Ant workers dying one by one

Questions from those who are just starting or considering getting into the ant keeping hobby. If you’re intimidated or confused by the in-depth posts of the other sections of this forum, feel free to post here, and we'll start from square one!

Moderator: ooper01

Post Reply
Estebanhug
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Feb 04, 2019 10:27 am

Ant workers dying one by one

Post: # 56161Post Estebanhug
Thu Feb 28, 2019 6:14 am

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

harvesterant
Posts: 106
Joined: Sun Feb 03, 2019 3:14 pm
Location: UK

Re: Ant workers dying one by one

Post: # 56170Post harvesterant
Thu Feb 28, 2019 11:02 am

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.

Estebanhug
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Feb 04, 2019 10:27 am

Re: Ant workers dying one by one

Post: # 56173Post Estebanhug
Thu Feb 28, 2019 11:33 am

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.

harvesterant
Posts: 106
Joined: Sun Feb 03, 2019 3:14 pm
Location: UK

Re: Ant workers dying one by one

Post: # 56201Post harvesterant
Fri Mar 01, 2019 4:20 pm

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.

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 10 guests