ANTSTORE World of Ants

[Frogger1]

The ants still look good today, yesterday they took about ten small roaches and some small crickets so they still have their appetite!

I was getting confused with the mites though, the A. Cucumeris I mean. In my earlier post when I said they were releasing from the sachets, the ones I thought were releasing from the sachets were like the ones I wrote about in an earlier post, bulbous, jet black and good at jumping but I didn't think anything of it. Looking at the ants last night I saw hundreds of orange speckles and it turns out these are actually the A. Cucumeris mites and the ones I thought were coming out of the sachet are the ones I wrote about a couple weeks ago. Does anyone have any idea what they could be? I would look it up myself but I don't know much about mites so don't know where to start.

I would put them down as parasitic mites but these mites are wondering around instead of latched onto somthing. I also see different sizes, varying from 0.5mm-2mm and if these were the parasitic ones surely the smaller ones would be latched onto the ants instead of wondering? The big ones definitely aren't latched onto anything because there atleast half the size of the workers and I would notice if they were latched on due to the size, but maybe the parasitic mites are the smaller ones of these, I have no idea.

If anyone knows anything about these I would appreciate any info on them!

Thanks again for reading.

[Andie]

Not sure but quite often cultures would contain food for the culture to stay alive so perhaps thats what the other mites are, just food. Only a theory.

[Frogger1]

These other mites have been there for a while, I remember seeing one a couple weeks ago. There's not many of them either which seems strange, I'm going to try and look into it further but it's going be hard with all the different species of mites, aswell as my lack of knowledge on mite species. If I find out what these mites are though, I'll be sure to post!

[Frogger1]

So I've got a little test going now, I found two heavily infested workers during feeding tonight, I have put them in a tub with alot of the Amblyseius Cucumeris and I'm really interested in whether anything would have happened by tomorrow. I've also caught one of these 'mystery mites' so I can get a closer look, I've already seen that it has two body segments, head and abdomen if that can narrow it down a bit further. I'm also starting to question whether it is actually a mite......

[armyoforigin]

It will be interesting to hear what you find out, mite identification isn't easy and when I have a search the identification 'keys' involve features I can only assume you need a microscope to see (E.g where are their hairs!), mites all just look like little dots to me! lol

[Frogger1]

Haha, the only thing I can tell the foraging mites apart from the predatory mites and the parasitic mites is the colour at the moment. Hopefully I can get an I.D. on this other 'mite' soon, whatever it is though it doesn't seem to be doing harm to anything. The thing that stands out is the jumping, it really can jump, like a fleas jump!

[Frogger1]

Well unfortunately it looks as though the A. Cucumeris haven't consumed any of the parasitic mites that were on my workers. My workers have died but that was expected, I think I'm going to get some Hypoaspis Miles as I think they'll actually be more effective. Aswell as this I'm starting to get more concered about the queen, but I guess I haven't seen a body carried out of the nest yet so I'll leave the nest.

[AntsNational]

Put in some raisins (cut in half) and your mites will begin to latch onto the fruit and also get stuck in it (very sugary). Remove fruit and replace with fresh fruit daily. There is a likely chance that your mites will prefer fruit over ant hemolymph.

[armyoforigin]

The raisins are certainly worth a try at this point!

Though it sucks that the mites don't seem to be going for their intended prey! =(

[Frogger1]

Thanks for the advice Vasile, I have just put some rasins in, when you say the mites will latch onto them do you mean the parasitic ones? The ants love the raisins too, some are 'eating' them. It is also a shame that the predatory mites didn't hunt the parasites, I'll most likely order some H. Miles soon as I'm sure they will have an effect, I've used them for snake mites before and they worked very well.

Any advice on what to do regarding the queen though? I have no idea what health she is in, food still goes into the nest though so she must still be alive, aswell as not seeing her body carried out. I would like to leave the nest undisturbed but the longer this mite problem goes on, the more I'm worrying about the queen. Also I was told earlier, that parasitic mites are usually geographically specific to the animal they are using as a host, so the parasites could've been on my ants before I got them? Any ideas on that aswell?

Thanks again

[armyoforigin]

Well about the queen, if you do not have many workers left there is a *possibility* the queen has died and she is simply too large for them to move as I have heard of this before, they would still take food in for the larvae, remember the queen can't eat solid food only food regurgitated from the larvae/liquids lapped from any captured insects.

About the mites, well I don't think that is correct, parasitic mites that feed off of ant blood will most likely feed off of any ant blood, some ants may be more resistant in the sense that are better at cleaning the mites off ect.

Did you check the ants in the test tube when you got them? Do you boil/freeze all the food you give them? Where did their substrate come from? Did you bake it in the oven?

I do all of the above and I also use axle grease as breakout protection which stops mites walking in and the ants walking out, it is always best to be as careful as possible to prevent a mite outbreak in the first place as I simply don't want to deal with one! =(

As for if they came with the mites I reckon it's a bit too late to say either way as you would normally have to tell the person you bought them off within 24 hours to get a refund/replacement, and anything after that point is speculation =(

Sorry I can't be more help, it is a tough one Frogger!

[Frogger1]

Well I think there are still quite a few ants left, the feeding repsonse is still very aggressive, hundreds of workers and soldiers still tend to forage at the moment. Unfortunately I didn't check the ants when I got them as I didn't realise the test tube was open at the end and ants were beginning to rush out, obviously I didn't want loads of ants running up my arm so I put the tube straight in :p

Also the food I never boil or freeze as I feed them roaches that are bred by myself, I do check them before putting them in for the ants though. The substrate was peat moss bought from my local garden centre, I didnt bake it as I use it for tarantulas, scorpions etc. and haven't had any problems with them before.

Thanks for the reply!

[AntsNational]

Thanks for the advice Vasile, I have just put some rasins in, when you say the mites will latch onto them do you mean the parasitic ones? The ants love the raisins too, some are 'eating' them. It is also a shame that the predatory mites didn't hunt the parasites, I'll most likely order some H. Miles soon as I'm sure they will have an effect, I've used them for snake mites before and they worked very well.

Any advice on what to do regarding the queen though? I have no idea what health she is in, food still goes into the nest though so she must still be alive, aswell as not seeing her body carried out. I would like to leave the nest undisturbed but the longer this mite problem goes on, the more I'm worrying about the queen. Also I was told earlier, that parasitic mites are usually geographically specific to the animal they are using as a host, so the parasites could've been on my ants before I got them? Any ideas on that aswell?

Thanks again

Hi Frogger,

The whole point is for the ants to feed on the raisins, thus allowing the mites to transfer hosts. The breeding females lay eggs on the raisins and adults also feed here and this allows you to control the population and decline it when removing and replacing the fruits daily. You will notice in a short while that your ants carry less mites.

For the queen, I would not suggest taking a course of action just yet as you may stress her too much. How many workers are left? Mites will come in any source of food, wild or domestic. I have discovered grain mites on most pet store products (crickets, decoration etc), substrates (example, soils and coco-fibre in pet stores and in the wild), live wild foods and grains. You will not be able to kill off all mites, but you should try boiling your soil for at least 15 minutes before applying it to your terrarium. I have read that the "best defence against mites is to prevent them...."--- This is a load of garbage and it is nearly impossible to prevent them. I discovered the raisins trick and from time to time mites do return on my ants, but they are kept at manageable populations and don't kill my ants. As for "geographically specific" I would consider this not the best advice...I keep a very wide range of exotic and native species, and almost all of them have at one point contracted grain mites. These mites are present worldwide. The raisins trick helps a LOT.

I use this trick also on mealworms, roaches and crickets. I have been told that "you have mites, you may as well kill everything and start fresh." --- This is a load of BULL. I successfully keep colonies of roaches and mealworms and I have had massive population decreases but I figured out this raisins trick and it solved my problem. The sugar content seems to make them irresistible foods. (I don't bother with crickets as they are cheap and easy to acquire via nearby pet stores).

Keep at it, and remember: the raisins also help the colony and boost their energy reserves.

Cheers,
Vasi

[Frogger1]

Hey Vasile,

Thanks very much for all this information! I'll make sure to keep on top of replacing the raisins, just a question about ants food overall, do you know why they tend to bury some of it? I find random pieces of food just covered in soil, this usually depends on the type of food aswell. As in I've never seen them bury their roaches, but I see them bury most other things.

Maybe I'm just worrying about the mites too much, there are alot of workers left, I see quite alot of them foraging and digging each day. From now on I'll make sure to sterilize everything first though and I'll also throw some raisins in later for my roaches.

Thanks

[armyoforigin]

Some ants bury their food so as to hide it from competitors, they still eat it but under cover. At least that is how I understand the behaviour =)