8 replies to this topic

[evanmancini2011]

So yesterday I posted about my Crematogaster ant colony brood not developing but I realized it just had to do with the temperature they were kept at! But know I have been seeing these white and red mites on the ant queens of this colony. There are only about 10 to 6 but they only are on the ant queens not the workers. Does anyone have any tips on how to get rid of these mites? I heard a sliced lemon might work but just like the queens the mites don't leave the test tube and are always on them. Should I still put a lemon in the test tube? And does anyone know what species this could be?

Here is a picture of the mites I saw. 

Thank you!

[ANTdrew]

You will need to order predatory mites from Nature’s Good Guys, a biological control company. Hypoaspis miles is a good species to start with. They are pricey, but highly effective. I’ve never tried the lemon thing. It sounds like an urban legend to me, to be honest.

[AntsGodzilla]

I think AntsCanada used lemon

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

You will need to order predatory mites from Nature’s Good Guys, a biological control company. Hypoaspis miles is a good species to start with. They are pricey, but highly effective. I’ve never tried the lemon thing. It sounds like an urban legend to me, to be honest.

To be real it is/it is not, cuz some keepers say it works but most of the time only a few or none work, there is also the formic acid way, but that is hard, another way is to dunk the ants in water, it works, but they might get stressed and eat the larva. I am not aware of any other way to do it but there is probably other ways.

[evanmancini2011]

You will need to order predatory mites from Nature’s Good Guys, a biological control company. Hypoaspis miles is a good species to start with. They are pricey, but highly effective. I’ve never tried the lemon thing. It sounds like an urban legend to me, to be honest.

ANTdrew, if I looked at the mites on this store you told me about! If I order them do I just dump them into the outworld?

 

Thank You

[ANTdrew]

They need substrate to do their life cycle, so I just put a small container of damp soil in the outworld with the mites in it.

[evanmancini2011]

Ok thank you so much!

[jabasson]

How likely is it for colonies to fully recover from something like this? Do predatory mites actually do a good job of eating every single mite egg before they die out? I don't have a mite problem but I'm just curious how bad it is if I notice them in the future.

[ANTdrew]

My experience is that they do eliminate all undesirable mites. In an enclosed formicarium, they eat up all the mites, then die off.