24 replies to this topic

[Loops117]

So, this is the 2nd time now i've had something come along and steal cotton stoppers right of the tubes.

 

First time it was all of my large diameter tubes. I had packed them tightly after that since i figured it would be a little harder to pull out.

It wasnt, last night before bed i took some pics and moved my queens around a bit. Checked all the cotton, and even repacked one i thought was a little loose. It had been 2 days between checking on them so i'm not sure of how long they had went without their stoppers, and all but one were still sitting pretty on their brood pile.

Well, this morning i woke up to 5 more tubes raided. 1 queen missing (my fertile winged crematogaster) and i'm a bit saddened by this. This is the same queen that escaped the first time and i had found her later on near the rest of my ants. The rest of the queens don't leave their spots, at all.

 

The weird thing is that whatever is pulling the cotton isn't after anything else but the cotton. All the old cotton balls i had sitting around my collection and build area are gone too. Anyone ever have this happen to them? I know how to stop it, just wondering who else gets stupid issues like this?

 

I guess this is what i get for poking fun at drew for ants raiding his collection.

[sgheaton]

I wonder and contemplate my set up. I've debating putting them in a tray of water or something as a catch all. Nope, sitting on a rug in my living room right now. Luckily I've got an active cat that would "cat" anything it caught. 

 

Interesting....problem you've got. Should be easily remedied with the right trap. Get on it!

[Loops117]

I wonder and contemplate my set up. I've debating putting them in a tray of water or something as a catch all. Nope, sitting on a rug in my living room right now. Luckily I've got an active cat that would "cat" anything it caught. 

 

Interesting....problem you've got. Should be easily remedied with the right trap. Get on it!

 

I was thinking of either a cap, or getting some small bins and putting my tubes in there with a sticker thermometer on it. Would allow me to maintain them a little better.

[sgheaton]

But like....SOMETHING is seriously comin' along and gathering cotton balls? Good guess for a rodent for like...nesting material. I'd imagine ...mice would find ants a tasty treat? ...maybe brood...I dunno! 

 

That's really quite a weird deal. Keeping the tubes up off the ground, somewhere in a box, a drawer? Lay out a trap and see if you get a mouse. 

[Loops117]

I would lay a trap, but my dumb pitbull cat/dog will find it and get hurt. I keep my queens ontop of my bug cabinet so they get day/night light changes, and light every time i turn the lights on. I stress train them, so i don't want them covered too much.

[T.C.]

Yep, had some lasius neoniger test tube setups in our garage. Mice ripped out all the cotton in each, and killed half of my queens. Anyways, I put a stop to it by ALOT of mouse traps and I laid all the test tubes on the laundry, fabric sheets, because they don't like the smell. Haven't had a issue since, so must be true.

Edited by T.C., March 29 2017 - 7:04 AM.

[Alabama Anter]

My parakeets LOVE knocking my ants down. They will go into my Terrariums and destroy the whole place.

[Jelly]

Plastic bins should solve your problem

[noebl1]

Mice will definitely eat meat, so wouldn't surprise me if the queen was accessible, it may have eaten if.  If you've ever used sticky traps, mice will eat the ones stuck to the trap pretty readily.

 

I agree with Jelly... plastic bins may be your best bet for now.  I'm curious about the fabric sheets though.  

Edited by noebl1, March 29 2017 - 11:45 AM.

[Loops117]

Ok, so i really need to nip this problem in the butt. I've been purged of the cotton in my larger tubes about 5 times now. (i have a prevention plan, just havent had the time).

 

Yesterday i had 3 Crematogaster cerasi colonies left completely open. All but one workers are still in their tubes, with the missing found outside of the tube dead. What blew my mind was that i had about 10 wild C.pennsylvanicus workers roaming around my other colonies setups trying to get in, and they were in the same sq ft of space. I really don't know why they didn't target any of the small C.cerasi colonies, but i am thankful they didn't. Did the C.cerasi hold off their tube and stop any intruders from coming in? So far these attacks have been happening only at night so the cotton was missing for a minimum of 8hrs before i saw them.

Edited by Loops117, April 18 2017 - 12:08 PM.

[Jelly]

Plastic bins should solve your problem

 

@loops117

[Californian Anter]

Use the rolling log trap to catch/kill the mice.

[Reacker]

Just call an exterminator to leave poison bait in the crawl space and all of your problems will be solved pretty quickly. I had a small infestation last year where I'd catch a few and then nothing for months. Catch a few eventually followed by no activity for months...rinse and repeat for nearly a year. Finally got tired of it had the exterminator over to do the above. Problem solved instantly. Or I guess you can just buy the bait yourself and lay it in the crawl space where they will get to it. He also stuffed steel wool in the gaps around the piping and wood work wherever he could find any. 

[gcsnelling]

Bait bad... Dead mice in inaccessible areas and danger of secondary poisoning to non target animals. Bad bait bad.

[Reacker]

Fair point; though I would ask what alternative is as effective as bait. My house is very clean and I attempted traditional trapping for 10 months before caving in. I was looking for permanent solution to the infestation, not trapping that seemed to require perpetual setting of traps with intermittent success. 

 

Edit: It also occurs to me that mice can just as easily die of natural causes in inaccessible areas as they can of the bait. I'm also living in the middle of suburbia miles away from any natural areas so I don't know how concerned I am about secondary poisoning. Not that I would ever purposefully harm someone's outdoor cat but if by chance one happened to eat a poisoned mouse and die I would really be doing  a huge favor to the local bird population. 

Edited by Reacker, April 18 2017 - 3:18 PM.

[sgheaton]

I took it upon myself to draft up 

 

 

Plastic bins should solve your problem

 

@loops117

 

I took the liberty of drafting up Jellys suggestion:

[Loops117]

I took it upon myself to draft up 

 

 

Plastic bins should solve your problem

 

@loops117

 

I took the liberty of drafting up Jellys suggestion:

 

Lol, i'm actually thinking of converting an old cooler into a chamber. Will hold the heat better, but we will see. And thank you for the awesome illustration, really put it in perspective.

 

Fair point; though I would ask what alternative is as effective as bait. My house is very clean and I attempted traditional trapping for 10 months before caving in. I was looking for permanent solution to the infestation, not trapping that seemed to require perpetual setting of traps with intermittent success. 

 

Edit: It also occurs to me that mice can just as easily die of natural causes in inaccessible areas as they can of the bait. I'm also living in the middle of suburbia miles away from any natural areas so I don't know how concerned I am about secondary poisoning. Not that I would ever purposefully harm someone's outdoor cat but if by chance one happened to eat a poisoned mouse and die I would really be doing  a huge favor to the local bird population. 

 

Poison is out of the question. I have kids and pets that roam freely around the house. The issue with my condition is that i'm next to alot of natural areas like woods and farmland. I'm always battling deer mice coming into my house, and this is the first time we've had them after it warmed up. The house is clean, but it's old so there's a lot of tiny areas they can get in from out side. I've had coons and other animals break into my crawl space before, luckily i've never seen a rat in my area. In the past, we've just live trapped what we could during the cold months and let them go far from the homestead. It's always worked in the past and we would never have an issue once it would stay 50+ degrees outside.

 

But back to the colonies not leaving their tubes. Wow.

[sgheaton]

Check out those human 2-liter bottle traps if you don't want to use poison. 

[Loops117]

Oh man, i'm making me some of those TONIGHT!

[sgheaton]

Pics or it didn't happen, Loops!