# URGENT - ANTS in tank



## jackdart (Mar 21, 2013)

Hi guys, just popped into work where all my darts are and in my ranitomeya tank somehow ants have not only got in but made a nest, there's at least 50-100 in the tank, are they a risk to my darts? I know they naturally eat ants but I can't see then in large numbers being a good idea


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## colinm (Sep 20, 2008)

Is there a nest in your tank ? Or are the ants part of a bigger problem in the room ?


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## jackdart (Mar 21, 2013)

I can't find any ants around the tank or signs of where they came from and it looks like they've made a kind of mud nest on the top my epiweb spray bar


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## colinm (Sep 20, 2008)

Personally I would catch the frogs, move them to a separate vivarium and then put some liquid ant killer down. The kind that the worker ants take back to the queen and so kills off the colony. I would put this on a milk bottle lid. Then leave the vivarium empty for a few weeks and reintroduce the frogs.


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## CloudForest (Nov 27, 2013)

pesticides in a vivarium? seems like asking for trouble to me :gasp:

if you can see the nest, and its removable, just take it out - if not, see if you can dig into it and find the queen, get rid of her, and the rest of the colony will die off very quickly

if the enclosure isnt planted with live plants, and you have space in your freezer, you could also put the whole enclosure in the freezer for a few hours (obv without the frogs inside :whistling2: ) - you will kill off any woodlice and things you have in there aswell - so you might want to take out a load of substrate first, then put it back in once the ants are dead, that way you save some of the cleaner crews


can you post pictures of the ants, or describe them, color and size...there are only a couple of native species I would really be concerned about tho tbh


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## Papa Mcknight (Feb 3, 2014)

Remove the frogs, get a CO2 cartridge in the tank and break its seal and seal up the tank to keep the gas in. Will kill the ants and shouldn't harm the plants.


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## colinm (Sep 20, 2008)

There you are , three solutions. 

The ant killer would not worry me as it will work on the ants , and if you leave the frogs out of the vivarium for a few weeks they will not be affected by the ant killer. The C02 will work very well and there would not be any concerns with any possible poisoning of the frogs. The freezing will work but will kill any live plants and any other insects in the vivarium.


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## jackdart (Mar 21, 2013)

It's totally planted and full of springs and woods, I do have loads of co2 cartridges for an air pistol so ill have a go at getting the ants out and then choking them


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## Yorkie6013 (Dec 15, 2014)

not sure if you get them out that you need to use CO2 to get rid of them :lol2:


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## jackdart (Mar 21, 2013)

Well just the last few in there


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## vukic (Apr 9, 2010)

Small numbers would make nice froggy food I'd have thought... Can you get up any pics of the nest?? If you can remove the nest and most importantly the queen, it's sorted.. The ants won't be able to reproduce.. And the frogs will aid the remainder "disappear" lol.. 
I wouldn't trust any pesticides in a phib tank and co2 would kill off all the creatures in the viv, not just the ants but any clean up crew you may have...


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## Papa Mcknight (Feb 3, 2014)

I'd just CO2 bomb it, springtails and woodlice can be bought again cheaply.


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## CloudForest (Nov 27, 2013)

yep co2 will kill the cleaner crews to, assuming you can get the concentration high enough, which in itself is not an easy thing to do, unless its an air-tight enclosure


removing the nest, or the queen if you can find her, is the safest method and most effecitive, the workers wont last more than a few days without the queen, most species workers die off very quickly if the queen dies


what color/size are the ants?

if they are a wood dwelling native species, then i wouldnt worry about them at all (usually very small reddish-orange, temnothorax sp), they have small colonies (150-200 tops)

the only ones I would be concerned about are large red and black or large black, formica species which spray formic acid; or large red myrmica species which have stings (whether they would actually cause any problem for the frogs I have no idea)

(when i say large, i mean relative to the common black garden ant, lasius niger)


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## jackdart (Mar 21, 2013)

They seem to have gone this morning, either the frogs 0r my misting system may have shifted them, the mass of nest on top was soaked and empty so I've taken it out, there's a couple around and I saw one or two in my azures tank but they didn't last long haha


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