ANTSTORE World of Ants

[Sced]

Hi, one of my Camponotus ligniperda workers has all these white bits on it, it struggles to walk, cant climb and seems to be very lost. The other workers seem to neglect it, I thought it was the sand from the arena, as it was a little dry, but could it be a disease or something?

[JimmyVe]

That is possible Sced. Maybe it is some kind of fungus. (not so good if it is) They change exist that this worker will die and that the other workers carry it for away from the nest. Pick it out if this happens.

It also can be parasites. That is not so bad as fungus but not good anyhow. Keep a good look at your other workers. Hope they don't get it.

It could be nothing also, keep a good look at them.

[Necturus]

Hey,

compare them with the pictures shown here- those are parasites. I hope yours dont look like that.

Nectururs

[Sced]

The worker has died, and the otehr ants seem to be ok so its not too bad after all. Im pretty certain it wasnt parasites, why did the workrs neglect it anyway?

[JimmyVe]

Probably because there wash nothing they could do about it. Remove the dead worker as soon as possible. If you are sure it was not parasites than it could be fungus.

[Sced]

since the last post there have been 3 more deaths, 2 of which looked fine [not covered in white stuff] i think they were first gen wokers so it mgiht not be that bad after all.

[JimmyVe]

That could be, how old is your colony now ?
You sad 2 are not covered with white stuff but the other one is ? Also with the white stuff the first one died ?

[Sced]

i got the colony after christmas, 7 workers, so i think the queen would of mated in 2006? yes two workers died with white spots on them, however the msot 2 recent ones have symptoms.

[JimmyVe]

Okay, i think that i a good sine.

No need to think bad things, that could in deed be just the age of the workers (the first workers don't live as long as the second generation).

[Sced]

yeah i hope so, well there is over 20 lavae at the moment so the few losses will be easily replaced

[JimmyVe]

In deed.