Help! i guess.

[Justaworker]

Hi all

I'm after your thoughts, help and advice.
In ant keeping terms I'm a novice but this is not the 1st time I've kept ants and I've had / have many other animals and insects before.

I've recently acquired several different queens with workers, through to a couple of small colonies. everything has been fine for the last few months, with plenty of brood and new workers and everything looking really good.
last week I left a couple of fruit fly cultures on the same shelf as the ants and the next day thousands of mites had migrated from the fly culture in to the ant colonies and attached themselves to the ants. (subsequently no fly emerged from the culture with the mites)
I stripped everything back and washed everything that I could to remove as many mites as possible,even using a q-tip to remove some from my campo queen.
while I've removed many, there are still mites, but most can only be seen under the microscope and its only odd ones here and there.

so here is my issue. I'm loosing ants on a daily basis, but the dead ants don't necessary have mites on them. the ants appear to loose coordination 1st, spreading there legs wide with very jerky movements. followed by folding their legs in and twitching until they are finally dead.

Worst losses are in a small C. nicobarensis colony. I've lost about 50% of the workers in 5 days,got about 20 workers left, this was one colony that only had a few mites in it.

The 2nd colony is a M. ruba colony, they had a fair number of mites and still have some, they have also change behaviour, mostly standing around and not really reacting to anything. previously I Had a fight on my hands to keep them all contained when feeding.

I've also got a queen M. barbarus with brood, she was covered to the point her gaster was white. but she has seemed entirely fine and her 1st worker should be along any day now.

so thoughts?

am I dealing with direct losses caused by mites? the mites are small white / brown.
have the mites introduced a bacteria or virus that's now working its way through my ants
could it be a unrelated fungus? (I've got the dead workers in a sealed pot to see if they grow ant fungus)

I'm basically at a loss, has anyone lost ants in a similar fashion and been able to pinpoint a cause?

comments and questions appreciated and thanks in advance.

[antperson24]

Hi all

I'm after your thoughts, help and advice.
In ant keeping terms I'm a novice but this is not the 1st time I've kept ants and I've had / have many other animals and insects before.

I've recently acquired several different queens with workers, through to a couple of small colonies. everything has been fine for the last few months, with plenty of brood and new workers and everything looking really good.
last week I left a couple of fruit fly cultures on the same shelf as the ants and the next day thousands of mites had migrated from the fly culture in to the ant colonies and attached themselves to the ants. (subsequently no fly emerged from the culture with the mites)
I stripped everything back and washed everything that I could to remove as many mites as possible,even using a q-tip to remove some from my campo queen.
while I've removed many, there are still mites, but most can only be seen under the microscope and its only odd ones here and there.

so here is my issue. I'm loosing ants on a daily basis, but the dead ants don't necessary have mites on them. the ants appear to loose coordination 1st, spreading there legs wide with very jerky movements. followed by folding their legs in and twitching until they are finally dead.

Worst losses are in a small C. nicobarensis colony. I've lost about 50% of the workers in 5 days,got about 20 workers left, this was one colony that only had a few mites in it.

The 2nd colony is a M. ruba colony, they had a fair number of mites and still have some, they have also change behaviour, mostly standing around and not really reacting to anything. previously I Had a fight on my hands to keep them all contained when feeding.

I've also got a queen M. barbarus with brood, she was covered to the point her gaster was white. but she has seemed entirely fine and her 1st worker should be along any day now.

so thoughts?

am I dealing with direct losses caused by mites? the mites are small white / brown.
have the mites introduced a bacteria or virus that's now working its way through my ants
could it be a unrelated fungus? (I've got the dead workers in a sealed pot to see if they grow ant fungus)

I'm basically at a loss, has anyone lost ants in a similar fashion and been able to pinpoint a cause?

comments and questions appreciated and thanks in advance.

As far as I know, the only thing you an do is try to keep removing the mites. I would guess the reason there are no mites on the dead ants is because after the ants die, the mites cannot get anymore nutrients from them, so they move to different ants.

[Antmanboy]

Hi all

I'm after your thoughts, help and advice.
In ant keeping terms I'm a novice but this is not the 1st time I've kept ants and I've had / have many other animals and insects before.

I've recently acquired several different queens with workers, through to a couple of small colonies. everything has been fine for the last few months, with plenty of brood and new workers and everything looking really good.
last week I left a couple of fruit fly cultures on the same shelf as the ants and the next day thousands of mites had migrated from the fly culture in to the ant colonies and attached themselves to the ants. (subsequently no fly emerged from the culture with the mites)
I stripped everything back and washed everything that I could to remove as many mites as possible,even using a q-tip to remove some from my campo queen.
while I've removed many, there are still mites, but most can only be seen under the microscope and its only odd ones here and there.

so here is my issue. I'm loosing ants on a daily basis, but the dead ants don't necessary have mites on them. the ants appear to loose coordination 1st, spreading there legs wide with very jerky movements. followed by folding their legs in and twitching until they are finally dead.

Worst losses are in a small C. nicobarensis colony. I've lost about 50% of the workers in 5 days,got about 20 workers left, this was one colony that only had a few mites in it.

The 2nd colony is a M. ruba colony, they had a fair number of mites and still have some, they have also change behaviour, mostly standing around and not really reacting to anything. previously I Had a fight on my hands to keep them all contained when feeding.

I've also got a queen M. barbarus with brood, she was covered to the point her gaster was white. but she has seemed entirely fine and her 1st worker should be along any day now.

so thoughts?

am I dealing with direct losses caused by mites? the mites are small white / brown.
have the mites introduced a bacteria or virus that's now working its way through my ants
could it be a unrelated fungus? (I've got the dead workers in a sealed pot to see if they grow ant fungus)

I'm basically at a loss, has anyone lost ants in a similar fashion and been able to pinpoint a cause?

comments and questions appreciated and thanks in advance.

AntsCanada used citrus to drive away the mites. He made a video on them with his Pharoah ant colony. If I remember correctly the results were pretty good. Perhaps cut up some lemons for the mites?

[antperson24]

Hi all

I'm after your thoughts, help and advice.
In ant keeping terms I'm a novice but this is not the 1st time I've kept ants and I've had / have many other animals and insects before.

I've recently acquired several different queens with workers, through to a couple of small colonies. everything has been fine for the last few months, with plenty of brood and new workers and everything looking really good.
last week I left a couple of fruit fly cultures on the same shelf as the ants and the next day thousands of mites had migrated from the fly culture in to the ant colonies and attached themselves to the ants. (subsequently no fly emerged from the culture with the mites)
I stripped everything back and washed everything that I could to remove as many mites as possible,even using a q-tip to remove some from my campo queen.
while I've removed many, there are still mites, but most can only be seen under the microscope and its only odd ones here and there.

so here is my issue. I'm loosing ants on a daily basis, but the dead ants don't necessary have mites on them. the ants appear to loose coordination 1st, spreading there legs wide with very jerky movements. followed by folding their legs in and twitching until they are finally dead.

Worst losses are in a small C. nicobarensis colony. I've lost about 50% of the workers in 5 days,got about 20 workers left, this was one colony that only had a few mites in it.

The 2nd colony is a M. ruba colony, they had a fair number of mites and still have some, they have also change behaviour, mostly standing around and not really reacting to anything. previously I Had a fight on my hands to keep them all contained when feeding.

I've also got a queen M. barbarus with brood, she was covered to the point her gaster was white. but she has seemed entirely fine and her 1st worker should be along any day now.

so thoughts?

am I dealing with direct losses caused by mites? the mites are small white / brown.
have the mites introduced a bacteria or virus that's now working its way through my ants
could it be a unrelated fungus? (I've got the dead workers in a sealed pot to see if they grow ant fungus)

I'm basically at a loss, has anyone lost ants in a similar fashion and been able to pinpoint a cause?

comments and questions appreciated and thanks in advance.

AntsCanada used citrus to drive away the mites. He made a video on them with his Pharoah ant colony. If I remember correctly the results were pretty good. Perhaps cut up some lemons for the mites?

I would not put lemons in the enclosure, the ants will eat them, and then die because citrus fruits are toxic to ants.

[Antmanboy]

Hi all

I'm after your thoughts, help and advice.
In ant keeping terms I'm a novice but this is not the 1st time I've kept ants and I've had / have many other animals and insects before.

I've recently acquired several different queens with workers, through to a couple of small colonies. everything has been fine for the last few months, with plenty of brood and new workers and everything looking really good.
last week I left a couple of fruit fly cultures on the same shelf as the ants and the next day thousands of mites had migrated from the fly culture in to the ant colonies and attached themselves to the ants. (subsequently no fly emerged from the culture with the mites)
I stripped everything back and washed everything that I could to remove as many mites as possible,even using a q-tip to remove some from my campo queen.
while I've removed many, there are still mites, but most can only be seen under the microscope and its only odd ones here and there.

so here is my issue. I'm loosing ants on a daily basis, but the dead ants don't necessary have mites on them. the ants appear to loose coordination 1st, spreading there legs wide with very jerky movements. followed by folding their legs in and twitching until they are finally dead.

Worst losses are in a small C. nicobarensis colony. I've lost about 50% of the workers in 5 days,got about 20 workers left, this was one colony that only had a few mites in it.

The 2nd colony is a M. ruba colony, they had a fair number of mites and still have some, they have also change behaviour, mostly standing around and not really reacting to anything. previously I Had a fight on my hands to keep them all contained when feeding.

I've also got a queen M. barbarus with brood, she was covered to the point her gaster was white. but she has seemed entirely fine and her 1st worker should be along any day now.

so thoughts?

am I dealing with direct losses caused by mites? the mites are small white / brown.
have the mites introduced a bacteria or virus that's now working its way through my ants
could it be a unrelated fungus? (I've got the dead workers in a sealed pot to see if they grow ant fungus)

I'm basically at a loss, has anyone lost ants in a similar fashion and been able to pinpoint a cause?

comments and questions appreciated and thanks in advance.

AntsCanada used citrus to drive away the mites. He made a video on them with his Pharoah ant colony. If I remember correctly the results were pretty good. Perhaps cut up some lemons for the mites?

I would not put lemons in the enclosure, the ants will eat them, and then die because citrus fruits are toxic to ants.

The smell of citrus repels mites though right? Would putting the citrus in a speaker container with airflow work?

[AM1C39]

I would not put lemons in the enclosure, the ants will eat them, and then die because citrus fruits are toxic to ants.

Could I ask where you have gotten this notion?

[antperson24]

I would not put lemons in the enclosure, the ants will eat them, and then die because citrus fruits are toxic to ants.

Could I ask where you have gotten this notion?

Heard it somewhere online, but I have also observed it in a wild colony.