My Small Starter Ant Colony is Dying and I Don't Know WHY

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Zacharous
Posts: 15
Joined: Wed Sep 19, 2018 11:53 am
Location: California

My Small Starter Ant Colony is Dying and I Don't Know WHY

Post: # 50876Post Zacharous
Wed Sep 19, 2018 1:37 pm

Alright guys i'm completely at a loss here.

I have a camponotus fragilis queen with some workers in a test tube inside of a very small (pencil case) sized container with ventilation. I got the species from a GAN farmer in LA who has been doing this for many years. I got them about 3 weeks ago and everything seemed fine until i noticed yesterday upon coming home from school that almost all of the workers were on their backs struggling to get back on their feet. i noticed one of the 8 total workers doing this the night before, i thought it was just an old ant coming to it's end but now almost all of them were doing this. I contacted the seller of these girls and he said it sounds like poisoning. I removed all food (100% raw honey & leftover mealworm bits), removed the setup from my closet, and moved them to a different part of the room. About 20 mins go by and they all were back on their feet accept the one that started doing this the first time, she passed away. The rest of the day went by and no more weird ant disorientation. The next morning two more had died and 2 more were on their backs about to die. I removed the honey (which it sounds to me this is the problem) and they're still on their backs.

I have no idea what I'm doing wrong. I'm thoroughly following the care sheet which was provided, I'm using a Zoo Med heating cable like the one on Tarheel Ants. They're being stored in a dark area as well. I have no idea what to do here guys. Any help would be great!

Boomdale
Posts: 110
Joined: Tue Jul 03, 2018 8:49 am
Location: Tennessee

Re: My Small Starter Ant Colony is Dying and I Don't Know WHY

Post: # 50881Post Boomdale
Wed Sep 19, 2018 1:41 pm

I wish you luck in saving the rest of your workers. I just recently lost all 15 of my workers in my first colony due to unknown reasons. I would make sure you can try and save the queen.
Nylanderia Sp.
Pheidole Sp.

Founding - Cremagastor & Solonopsis Invicta

Zacharous
Posts: 15
Joined: Wed Sep 19, 2018 11:53 am
Location: California

Re: My Small Starter Ant Colony is Dying and I Don't Know WHY

Post: # 50884Post Zacharous
Wed Sep 19, 2018 1:45 pm

Boomdale wrote:
Wed Sep 19, 2018 1:41 pm
I wish you luck in saving the rest of your workers. I just recently lost all 15 of my workers in my first colony due to unknown reasons. I would make sure you can try and save the queen.
Sorry to hear about your colony
Isn't it strange? It's my first attempt at ant keeping and its kinda depressing lol
I got it down to either it being the honey or something toxic in the air. No pesticide fumes or fumigations in the area, i checked with my house owner. Nothing. The honey is 100% pure, raw, and fresh from the store, diluted with **bottled water**. Sorry to hear about your colony

AntsDakota
Posts: 1283
Joined: Sat Mar 17, 2018 4:22 pm
Location: South Dakota

Re: My Small Starter Ant Colony is Dying and I Don't Know WHY

Post: # 51146Post AntsDakota
Thu Sep 20, 2018 4:02 pm

Zacharous wrote:
Wed Sep 19, 2018 1:45 pm
Boomdale wrote:
Wed Sep 19, 2018 1:41 pm
I wish you luck in saving the rest of your workers. I just recently lost all 15 of my workers in my first colony due to unknown reasons. I would make sure you can try and save the queen.
Sorry to hear about your colony
Isn't it strange? It's my first attempt at ant keeping and its kinda depressing lol
I got it down to either it being the honey or something toxic in the air. No pesticide fumes or fumigations in the area, i checked with my house owner. Nothing. The honey is 100% pure, raw, and fresh from the store, diluted with **bottled water**. Sorry to hear about your colony
Ants can drink honey without water. What I'm saying is, maybe it's the chemicals in the water.
"God made every kind of wild beasts and every kind of livestock and every kind of creeping things;" (including ants) "and God saw that it was good." Genesis 1:25

Zacharous
Posts: 15
Joined: Wed Sep 19, 2018 11:53 am
Location: California

Re: My Small Starter Ant Colony is Dying and I Don't Know WHY

Post: # 51152Post Zacharous
Thu Sep 20, 2018 4:30 pm

AntsDakota wrote:
Thu Sep 20, 2018 4:02 pm
Zacharous wrote:
Wed Sep 19, 2018 1:45 pm
Boomdale wrote:
Wed Sep 19, 2018 1:41 pm
I wish you luck in saving the rest of your workers. I just recently lost all 15 of my workers in my first colony due to unknown reasons. I would make sure you can try and save the queen.
Sorry to hear about your colony
Isn't it strange? It's my first attempt at ant keeping and its kinda depressing lol
I got it down to either it being the honey or something toxic in the air. No pesticide fumes or fumigations in the area, i checked with my house owner. Nothing. The honey is 100% pure, raw, and fresh from the store, diluted with **bottled water**. Sorry to hear about your colony
Ants can drink honey without water. What I'm saying is, maybe it's the chemicals in the water.
Even in bottled water? Just curious too, what’s the point of diluting the honey?

AntsDakota
Posts: 1283
Joined: Sat Mar 17, 2018 4:22 pm
Location: South Dakota

Re: My Small Starter Ant Colony is Dying and I Don't Know WHY

Post: # 51156Post AntsDakota
Thu Sep 20, 2018 6:40 pm

Zacharous wrote:
Thu Sep 20, 2018 4:30 pm
AntsDakota wrote:
Thu Sep 20, 2018 4:02 pm
Zacharous wrote:
Wed Sep 19, 2018 1:45 pm


Sorry to hear about your colony
Isn't it strange? It's my first attempt at ant keeping and its kinda depressing lol
I got it down to either it being the honey or something toxic in the air. No pesticide fumes or fumigations in the area, i checked with my house owner. Nothing. The honey is 100% pure, raw, and fresh from the store, diluted with **bottled water**. Sorry to hear about your colony
Ants can drink honey without water. What I'm saying is, maybe it's the chemicals in the water.
Even in bottled water? Just curious too, what’s the point of diluting the honey?
Oh, I didn't see the bottled water part. :oops: I think he was trying to make sure the ants don't drown in the honey and/or making it easier for the ants to drink it.
"God made every kind of wild beasts and every kind of livestock and every kind of creeping things;" (including ants) "and God saw that it was good." Genesis 1:25

Zacharous
Posts: 15
Joined: Wed Sep 19, 2018 11:53 am
Location: California

Re: My Small Starter Ant Colony is Dying and I Don't Know WHY

Post: # 51166Post Zacharous
Thu Sep 20, 2018 8:57 pm

AntsDakota wrote:
Thu Sep 20, 2018 6:40 pm
Zacharous wrote:
Thu Sep 20, 2018 4:30 pm
AntsDakota wrote:
Thu Sep 20, 2018 4:02 pm
Ants can drink honey without water. What I'm saying is, maybe it's the chemicals in the water.
Even in bottled water? Just curious too, what’s the point of diluting the honey?
Oh, I didn't see the bottled water part. :oops: I think he was trying to make sure the ants don't drown in the honey and/or making it easier for the ants to drink it.
Yeah that’s what I was thinking. Alright ready for the update? Had a pretty stressful last couple days with this colony. By mid day of yesterday I was convinced that there was some kind of fungal problem going on. Figured it to be like cordyceps or something like that, have no idea how they got infected but I remembered I described the impairment of these ants to be “zombie like” in this thread. I stumbled onto a video that very accurately described what was going on with my colony(cordyceps). I quickly put the nest in the fridge to slow them down, moved the queen and 3 of the healthy looking workers into a different setup, and let the zombified ones die off. It actually took several hours for them to die. I wish I made a video of it, it was very crazy, they were totally not in control of themselves, comepletyl impaired. I pulled the 2 dead ants and the 2 dying ants out and put them in a box for them to pass away. It was crazy, one seemed COMPLETELY DEAD and it came back to life, but died later that night. The next day comes (today) and the 3 workers and queen seem perfectly fine. I fed them the inside of an apple core to make sure I wasn’t giving them pesticides and they still seem alright. Hoping for the best and no more weird zombified ants. I’m hoping I removed the seemingly healthy ones in time before whatever happened to the others happens to the healthy ones. Anyways I’ll keep updating this thread as time passes. Hope you all are having a good day and thank you for helping!

Boomdale
Posts: 110
Joined: Tue Jul 03, 2018 8:49 am
Location: Tennessee

Re: My Small Starter Ant Colony is Dying and I Don't Know WHY

Post: # 51185Post Boomdale
Fri Sep 21, 2018 9:33 am

I am glad you were able to save some of your workers! Make sure you keep us updated on the colony
Nylanderia Sp.
Pheidole Sp.

Founding - Cremagastor & Solonopsis Invicta

Zacharous
Posts: 15
Joined: Wed Sep 19, 2018 11:53 am
Location: California

Re: My Small Starter Ant Colony is Dying and I Don't Know WHY

Post: # 51205Post Zacharous
Fri Sep 21, 2018 7:03 pm

Boomdale wrote:
Fri Sep 21, 2018 9:33 am
I am glad you were able to save some of your workers! Make sure you keep us updated on the colony
Hey there. Last night I noticed that another worker started to get weird, one of the three. So this is what I did. I removed all workers and let them pass away. I have the deceased ants to see if any fungus emerges from them. I Completely separated them from the queen. She’s alone now with probably around 10 larvae and some pupae. I moved her into an acrylic formicarium. She seems to be doing completely fine as I have moved the formicarium outside in a shaded area. I was talking to some people and they said it has to be something toxic in the air in my house, or the food, which I’m very positive it isn’t the food. Ive ruled out every factor I can think of, food, water, sanitization, “unhealthy” workers, diet, temperature, rooms in my house. Everything. This is my last resort and if the queen remains alive outdoors for a week then that’s how I’m gonna know if it’s my house. I had a couple questions though. Other than pesticidal chemicals, does anybody know of any other kind of toxins that might be effecting the workers? One more question; are acrylic materials, like the portals and test tubes on the AntsCanada store harmful at all to camponotos Fragilis? I was talking with the person I got my colony from, he said specifically California species of ants don’t do well with acrylic. Not really sure why and can’t seem to find any info about it. Anyways, if somebody could get back to me that would be great! Thanks again :) wish my queen the best! Lol

PwnerPie
Posts: 105
Joined: Sat Mar 24, 2018 5:59 pm
Location: Seattle, WA

Re: My Small Starter Ant Colony is Dying and I Don't Know WHY

Post: # 51208Post PwnerPie
Fri Sep 21, 2018 8:52 pm

My ants cant stand raw honey. i lost quite a few ants due to it. Organic filtered honey or maple syrup is what i use. Do not use raw honey!
Keeper of:
1x Formica Pacifica
2x Camponotus Modoc
1x Tetramorium Immigrans
2x Lasius Sp

Founding:
3x Lasius Sp
2x Formica Argentea
2x Myrmica Rubra

GAN Farmer: 4 Colonies sold
Goal: Supply school science classes with colonies for learning.

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