What can I do

[seadawg84]

So, I have my Pheidole spp. colony in an ant tower small setup and I just discovered a nematode in there, somehow. I’ve only seen the one and didn’t know it was a bad thing at first and now can’t find it to get rid of it. Should I try to do something, or will it be alright?

[SYUTEO]

Where did you get the soil? If you're using soil from outside you should sterilize it first by cooking it, all sorts of things could appear if you don't sterileze it. Did you see any dead ants? If not then it's probably just a harmless one that came from the soil. If you see that the colony has been losing workers by a lot then it could be a parasitic one.

[seadawg84]

The soil was potting soil from an outside pot mixed with the sand that came with the ant tower small.

[SYUTEO]

Make sure you sterilize soil if it came from outside.

[seadawg84]

Turns out it came from my culture of springtails. I opened up the springtails container and saw a couple of nematodes in there, and they looked just like the one I had found in my ant setup. Which makes sense as the one I found in the ant setup was initially on a piece of charcoal from my springtail culture. I’m also down to only seeing one ant, and not even the queen. Though, in an AntsCanada ant tower small, being able to see a Pheidole colony at all is good fortune, lol.