"I ran some massive research on mites over the last few weeks to compile a guide on how to avoid them in our ant setups or just completely get rid of them. I wrote this whole guide from my knowledge of keeping ants and insects in general for more than a decade now and I also did a lot of research on mites and became quite an 'expert' to say the least
As always, please keep in mind that English is not my native language and I am doing my best to explain everything with my best knowledge of the English language and grammar. If there is anything unclear to you, please reply in this thread and I'll do my best to help you.
Also, researching on the Internet and writing this guide took a lot of my personal time and a few days off work I could have used otherwise. We are talking about 100 or more hours of doing research here.
So, if this guide helped you or you just appreciate the work I did put into this guide, please kindly like this post.
I might do more guides on other topics if there is enough resonance. Comments are welcome.
If anybody has a problem with mites, you are welcome to post a link to this thread.
How to avoid and kill Mites
1. Variations of mites
There are over 50.000 different species of mites in 546 families.
The majority of them is absolutely harmless for our ants. In fact, some of them can be very helpful in our Formicariums. More on that topic later.
Mites are everywhere. There are species living on plants, on animals, in the water, and in the case of Demodex canis, on every human. Demodex canis lives on the base of our eyelashes and is up to 300 µm small. (that's 0,3mm).
Some mites live in symbiosis inside ant nests.
There are species of mites that produce some sort of fungicide that keeps the nest mould free.
One species of Myrmecina in Indonesia is known to actively keep mites inside their nest, most likely to feed on them as the european Myrmecina graminicola does exactly that. Myrmecina graminicola hunts mites to feed on them. If you ever have a colony of Myrmecina graminicola infested with mites, either something has gone horribly wrong or they are not Myrmecina graminicola.
Some mites use the female alates to expand. They travel with them on their nuptial flight. It is not impossible to get a infested queen from a shop even though a responsible shop owner would never sell and send you such a queen.
As I already said, most species of mites are harmless.
There are some species of mites however, which can seriously harm and even kill your colony, those are the parasitic mites I want to talk about in this guide.
But first let me tell you something about the useful kind of mites.
2. Useful mites in your formicarium
As written above, there are certain types of mites that can be very helpful in our Formicariums in a moderate amount, the usual dust mites for example.
They live off of tiny pieces of organic waste. Those could be leftover pieces from insects you feed your ants with, dead ants or even the faeces of your ants.
Dust mites live in every household, no matter how 'clean' it is.
In our homes, dust mites usually live in our beds, eating tiny skin scales that we lose all day and drinking the water when we sweat or condensation from humid air.
Along with other insects like springtails, woodlice and earthworms they can keep the substrate in a formicarium clean and healthy. I've got a Formica fusca colony with 2000 workers living in a soil setup along with these insects and I didn't clean it once in over 5 years now. Formica tend to integrate the pieces of dead insects into their nests. In the wild these pieces are eaten by other insects and in my setup they do exactly the same. After some time they just die and the new generation goes to work.
The downside of this is that dust mites can be useful, but without a natural predator the population can quickly explode and it doesn't look so nice to be honest. They can also kill the brood of certain ant species when there are too many of them and too less food.
Especially Myrmicinae and their uncocooned pupae are affected but they can possibly affect other species aswell.
If you are looking at a real infestation of dust mites, get rid of them. If there are only a few it is fine. A close observation of the population and the brood of your ants is crucial though
Some predatory mites (mites that hunt other mites and springtails (you see where this is going, right? )) can easily keep these populations relatively small while not being able to multiply themselves at a high rate, due to the lack of food.
For clarification :
The dust mites, woodlice and springtails eat the organic waste and the predatory mites hunt the dust mites and springtails. There will always be some dust mites and springtails left to keep the population alive, but not as much that the population of the predatory mites can get too big themselves.
For the common setup (ytong or plaster nest with a simple dry outworld), this is in no way needed nor recommended.
For a tank with a soil setup however, this is a nice method to keep everything clean and healthy and also adds some more life and dynamic to these setups.
The predatory mites are almost a guarantee that your setup won't get infested with parasitic mites, which is the next point I want to talk about.
Predatory mites and parasitic mites are not the same! Parasitic mites suck the blood (hemolymph) of your ants while predatory mites hunt and kill other small insects, preferably other mites and springtails, but no Ants.
2.1 harmful mites
Identifying parasitic mites is pretty easy. Unlike dust mites, they are not interested in organic waste.
They sit on your ants to suck their hemolymph, usually on the joints of their legs, the eyes or the bases of their antennae.
If the mites in your setup are not sitting directly on your ants or their brood and are more interested in pieces of dead insects, they are most likely dust mites.
If they sit on your ants on the said spots, or any other spot if they find a weak spot, they are most likely parasitic mites.
Why most likely and not 100% sure?
There are some mites that use other insects for 'transportation' (phoretic mites), but can not suck hemolymph from the ants due to the missing mandibles for that task. They are harmless, but they don't look nice and it is almost impossible to tell them apart from the 'real' parasitic mites.
That said, every species of mites that is sitting on your ants rather than being attracted by dead insects has to go. Better safe than sorry.
3. How to avoid mites in general
3.1
Mites need moisture to stay alive. You can quickly get dust mites if there is too much moisture in the outworld and enough food for them to live off.
Keep your outworld dry, absolutely dry. Also, remove any dead ants or leftover pieces of food as soon as possible. For some exotic species a dry outworld is not suitable. Because of that, it is even more important to remove dead insects from the outworld and keeping close attention to the following steps.
You can let the outworld dry out for a few days, even the outworlds of exotic species. It doesn't rain every day outside. Ensure a good ventilation of your setup, mites hate that in combination with dryness and die very quickly due to dehydration.
3.2
If you want to use anything from outside for decoration (stones, wood, soil), either use boiling water (for stones) or put them into the oven for 10 minutes at 80° Celsius or higher to kill any insects living on or inside them.
For living plants both these options won't work obviously. Keep them in quarantine in a pot for a few weeks before you use them for decoration.
3.3
If you feed your ants insects from outside, always use boiling water to kill them. This is the only way to kill parasites on these insects. Putting them in the freezer will kill most parasites, but some of them can survive temperatures as low as -20° Celsius over a short period of time.
3.4
If you feed your colony insects from the pet store, also kill them with boiling water in the first few days after purchase. If they have parasitic mites on them you will clearly see them after a few days if you look closely. If there is no infestation after a few days on the insects you bought for feeding, they are most likely free of parasitic mites and you can also feed them alive or freshly killed if you want to. Keep in mind that there can always be mites though, even if you don't see them. The only way to absolutely make sure you don't introduce parasitic mites with the food is to kill them with boiling water before you feed them to your colony. Dipping the insect into boiling hot water for 3 seconds is enough to kill both the parasites and the insect itself.
3.5
If you have mites in one of your setups, keep it away from other colonies as far as possible.
Also, when using the above 'quarantine' method for new food insects, also keep them away from your colonies.
4. Getting rid of mites once you have them
Firstly, mites in your setup and on your ants are no ultimate death sentence for your colony. There are some effective ways to kill them, but it will be some work.
Using the above methods to avoid them and one or more of the methods below, almost is a guarantee to get a colony mites free again.
4.1
The most obvious way won't work.
Acaricides are certain types of insecticides aiming mainly at mites or ticks, but also other biting insects. Due to the nature of ants to clean and groom themselves and each other with their mandibles, they can absorb the acaricides into their digestive system and die very quickly.
I think I'm not exaggerating if I say that using this type of poison on your colony WILL kill it, period. Don't use it!
4.2
The ants own weapons work very well against mites.
Formic acid is one of the most effective ways to remove mites from your ants. Some Bee keepers use formic acid to keep the varroa mite away or even remove them from an infested bee hives, with great success.
Things you need:
-A clean outworld, no substrate or anything else, just bare glass!
-Formic acid from the pharmacy
-a drinking glass
-cotton buds
-if possible feather forceps
To effectively use this method without killing your ants, we are aiming at a concentration of 70%. Add water to the acid to reach that concentration.
Safety first! Pure Formic acid is very aggressive, don't breathe it in and don't touch your face, especially your eyes when you use this method!
The setup is very easy, it is some work though depending on the size of the colony.
Get the drinking glass and put 1 ant into it.
Now dip the cotton bud into the formic acid solution and hold it into the drinking glass. Don't let the ant touch or bite it or she will die!
The fumes are heavier than air and drop onto the ground of the drinking glass. The ant won't like it at all, but more importantly, the mites won't like it aswell. They quickly leave the ant alone and fall to the ground. You can then pick the ant up again and put her into the clean outworld. Just hold a clean cotton bud next to her to climb on, don't touch the ground with it so no mites climb onto it. Toss the ant into the outworld and move on with the next one. If she doesn't fall off just drop the whole cotton ball into it and use a new one for the next ant to climb on. This method is a time consuming process and we want to save time where we can.
Make sure to kill the mites in the glass afterwards. Just dump them into a bowl of hot water.
Repeat this process with every single ant.
For the brood you can do the same thing, just pick them up with the feather forceps afterwards and put them into a separate small container. After the whole process check the brood for remaining mites and if they are clean, give them back to your ants.
You have to clean their old outworld very good. Use hot water for the outworld and let it dry out for a few days. All remaining mites will die. Clean it again with hot water to make sure it is absolutely clean and there are no eggs left.
If you used a ytong, wood or plaster nest, dump it, really!
Just build a new one to be on the safe side.
Don't forget to clean the tubing with hot water or just use new tubing.
Keep the colony in the empty outworld for 2 days, give them a place to hide their brood though. A small plastic box with a hole in it is fine.
If you are sure there are no mites left, put the ants into a completely new setup.
If there are a few mites left, treat the affected ants or the whole colony again.
I know this is time consuming, but it is the most promising method.
IMPORTANT!
Test this method with a few ants and observe them closely in an extra container for a few hours before you move on with the whole colony.
If they show any signs that the process harmed them or even die, don't treat the rest of the colony. This method is not suitable for your species!
4.3
Oxalic acid is also used by beekeepers to kill the varroa mite.
You can find it in beekeeping shops.
Prepared the way it is intended to be used (read the manual), the solution is sprayed directly onto the ants. If the mites are not covered by the solution immediately, the grooming of the ants will take care of that.
It is important not to drench the ants with the solution, just use a spray bottle or mister to spray it onto the ants.
Use an empty outworld or plastic container with Paper towels on the ground to absorb the remaining solution so the ants don't drown.
As always, test this method with just a few infested workers before using it to treat your colony.
4.4
Pericine, found in most beekeeping shops, is a very good working medication for bees against mites.
The ants consume the pericine diluted in sugar water. It enters their digestive system and eventually reaches the hemolymph, which is what parasitic mites feed on.
The mites die within a few hours.
I have not tested this method, I would have if I had a colony with mites at the moment. Pericine is pretty expensive! Also read the manual if you want to experiment with it. The pericine has to be further diluted before mixing it with sugar water.
As both bees and ants belong to the Hymenoptera family and pericine doesn't harm the bee's, I am pretty sure this won't harm ants aswell.
4.5
Diatomaceous earth can also be used to get a colony mites free again.
The procedure is simple. Put the ants into a container with a small amount of diatomaceous earth and shake it gently to cover the ants with the dust. After that, put the ants onto a damp cloth or cotton pad and use a dripping wet q-tip or paintbrush to brush the remains off. The whole process has to be very quickly, it must not take more than one minute. Always treat only as much ants with the dust as you are able to brush off afterwards within that time and of course, as always, test it with a few workers before treating the whole colony.
Diatomaceous earth punctures the very thin layer of wax on the exoskeleton of both the ants and the mites. It can also block the trachea of both these insects, which is why it is so important to be very fast with brushing the remains off the ants. The mites die instantly due to dehydration and the amount of time an ant would die is just marginally bigger.
4.6
The old fashioned way. Works good for big species with not so many workers, such as Myrmecia sp. or Paraponera clavata
Use some kind of setup to hold the ant in place, a piece of cardboard with rubber band around it works fine. The rubber bands need to be quite loose so they don't squeeze the ant to death, which is why this does not work for small species. Place the ant onto the cardboard with the rubber band(s) holding her down and start brushing the mites away with a paintbrush or use feather forceps to pick them off.
4.7
Predatory mites can kill a population of parasitic mites very effectively.
Amblyseius californicus for example can be bought online, they are usually used to kill the red spider mite on plants, but the along hunt other species of mites. Against everything I wrote above about avoiding mites, it is absolutely crucial for these predatory mites to keep the outworld moist (60-70%) and at around 25 degrees Celsius.
The predatory mites will hunt and eat the adult parasitic mites, their nymphs and eggs.
It will take a few days or several weeks for these mites to do their work. Once there are no other mites left to hunt for, these mites die very quickly.
4.8
Only for dust mites!
To reduce the amount of dust mites in your setup to a moderate level, let the outworld dry out and once it is pretty dry, put a damp cloth into the outworld.
The dust mites will quickly climb onto the cloth to drink the water and you can remove hundreds if not thousands of mites at once.
4.9
If everything else fails, Euthanasia of the colony is the last way to put them out of their misery.
This is done by dumping them into boiling water.
This should always be the last resort though."
Credits to "norton" on AntKeepingForum.com
http://antkeepingfor...opic.php?t=1399