Critters invasion

[Sam_the_Ant]

Ok so recently I put in a mealworm, or a spider for my ants, and I have noticed that there is little tiny white critters around the corpses of the worm or spider.
I often dispose of these corpses after a couple days incase of mould growth, but these things seem to have lasted quite awhile around the soil.

My questions are...
1. what are they
2. Are they any threat to my babies LOL?
3. Is there a way of removing these little buggers?
4. .... I do not have a 4 but any infomation on this would be great

Also, I have seen little red crabs/spiders inside the tank too, is this normal??

Kind regards

Sam_the_Ant ^.^

[batspiderfish]

They sound like scavenging mites. While some species of mite are harmful to ants, I don't have reason to believe this is one of them. I've had these in my foraging arena before.

[Wood~Ant]

What you seem to have appears to be a mite infestation Sam. The white mites are not such a problem unless they multiply a lot, but the red spider mites are something I would tend to worry about.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider_mite

Not because they eat ants or ant brood, but they do leave something like a spiders web everywhere they go; and this will trap debris which might cause fungal or mould spores to grow.
Getting rid of them may be hard, though you could try making the set up a bit damper and cooler, as these mites thrive in hot dry conditions.

[Sam_the_Ant]

ah, ok that doesnt sound good

I will try and make it a lot more damper and turn down the heating a bit.
Should I see if I can try moving the ants into a different set up?? and maybe avoid using insects as a form of food source?

Is there a way of preventing the white mites, and the spider mites from returning in the future??

Thank you so much for your help tho, can't seem to find anything on the internet about them LOL.
any other info about the white mites would be fantastic

[Wood~Ant]

If you can move the entire colony safely to another set up, then hopefully the mites will be left in the old one? This can be washed out and sterilized using very hot soapy water.

To make sure you avoid mites in the future, try cooking any soil medium in a very hot oven for at least half an hour.
It may smell a bit, but when the soil cools down it will be 100% sterile and free of all living organisms.

[batspiderfish]

Just be more regular about removing midden from your set up, and you should see fewer mites. I don't think it's worth stressing the entire colony unless you can be sure that these mites pose a risk to the ants' health. If you find them on uneaten pieces of food, and nowhere else, then why assume they are anything less than indifferent to your ants (or maybe even beneficial)?

Spider mites feed on plants, so if your set up has no live plants, then it has no spider mites.

I'm guessing these midden-loving mites also wander in from the places in your house where they live. Mites are everywhere.

I feel that many organisms are getting a bad reputation just because a few of them are harmful.

[jameslovell]

I can get mites in my tank set up every now and then.

They are hard to get rid of completely but you can control their numbers.

The white mites don't seem to do any harm to the ants. Although there is a darker brown variety that will warm your ants that I've seen before, but not in my set up.

I find mites increase in numbers if the set up is hot and humid.

Try to keep it dry and well ventilated and unheated. The more ventilation the better so if you can keep the lid off etc in your set up then I'd do that.

If they are in the soil then remove the soil if possible.

I would give the tank I wipe with a damp cloth to help remove some.

Another idea is to cut a piece of lemon and place it in the set up. Apparently the mites don't like it. I found it helped a little.

After a week or so when you feel all or most of them have gone, then replace the soil with sterile soil/sand/loam etc.

To help prevent mites use sterile substrate. Any rocks, stones etc can be placed in boiling water before adding to a set up. I would use fake plants and if you like wood then cork is the best option as it has a good resistance to mold.

When feeding them insects make sure the insect is dead and soak for 30 seconds or so in boiling water before feeding it to your ants to remove any potential parasites.

I hope this helps

James

[Sam_the_Ant]

ok I ventilated the tank for a week, I took the lid off and to my amusement, I've had countless ant escapees, to my meal worm mountain next door and stealing the cheerio's they eat LOL. But currently I can still see the odd few mites but most of them have gone. But what I find really strange is that, if I look under the tank and into the egg chamber, I can see ants, and also these mites walking around in the chamber, but the ants do not seem distressed in anyway.

I hope that this is not causing a long term bad effect on my colony, but as mentioned ealier by another member, this might be benificial (I hope)

I've taken into account of, if I'm putting dead insects into the tank, to make sure that in the same day it comes out, hopefully this will cut down disease spreading and further, mite infestations!

I'm really sorry if I ask stupid questions, most of the info I look for, I can never find on the internet, so its much more easier to ask you friendly people.
If there is any other ways of maintaining a healthy colony, that would be much appreciated. And I'm really glad that this being my 1st ever colony, that it has survived so far

thanks everyone for the help^^

Sam

[Remson]

reading all these post it sounds like there are so many potential hazzards to your ant colony. I do hope I do not have anything else when I get my ants for their sake and mine.

good luck with the rest of your removal of those mites!!!!

[Sam_the_Ant]

do not let it put you off its just my ant colony which is hazzardous I think LOL.

But mites are the only thing I'm worried of, since I do not know much about them, so I'm not sure of their intensions/effects on my colony... best to be safe than sorry

I hope others have experienced this before tho, because I may be doing something really wrong