Predator in the tank

[Mudcat]

So it’s coming into winter here in Australia, up to about two weeks ago my pheidole colony was doing great, queen, eggs, baby ants, big heads the whole lot! I keep the colony in a big planted terrarium with springtails and isopods. Occasionally I forage bugs for feeding and add bark and gum nuts to the environment.

Somehow I messed up! I unknowingly added a predator it was a earwig and it was an inch long and fat and happy! It had clearly grown
exponentially as I never added such a creature. That’s when the ant activity stopped and I believe it was been going on raids in the next and feeding. Unfortunately I couldn’t get it out.

Soooo. I pulled up my sleeves and removed all the plants, rocks, soil and substrate to find the earwig! It was right down the bottom and I removed it! Obviously in the process I did some stupid but necessary destruction to the nest and I couldn’t actually find the queen! So after removing the predator i gently replaced all the substrate, soil, plants and rocks.

Did I do the right thing? I have not seen any activity on the surface? Did I burry my queen alive, will she and the colony cope with the destruction?

[Jgibbss]

Heres a mistake you could have just killed your queen because she got buried alive i may be wrong maybe shes hidden but the last thing you want to do is messup the formicarium/outworld

[Jgibbss]

aso you shouldn't have thought you messed up ear wigs are herbivores they eat plants if you didn't do anything it would have been totaly fine and dont worry Pheidole are flying in aus im pretty sure

[JoeHostile1]

Most earwigs eat plants.

[BeginnerAntKeeper]

Ants in temperate environments go through hibernation in the winter I believe so that may have been the cause of the ant inactivity(I am from the tropics and have not seen ant hibernation so forgive me if I am wrong)

[Quizzie]

Ants in temperate environments go through hibernation in the winter I believe so that may have been the cause of the ant inactivity(I am from the tropics and have not seen ant hibernation so forgive me if I am wrong)

Yep, they are very likely starting to hibernate.