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Post by Deleted on Jan 28, 2010 9:09:58 GMT
At the moment I am keeping my ants in plaster nests which I have added cement colorant to make them green. (Normal plaster is white which does not show up the brood very well!) The colorant I used is labeled as non toxic Iron Oxide. However some of the colonies seem to be looking a bit unwell with the workers showing signs of irritation / twitching and more than the normal number seem to be dieing and I am wondering if this is a result of something toxic in the colorant. Has anyone any experience in coloring their plaster nests and what did you use? Thanks
Peter.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Jan 28, 2010 10:06:27 GMT
That's the problem with using chemicals, although as the product is not an artificial colour, but made from a metal oxide which can be found naturally in nature, it might be reacting with the plaster in some way and creating a toxin I have found ants nesting under corrugated iron in the wild; and as they are often living in old quarries, there is often some metal oxides found in the rocks as well as other chemicals released by water from heavy rainfalls. Even small traces of arsenic and sulphur can be found where ants nest, yet the ants seem unaffected by these poisons Food dye which is used for colouring cake icing is probably the safest thing to use, as it made for eating and so should not have any harmful ingredients. But as to why your ants are showing such adverse reactions to the iron oxide dye, I really haven't a clue other than it may have some other toxin in it.
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