Major T Emergency: Ant invasion!

[Staples]

I apologize if I overlooked a thread regarding this, but I will be off to school in half an hour.

Here is one quick way to summarize the situation. Look at this picture.



Look on the left. You see that black spot on the coconut hut? Ants. There's got to be a hundred on them around there!! Please PLEASE give me assistance. I have a G. Rosera stuck in a coner half on the glass, but obviously that is not an escape from this! She can't run from them, what can I do? Fortunately today is feeding day and I get to make a trip to the pet store for some crickets (I used to keep some but it became too much work on my busy schedule), so I can buy whatever you guys recommend. I NEED a response soon, being that I leave in 20 minutes and I will be home after 4:30 for only a little while. Please help me, I don't want my Tarantula to die, and these ants are going to make my parents go mental if they are to find out about them before I kill them/get rid of them.

 

[Cirith Ungol]

I'd say take the T out for now, into a secure cup with lid. Make an air hole or two into the cup so the T can spend some time in there. Put the cup somewhere where you don't expect the ants to reach soon. Go to school, and once you come back you'll have a lot of help in this thread to deal with the ants I pressume.

Can't be of any futher help, I've not dealt with ants myself yet.

 

[Staples]

Okay, I got it in a 6x4x6 kritter keeper tote thing with a dixie cup cut in half and filled with bottled water. I put it behind the tank so it is in a safer discreet place for now. I hope there aren't any ants on her, I didn't see any though. I got to go to school. Bye.

 

[cricket54]

I'm in NJ also, and its ant time. We have carpenter ants, but I'm not seeing as many this yr as in the past. I am lucky in that I have not ever had the ants invade my tarantula or scorpion's homes. Some folks actually put the tarantula tanks into a pan of water thats large enough that the ants will drown once in the water. Don't think anything will work as well as this.

Sharon

 

[Mushroom Spore]

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=90990

Here's a recent thread about ants with some good suggestions.

I strongly suggest you dump out the entire enclosure. What is that, grass? Why do you have that in a rosea tank? :? Anyway, dump it all out, rinse the tank well (don't use soap or bleach, that could hurt the tarantula), dry it well. Put NOTHING BUT PEAT MOSS or potting soil or whatever you use back into the tank. No grass, no nothing else. Just the water bowl and the hide/s. If you weren't keeping the substrate completely dry, start doing so now.

Obviously, be very certain that the substrate you put in isn't from outside or otherwise contaminated with more ants.

Then go pick up some of those liquid ant baits, find the trail that the ants follow through your room to get to the spider tank, and put the traps there. In a few days, no more ants.

Also, how tall is your tank? It's hard to tell from that perspective, but I can't tell if it follows the "substrate to ceiling = no more than 1.5x the legspan of the spider" rule. If not, it should, for the spider's safety.

Good luck!

 

[kristal_kaos]

I dont know about ant problems too well, but couldnt u put the lil bait domes around the entry doors to ur home to kill them off before they enter ur home? just a thought, not sure what would help

 

[Mushroom Spore]

Ants very rarely use the doors. I have (had, rather--thanks, Terro! ) an ant problem...but ONLY in my bathroom, which is on the opposite end of the apartment from my door. :?

 

[bushbuster]

Ants are after food items, nothing more. They like sugar and sweets, and dead insects, so they are more than likely after what your T has not eaten. Thanks to the board, I recently had help with an ant problem, and Terro ant killer solved it, and pronto. I found 2 areas where ants were entering my house, 1 in my garage, and 1 on my back porch. I used the Terro baits that come in a little bottle, and you apply the bait to a piece of cardboard from the box. Then kick back and watch the show, lol literally hundreds of ants came pouring out to eat this stuff, its amazing. It takes about 2 or 3 days of watching ants kill themselves, and when they finally thin out, they are gone. I might hesitate to put this stuff right in a T's tank, but I sure would put it next to one, it really works!

 

[beetleman]

TERRO! TERRO! TERRO!:clap: :worship:

 

[Staples]

Okay, here is what I did. I went to the pet shop and the hardware store. I bought Terro and I am going to put up a trap outside and inside. I bought two bricks of Forest Bedding and a new plastic cave. Would it be okay to use the wooden half log after this invasion? I like it a lot, but she doesn't care for it. There was an original reason to why a put some grass in there. My logic was "It's a grassland Tarantula, so why not?", and thought it wouldn't hurt her. I won't plant anymore, but is grass harmful? I'll post pictures and maybe a video later.

 

[Cirith Ungol]

is grass harmful?

Can't see how grass in itself could be harmful, if it's just normal grass and not some kind of hard leafed, mutant, pointy kinda vicious grass . You might wanna change the soil arround the roots though by carefully cleaning it away under running water and then re-plant it in clean soil so that you minimize the risk of getting any nasty pests into the tank. But it sounds like you're not planning on using grass in the future?

 

[Staples]

Actually if you guys said it was okay, I was going to put in a few seeds, but I threw away the old grass. Actually I think I know one of the things that attracted these ants. I remember finding small mites in the substrate. Little ones that seemed to only survive on the wet substrate. Actually I think I found the problem. I had wet substrate! Maybe that is what attracted the mites and made it survivable, and in turn the mites and the wet substrate attracted ants! In order for grass to live the substrate has to be wet, so I don't think grass is a good idea, however I think the old wooden half log and the coconut huts are fine.

 

[mr_jacob7]

My logic was "It's a grassland Tarantula, so why not?", and thought it wouldn't hurt her.

actually, roseas are from the chilean desert. Where did you hear that? :? i use just plain potting soil (without any added insectecides for plants. make sure there's none of that written on the bag) and nothing else but hides, and a plastic waterbowl. anyways, good luck with the ants. death by ants... that's a bad way to go, spider or not.

 

[Cirith Ungol]

Actually if you guys said it was okay, I was going to put in a few seeds, but I threw away the old grass. Actually I think I know one of the things that attracted these ants. I remember finding small mites in the substrate. Little ones that seemed to only survive on the wet substrate. Actually I think I found the problem. I had wet substrate! Maybe that is what attracted the mites and made it survivable, and in turn the mites and the wet substrate attracted ants! In order for grass to live the substrate has to be wet, so I don't think grass is a good idea, however I think the old wooden half log and the coconut huts are fine.

Yeah, moisture will make for a survivable environment for mites. But there are so many different types of mites that it's hard to say in general if they are bad for the T or not. My opinion is that it's not worth risking it but it's really up to you. You could burry a flowerpot and just sow the grass seeds there so that the rest of the tank can stay dry?

Not sure if the ants were attracted by the mites, they might just have come by accident but maybe they saw the mites as food and decided to stay.

 

[Staples]

It isn't over yet! The ants have returned. I have placed terro around already, but now it is on a cardboard pad right up against the tank. My T hasn't eaten in 2 weeks due to these problems, and I have just bought about 20 crickets to care for so I can give her well fed ones. What I am concerned with is that if the ants go into the little plastic container containing the crickets, which means they might track that terro in with them, poisoning the crickets, which will poison the T. Will Petroleum Jelly keep the ants from climbing up the sides of the little plastic container for now until the borax kicks in? There is a lot of food in there that the ants might be after, so I am sure the ants are going to go for that little tank much more than any other thing. Should I put a layer of Petroleum Jelly around the whole tank?

 

[Spiderface]

Try keeping yout T on th drier side for a bit. Ants are being drawn to the moisture. I am in pest control and ants are going to be difficult to eliminate with terro by itself. Go out side with some grape jelly and prebait the ants around your house on a nice day by placing some jelly near the foundation about every 15 ft. Come back and check on it later and then watch the ants to see where they are going. Locate the colony if you can and use a commercial contact kill spray and drench them. When you think you have gotten them on the outside then start on the inside. The terro discs will help. Run them under the sink to get some water in side and place a drop pf jelly on one corner. Place the disks near where you have seen ant trails and allow them to create a chemical trail that leads to your disks. Check your kitchen and bathrooms also. Chances are you will find some ants near the sinks. If you think you have a seriouos infestation inside the house then you should consider hiring a pest company to eliminate them. You don't want a colony setting up shop behind the walls and continuing to spread throughout the house.

 

[Ice Cold Milk]

I use roll-on deodorant and/or ground cinnamon and put that around the bases of my enclosures and shelves.
those two things seem to throw ants off chemical trails they leave behind to tell the other ants "there's food over here!"

-=ICM=-