SmokeyBlue
Arachnopeon
- Joined
- May 30, 2021
- Messages
- 2
Hi all. I’m Caesar, just joined last week and this is my first post. I’m in Puerto Rico, for those wondering about my climate.
I’ve put in an order for several species of Roaches, and I intended to use some of them for composting. But I recently set up a worm bin in the same area I was gonna use for the roach bin (not much space available, small yard), and the worm bin was recently invaded by tiny Wassmannia Ants. And there’s my concern: I don’t want them swarming my roach bins when I set them up, and I’m unwilling to use poison on them (there’s no centralized nest anyway).
Ask anyone from PR or Hawaii, they’ll tell you Wassmannia stings can ruin your afternoon. Their presence isn’t much of a surprise, they’re all over my yard, to the point where I’ve actually gotten a bit used to the stings. But they swarmed the worm bin to the point of looking like red sand in parts. The worms seemed to have coexisted so far. To deal with them, I flooded the bin and have left it lidless for over a week. It’s not a permanent solution (there’s still plenty in there) but it got rid of the large swarms.
These ants are dangerous to other bugs (and macrofauna as well). They’d be a death sentence to a roach bin. I was recommended diatomaceous earth for my worm bin, but I can’t use it for the roach bin, it’d kill the roaches too (as it is, I didn’t use it on the worm bin ‘cause I wanted to leave the other colonizing arthropods there). There’s no conceivable way of eradicating this species, short of poisoning the whole ecosystem in the yard.
Is there anything I can do to keep a roach bin safe from these? My family doesn’t mind me keeping bugs indoors, but I don’t think they’d appreciate me doing actual composting indoors, and I don’t have a garage.
I’ve put in an order for several species of Roaches, and I intended to use some of them for composting. But I recently set up a worm bin in the same area I was gonna use for the roach bin (not much space available, small yard), and the worm bin was recently invaded by tiny Wassmannia Ants. And there’s my concern: I don’t want them swarming my roach bins when I set them up, and I’m unwilling to use poison on them (there’s no centralized nest anyway).
Ask anyone from PR or Hawaii, they’ll tell you Wassmannia stings can ruin your afternoon. Their presence isn’t much of a surprise, they’re all over my yard, to the point where I’ve actually gotten a bit used to the stings. But they swarmed the worm bin to the point of looking like red sand in parts. The worms seemed to have coexisted so far. To deal with them, I flooded the bin and have left it lidless for over a week. It’s not a permanent solution (there’s still plenty in there) but it got rid of the large swarms.
These ants are dangerous to other bugs (and macrofauna as well). They’d be a death sentence to a roach bin. I was recommended diatomaceous earth for my worm bin, but I can’t use it for the roach bin, it’d kill the roaches too (as it is, I didn’t use it on the worm bin ‘cause I wanted to leave the other colonizing arthropods there). There’s no conceivable way of eradicating this species, short of poisoning the whole ecosystem in the yard.
Is there anything I can do to keep a roach bin safe from these? My family doesn’t mind me keeping bugs indoors, but I don’t think they’d appreciate me doing actual composting indoors, and I don’t have a garage.
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