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[RedFox]

I wish my first journal was a better subject, but I thought someone may learn from my mistake.

I have a nice colony of Pheidole megacephala in a bio-setup. I loved watching the the workers swarm their prey and would eat everything I gave them. 2 weeks ago I was given a big pot of hens and chicks succulents and I needed to repot them and realized there was a ton of isopods in the soil. I thought it would be a great idea to add these isopods to the Pheidole megacephala setup as a clean up crew. I gathered a deli cup full of isopods and some of the DIRT they were in so they would stay in the cup. After I got all the isopods I wanted, instead of dropping them in one by one, I dumped everything in the cup into the setup, I watered the setup and didn't think anything of it. About 5 days later a fed the Pheidole megacephala as normal and watered the setup and noticed the wet cocoa substrate was moving, but I thought it maybe springtails. Yesterday 09/22/2024 and went to change the sugar waters, and noticed a Pheidole megacephala crawling up the glass, but it looked like it had dirt all over it, then there was another. I removed the workers and looked at it... MITES. I took the setup outside and started to look around the setup and there was almost no ants. I pulled out the artificial log out and 3 queens were huddled with some soldiers. I put what was left of the colony in a test tube. It was horrible watching the ants trying to wipe the mites off. I put a little water in the test tube and gently shuck the tube and dump the ants on a paper towel. A lot of mites came off, I tried to wipe the mites off, I couldn't believe how many mites were on each little ant. I wrapped the ants in a wet paper towel and continued to wipe the mites off and got most of the mites off, unfortunately only one soldier made it, but the queens made it and was still alive before I went to bed. I will check on them before I leave for work. I cleaned and sterilized and the small tank the colony was in and the substrate and artificial wood piece is in the freezer. I learned a valuable lesson, don't just put wild insects in a bio-setup and don't put outside wood, sticks, bark or soil in a natural setup. I will keep everyone updated on the queens. I'm aware that queens don't usually make it after loosing their colony, but I want to try. I hope this is helpful so others won't make this mistake.

I do have other colonies I want to journal about like my tiny Monomorium minimum colony, my Tapinoma sessile, and my growing Tetramorium I'm colony.
🐜

[RedFox]

Update, yesterday one of the three queens died. I changed the test tube and gently wiped what I'm hoping is the last of the mites, I gave a drop of sugar snaps and mashed cricket. I will keep an eye on them. They are isolated from the rest of colonies, and everything is either sanitized or put in the freezer.