exoskeletons, though.

 

FWIW, Kyle from RoachCrossing thought those ant springtails might survive in moist formicaria when I corresponded with him. Unfortunately I accidentally killed the culture he sent me, so I didn't get a chance to try it. I'll try again at some point though, so I can let you know how it goes if you'd like.

Edited by TypeD, September 29 2022 - 10:22 AM.