# Ant Infestation



## Lovelyk (Feb 7, 2021)

I came back from a out of town today to find that ants had set up a colony in one of my vivs, total mess. I had to run it outside with the ants crawling out on me and dismantle everything to clean them out, then clean up trails— and I’m keeping an eye on my other tanks/containers for stragglers (hopefully, none are infested as well, just a few stragglers around them so far).

Before running it outside, however, I had to rescue a froglet from inside the tank. A couple weeks prior, when it was just me out of town, my husband had an escapee from a froglet bin, so when he caught the froglet, he put the little fugitive into this tank, which was empty for the time being, I hadn’t meant to put any froglets into this growout/quarantine tank yet, not until they were bigger (this one being only a week oow), but the little fugitive was hard to catch and I figured he would be okay in there since it was well seeded with springtails and isopods.

And he was okay, that is, until the tank got overrun with ants these past few days. I found the little froglet just barely moving and covered in ants in the corner. I got the froglet out and careful sprayed for ants, but he hasn’t really moved since isolating him in a deli container. I thought I saw breathing, but I’m not sure. He might be dead, or just in shock. Any recommendations on how to triage, potentially treat this little froglet, in case he is hanging in there?

Update: Those we’re final breaths, I suppose; the froglet didn’t move again and is definitely dead.


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## kimcmich (Jan 17, 2016)

@Lovelyk You likely have an issue with Argentinian ants who are, at this point in the year, looking for protein and warm/dryish spots for their nests. I have this issue sometimes in my large viv - ants will start arriving to predate the wingless fruitflies that are running around - or they will find the fruitfly cultures themselves. In the case of the viv, it is usually a self-correcting issue because the frogs start eating the ants once the ants have harvested too many of the wingless fruitflies.

For the cultures, I throw out any compromised cultures and then clean the area with rubbing alcohol. I also find that leaving crushed ants along the trails the ants use to approach the area also discourages ants from returning.

If your viv is warm and the substrate is fairly dry, the ants might also be trying to create a nest there (they do this is my houseplants). In that case, drenching the substrate will cause the ants to relocate.

I think these ants are mainly looking for food. In that case, I would clean their approach tracks with alcohol and kills every ant I can see. In cases where the ants are persistent, I will spray an ant insecticide on a paper towel and wipe down the ant's approach tracks (using insecticide is my last resort).


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## Lovelyk (Feb 7, 2021)

kimcmich said:


> @Lovelyk You likely have an issue with Argentinian ants who are, at this point in the year, looking for protein and warm/dryish spots for their nests. I have this issue sometimes in my large viv - ants will start arriving to predate the wingless fruitflies that are running around - or they will find the fruitfly cultures themselves. In the case of the viv, it is usually a self-correcting issue because the frogs start eating the ants once the ants have harvested too many of the wingless fruitflies.
> 
> For the cultures, I throw out any compromised cultures and then clean the area with rubbing alcohol. I also find that leaving crushed ants along the trails the ants use to approach the area also discourages ants from returning.
> 
> ...


Yes, these are those awful Argentinian ants (such a problem out here in California, ugh!). My main viv has adult frogs, who seem to have kept the ants from seriously invading. The vivarium that got infested was vacant, except for the single froglet, only a few weeks oow, who got just totally overwhelmed. And when I cleaned the tank, there were definitely queens in there, they really took over, probably because there weren’t any serious predators to keep them out. They nested in the substrate and just completely covered parts of it... I have cleaned the ant trails up, no sign of them now that I’ve killed their trails.

And, unfortunately, the little froglet didn’t make it. I think he was already pretty much gone when I pulled him out, no sign that the ants had started to eat the froglet but…the stress and shock must have done the froglet in.


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## Tiger94 (Sep 3, 2021)

An here I am trying to find a queen to start a vivarium ant colony.


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## bulbophyllum (Feb 6, 2012)

I have a bunch of fire ants in my imitator tank. Every time I feed they come running out and start grabbing FF's. They have been in there a few weeks. I did not mean to let them go so long as I do believe they pose a danger to the frogs. 

This evening I experimented with boric acid and sugar water bait. They showed no interest. So, I crushed up some dog kibble and mixed it with boric acid. They were on that bait very quickly. Hopefully that should kill them and my 5 seconds of internet research is true that boric acid is frog safe.


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## Lovelyk (Feb 7, 2021)

bulbophyllum said:


> I have a bunch of fire ants in my imitator tank. Every time I feed they come running out and start grabbing FF's. They have been in there a few weeks. I did not mean to let them go so long as I do believe they pose a danger to the frogs.
> 
> This evening I experimented with boric acid and sugar water bait. They showed no interest. So, I crushed up some dog kibble and mixed it with boric acid. They were on that bait very quickly. Hopefully that should kill them and my 5 seconds of internet research is true that boric acid is frog safe.


Yes, I do have boric acid traps set up as well, but this viv was absolutely crawling with them…I don’t know what happened. The poor froglet got totally overwhelmed…maybe any small frog would, as many as were in there. But my adult frogs are okay, my main viv not so affected, either.


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