Hello, so basically i bought a lasius niger ant colony couple weeks ago everything seemed fine then couple days back i realised one of the worker had died... today i can count about 6 dead ants; the queen seems fine and the other workers too so i dont know what could have killed them anyone got any ideas ? They are kept into small sized ytong nest from ants australia and linked to a test tube with sugar water. They also don't seem to be eating much but i guess that's normal as it is a new colony and there is about 15-20 workers and broods.
link for my setup: https://ibb.co/MgQy3Yv
Ant workers dying one by one
Moderator: ooper01
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Re: Ant workers dying one by one
If the dead ants are in the nest itself, they may just be asleep and will wake up later, but if they have been moved away from the colony, they are most likely dead.
If your ants are away from the colony, they are dead, here are some ideas of what could have killed them:
Do you keep the ants in the dark? Ants can be stressed if they keep being distracted by light.
Is there food left over? If there is solid food left over, that may allow fungi to grow and poison the ants. You need to remove old food if it is not eaten.
This could also be the cause of parasites. You need to detect parasites, and unfortunately many do not currently have a cure at the moment. A common parasite is mites, circular creatures that live on ants, check your ants to see if your ants have them.
If your ants are away from the colony, they are dead, here are some ideas of what could have killed them:
Do you keep the ants in the dark? Ants can be stressed if they keep being distracted by light.
Is there food left over? If there is solid food left over, that may allow fungi to grow and poison the ants. You need to remove old food if it is not eaten.
This could also be the cause of parasites. You need to detect parasites, and unfortunately many do not currently have a cure at the moment. A common parasite is mites, circular creatures that live on ants, check your ants to see if your ants have them.
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Re: Ant workers dying one by one
Yeah some of the ants have been put away from the nest I am pretty sure they are dead; I do have food inside but i make sure to not leave it long enough for mold to happen so the most logical explanation is the stress as i know for sure that there are no mites. Thank you very much.
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- Posts: 106
- Joined: Sun Feb 03, 2019 3:14 pm
- Location: UK
Re: Ant workers dying one by one
Try to keep them in the dark when possible, ants do not like to be disturbed. There are a lot of different reasons for ant death, sadly, so it is hard to narrow it down.
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