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Post by IceWhyte on Apr 10, 2020 21:02:15 GMT
Hello,
I made a silly mistake.
I have a boiler cupboard which is nice and warm, ideal for keeping ants. It is also ideal for germinating plants, however the compost I bought has mites in it (presumably compost mites). The have moved from my potted plants to my formicarium where I have discovered hundreds of them feasting on the trash pile. They are white and smaller than a grain of sand. I’ve removed the whole trash pile and all the sand around it, dunked it all in a jar of water where I could see the mites floating. It was shocking how many there are.
Does anyone have any tips on removing these mites? Also, anyone know if there are parasitic and harmful to the ants?
Thanks
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Post by TenebrousNova on Apr 10, 2020 21:12:05 GMT
Hi Tony, nice to see you back! Some mites that live in ant nests are harmless and simply feed on the detritus and waste produced by the colony. As long as they're not clinging onto the workers and brood they shouldn't be problematic. There's tiny white mites living on my Camponotus xiangban's trash pile right now.
When I had a parasitic mite infestation a while back, I introduced a culture of Hypoaspis miles that I bought off ebay. They are predatory mites that feed on smaller mites without bothering the ants. It seemed to work.
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Post by messorlee on Apr 10, 2020 21:33:43 GMT
Can you use woodlice too... ?
ML
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Post by 1moldavite on Apr 15, 2020 9:21:31 GMT
I wouldn't use woodlice because the woodlice wouldn't hurt your adult ants but given the opportunity they will eat ant eggs.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Apr 15, 2020 16:49:47 GMT
I wouldn't use woodlice because the woodlice wouldn't hurt your adult ants but given the opportunity they will eat ant eggs. Where did you hear that? I've heard of woodlice living in ant nests without incident. One species, Platyarthrus hoffmannseggi, lives exclusively inside ant nests where they feed on the colony's waste.
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Post by 1moldavite on Apr 15, 2020 21:22:42 GMT
I googled it a few days ago because my ants keep eating the springtails as fast as I can put them in so I was looking for an alternative cleaning crew,as I searched through the sites that came up I came across another ant forum where this subject came up and it said on there that woodlice eat ant eggs,I think I'll have to look into the subject more though cause at this rate I'd have to buy springtails every week,I have actually thought about introducing millipedes as well but I don't know if my ants would kill them or not.
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Post by 1moldavite on Apr 15, 2020 21:45:10 GMT
I have just found there is a type of woodlouse that actually lives in ant nests that doesn't eat ant eggs but eats ant waste,unfortunately I can't find where they are sold.
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