8 replies to this topic

[Ernteameise]

I just noticed that most of my formicaria / colonies are infected with book lice.

Just saw them racing away when I did the cleaning. They are fast!

Not sure- I assume they are kind of positive?

There are some mentions on this forum that people use them in bioactive formicaria?

Or do they need extermination?

Not sure how one would go about exterminating them, anyways....

 

[bmb1bee]

Book lice aren’t really harmful from my experience. Aside from eating random debris that accumulates around the outworlds of my setups, they keep to themselves and leave my ants alone. I’d take them over grain mites any day.

[BleepingBleepers]

I thought I mentioned them on one of my journal or posts before but couldn't find.

 

But basically, I spoke to one of the popular ant vendors and he said one of the reasons he designed his nest with tight fittings is to not just keep the ants in but also to keep unwanted bugs out. One of the pesky bugs he mentioned were booklice. He said some of the colonies that gradually died out on him (and he keeps MANY, some for 5+++ years) seem to also be infested with booklice. I was like "you sure they weren't springtails?" because I've seen booklice and I never knew that could infest anything in large groups, they seem to be more solitary creatures, wondering around and scavenging on stuff, never in large numbers whenever I see them where I live. He said he was certain. He also said they somehow grown in large numbers in the ant nests, where he can even see them wiggling underneath the mound of brood and whatever is in the ant nests. Even so, he only says he highly SUSPECTS them to be the reason why those nests might have failed, as we all know, there's many reasons why an ant colony can fail. He also said he couldn't find a way to get rid of them completely without also harming the ants.

 

So I would keep an eye on them.

 

 

On a slight off topic: I also found out in the past few years that springtails were also not completely harmless as some people made them out to be. Like how "it's impossible for them to do any harm to a living creature" due to their very weak mouth parts. But I started doubting that when I see how fast they clean up food I drop in or even dead insects. One example are springtails that are often sold as tropical pink springtails (Coecobrya sp. / Sinella curviseta). They've actually killed one of my centipedes and took out sizable chunks on three of my other centipedes after they molted. After I realize it was the springtails (like I had a hunch but was doubting myself because everyone I talked to said it was impossible for them to even be capable of any harm to my animals), I immediately removed them from their container and put them into a nursery container to take care of their wounds, thankfully they all survived and recovered after a molt but it was a close call for one or two of them. While they can't hurt a healthy living creature, if the creature is weakened, have exoskeletons that are still hardening after a molt, or they're leaking fluids like from a wound, the springtails can actually attack those areas and eat around and into it. So wounds that were small and would've healed overtime were opened up and eaten into by these supposedly harmless springtails. Tropical pinks were really good at this because of a few factors: They're slightly larger than average size springtails (bigger size means they are more capable of handling bigger 'jobs', they're extremely quick and mobile (meaning as soon as they sense potential food, they can be all over it real fast), they're very prolific, and they have an appetite for protein (probably with improved mouth parts to handle it too); in order words, it makes them one of the best springtails for cleanup duty.

 

The point I'm trying to make is, they're both similar size creatures, but beware, they are scavengers and they have abilities to extract food. The species of booklice in with your ants, we don't know what they are. They might indeed be nice and harmless....or....could be like that species of springtails I mentioned, think super soft ant eggs. And some ants are just horrible at dealing with small creatures like that so they got little to no defense.

 

 

 

Also on the side: I have had springtails and grain mites that made it into both my Camponotus and Ectomomyrmex nests, but for some reason or another, they never thrived in there. Happy and glad about that. I think for my Camponotus, it's because they have a bit of that formic acid, maybe.

Edited by BleepingBleepers, July 23 2024 - 8:19 AM.

[Ernteameise]

Well, I did not check with any magnifying equipment, but from how they move, they look pretty much like the book lice I sometimes see around the flat behind wall paper and such.

So they are not an aggressive tropical species.

They also run, not jump, and have a long body, not a bunched up one like springtails.

 

I will still keep and eye on them and see if the colonies are affected.

[BleepingBleepers]

Well, I did not check with any magnifying equipment, but from how they move, they look pretty much like the book lice I sometimes see around the flat behind wall paper and such.

So they are not an aggressive tropical species.

They also run, not jump, and have a long body, not a bunched up one like springtails.

 

I will still keep and eye on them and see if the colonies are affected.

 

What I mean is that it might just be a harmless species of booklice or it could be some other species of booklice that are not so harmless, and to beware of generalizations like what I got about springtails (that ALL springtails are completely harmless). I'm not saying what you have are those tropical pink springtails, I had to specifically order them from a vendor selling springtails to get those.

 

Anyhow, yes please on the updates, curious to know what their behavior is like in the ant colony and any observed effects if there are any. But I hope everything remains good with your colony.

Edited by BleepingBleepers, July 23 2024 - 2:16 PM.

[bmb1bee]

I was like "you sure they weren't springtails?" because I've seen booklice and I never knew that could infest anything in large groups, they seem to be more solitary creatures, wondering around and scavenging on stuff, never in large numbers whenever I see them where I live. He said he was certain. He also said they somehow grown in large numbers in the ant nests, where he can even see them wiggling underneath the mound of brood and whatever is in the ant nests.

Yeah, they can have pretty large groups sometimes. I had infestations of them in rice and old formicariums sometimes, but they've never caused problems for my ants at all. Most barklice prefer to eat cellulose based food items, or extremely dry dead insects if it comes down to it. 

[BleepingBleepers]

 

I was like "you sure they weren't springtails?" because I've seen booklice and I never knew that could infest anything in large groups, they seem to be more solitary creatures, wondering around and scavenging on stuff, never in large numbers whenever I see them where I live. He said he was certain. He also said they somehow grown in large numbers in the ant nests, where he can even see them wiggling underneath the mound of brood and whatever is in the ant nests.

Yeah, they can have pretty large groups sometimes. I had infestations of them in rice and old formicariums sometimes, but they've never caused problems for my ants at all. Most barklice prefer to eat cellulose based food items, or extremely dry dead insects if it comes down to it. 

 

I thought about it some bit and for the sake of just fun and chit chatting, nothing serious:

 

What if the booklice native to where you are are indeed harmless, but their presence disturbs the ants because they're either not use to these weird bugs multiplying in the same nests they are in and these weird bugs also stress out the Queen or colony with their booming activity. And this stress builds up overtime. Like in the wild, they might deal with different kinds of these bugs or not at all, and now they have to. And maybe different ant colonies or different ant species might react to them differently and not be okay with it.

 

But I think even as scavengers that mostly eat dead / rotting material, if their population exploded due to excessive food inside the nest and then the food source gets low and it's either starvation or *nom nom* on some soft ant eggs...

Personally, if I had a choice, I would MUCH prefer they not be in there. In the wild, ants have ways to deal with them and these bugs can also leave the nest if they run out of food, but in some of these closed off nests, they're stuck (or it's a bit harder to leave) and got to do what they can to survive.

 

Any thoughts, feel free to share, it's interesting to read

[mbullock42086]

if they get too numerous you can use something starchy to lure them in to cull them.

[Ernteameise]

Well, so far, I have not observed any problems.

The colony where I observed them first were, of course, one of my "messy" colony, the Acanthomyrmex.

This is them yesterday, and they go about there business as normal.

 

https://www.formicul...yrmex-sp/page-4

 

But I will keep you updated if any problems arise.

 

The starch trap as a lure is a good idea.