ANTSTORE World of Ants

[yomchi86]

Hello all, just bought a new nest for my colony of around 300 pheidole pallidula. I bought this product "Sand loam mixture colorful 1000g" and put it in. The ants don't have any trouble digging through it but I have noticed that in the past 2 days since they have moved (well they are in the process of moving from the old nest to the new one now) that 30 ants have died and been piled up in the corner. This could just be that the old nest was small and I didn't see what they were putting in the trash pile but I suppose I'd like to know if Iron Oxide is potentially killing the ants? There's no english description for this product but after using google translate it comes back with the following warning (too bad I did see this before I bought it!)

"Note: Note that the iron oxide ground is not suitable for all species. Some species do not dig into this ground."

Hopefully it's just coincidence but would appreciate any help!

Thanks

[baumarkthammer]

Hello,

you will probably have to wait for Martin to answer and tell you but I think the Iron oxide is only used for coloring the sand and loam and I would be very surprised if that was killing your ants. I also guess that the brood would die first in that case because it is in direct contact with the ground. If the colony has enough brood it should be alright.

In nature Pheidole pallidula can be found unter rusty metal... which is the only example of Pheidole pallidula and oxide I know.

[yomchi86]

Thanks for your quick response, I appreciate it. The brood hasn't been moved to the new nest yet but given your advice, I feel much better now. I'll monitor the situation and hopefully they were just all old ants who had lived a full and happy life.

Thanks again

[Martin S.]

Hello,

the iron oxide (rust) is a pure natural color and is non-toxic to the animals. The material is a natural product. But there are ways that do not dig into iron oxide-containing substrate.
It should be noted that the substrate should not be dusty.
If the dusty ground is used without first irrigation, the ants could die of the loose fine dust. Probably by suffocation?

Regards
Martin

[yomchi86]

Hello Martin, thank you for your response. The sand was correctly irrigated so no suffocation for the poor ants. I will keep an eye on them, I wonder if they are just old.

Many thanks for putting my mind at ease

[yomchi86]

Really sad news - The queen and brood moved into the new nest on Friday morning. I was really happy that everything was good, new nest was fully moved into.

I saw them carrying out a dead queen this evening, she is well and truly dead too so I guess that's the end of the colony

Can anyone please offer advice on what might have caused this? I hope the following doesn't come across as me blaming anybody because I'm honestly not. Is there any possibility at all that there is something in the coloured sand that could be making the ants poorly? Just wondering what could cause this issue. The nest was thoroughly cleaned with hot water before they moved in. I'm certain that there's nothing that has been added like pesticides as we don't have any in the house.

[baumarkthammer]

Loam is very dusty and has very small particles as Martin pointed out. Ants can have problems with dust, it often seems to block their tracheae (breathing system). This only happens when the ground is dry and contains very small particles like loam does.

Other than that I can't think of a reason why the ants died. Ants don't move to places that are fatally hot or in other manner deadly. However Pheidole pallidula do sometimes move to places that are very dry. This species likes it quite warm and is able to withstand dryness to some extent. So I could imagine that they would move to a warmer place that is dry rather than a moist place that is cold.

[yomchi86]

Hi - thank you for the information. I wonder if it is the loam that has caused this issue then - despite me rinsing it down repeatedly and letting it dry. I feel so stupid and as a result my colony will die

Thanks for the help, I'll not put Pheidole in here again.