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Post by grandad on Mar 10, 2013 0:37:25 GMT
Hello hope I am placing this in the right place to begin with, I have 6 starting colonies of Yellow Meadow ants and I am awaiting a colony of what I deem exotic, Pheidole Pallidula. The Lasius are just out of hibernation and the queens are all laying franticly with three having single workers, my first question is regarding these. In a number of the test-tubes I have noticed some very small, white insects, they are so small I was unsure at first, are these some sort of mite and more importantly are they detrimental to the colony? OH Yes as my monogram implies I am a Grandad but not to old to start a new hobby
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Post by Wood~Ant on Mar 10, 2013 1:11:42 GMT
Hi Grandad and welcome to the Ant Hill. Not sure of your age, but I guess I am old enough to be a grandfather too, though I don't feel it. You are never too old to study ants, even vintage antiques like us. If the white insects look a bit like a tiny crab under a magnifying lens, then they are most likely to be mites. In the confines of a test tube where it can be very moist, warm and humid, they could multiply and be a pest. Even in the most sterile of soil set ups you can sometimes find mites, but unless they reach plague proportions in number they shouldn't cause any harm. If you can move your ants out and leave the mites inside the test tube, so much the better.
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