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  1. #1
    BPnet Veteran ADEE's Avatar
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    i have ants!! help!!! (911)

    There are a ton of ants who came during the night and invaded the frogs enclosure. i basically drowned them until i moved the dirt aroudn tonight adding more crickets and now the ants are moving around!!! what should i do? can the frogs eat teh ants? (arent they too small, but hey they do eat fruit flys right) is there any benefit to them being in there, they were attacking the frogs dinner this morning... they are black ants (basically nuisance) or am i better off just doing a major clean out and replacing all the live plants with faux plants so we can get away with using moss or papertowels.. i took out all the food and replaced with fresh tonight im just so concerned with this ant situation.. i dont have any ants with the cresties, snakes, or rats and now all of a sudden i have them like crazy!! i box of 1,000 crickets and were invaded. i had to throw away so many crickets because the ants had taken over the box.. i thought we got rid of them all but aparently not!!


    as a side note, the frogs are officially calling now!!! (at least one is)

  2. #2
    rhac wrangler mlededee's Avatar
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    Re: i have ants!! help!!! (911)

    i'm not sure how or if ants will affect the frogs but they are definitely a danger to cresteds (cresteds don't produce the antihistamines to fight ant bites and a lot of bites can actually be fatal). in any case, you can't just allow them to stay.

    first, get your crickets out of the box and into something that the ants can't get into since that seems to be what they are the most attacted to. they will swarm any dead or dying crickets as well as whatever you are feeding them. i use a setup like this for my crickets but you can make something similar with a rubbermaid, just make sure to use screen for part of the lid to provide enough ventillation: http://www.armstrongcricket.com/polyk.htm.

    you will have to strip down your frog tank and put in all new substrate and replant the plants after washing them to get rid of any ants that might be on them. i know that's a pain, but you have to get rid of the ants that are already in the tank. you then need to come up with a way to keep the ants from getting into the tank--it's an aquarium right? ants can't climb glass so they must be getting in another way. make sure the aquarium is not against a wall or anything else that the ants can climb and then get onto/into the tank from.

    to get rid of the ants that are inside now and coming in and out i recommend terro gel ant baits. i found these at lowes and they work great: http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?actio...300&lpage=none. it takes a few days for the ants to get into the gel and distribute it through their colony but after about 3-4 days of a major ant invasion this summer in my herp room they haven't returned since i started using these baits.
    - Emily


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    Re: i have ants!! help!!! (911)

    Thankyou!

    The cresties and frogs are in the same general area so I will go ahead and mvoe them until I can get the ants under control. Believe it or not the ant are climbing the glass, ive seen them do it. Would I be better off just taking the live plants out all together (plant them outside soemwhere) and get all fake so i can just rinse the plants should this happen again? Is there another substrate you recommend besides dirt that the plants can still grow in?

    My dad is actually an exterminator (i work for him) so im sure if i ask i can get some bait (commercial too) from him. I was just scared it would hurt the frogs since they are so terribly delicate.

    Thank you so much!!

    Wil the ants bite the frogs? It looks like there is one stuck dead to one of the frogs bodies...I didnt want to have to touch the frog (unless its ok) to remove it.. Shouldnt that be a big concern right now too? (they are the blk ones, not red so thats better at least but i know they too have to eat)

  4. #4
    rhac wrangler mlededee's Avatar
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    Re: i have ants!! help!!! (911)

    to keep the ants from climbing you can do several things (none of which you should have to do anymore once the ants are gone). put a thin coating of vaseline along the bottom of the outside of the aquarium--most insects can't or won't crawl though it. put the tank into a rubbermaid or something smooth that the ants can't climb. i simply set some of my cages on rubbermaid lids when i had an ant issue and they couldn't climb that to get to the cages. put 1-2 inches of water in the rubbermaid that holds the aquarium if necessary so that any ants that might get into it will drown or won't go into the water to get to the tank.

    the ants shouldn't be attacted to the dirt or the plants unless you have some sort of fruit or sweet flowering plant in the enclosure so you should be able to continue using a naturalistic setup. i recommend a mixture of organic potting soil and coconut coir type bedding (bed-a-beast) for potting plants in this type of enclosure. you can also mix in some orchid bark.

    you definitely don't want to use any kind of extermination chemical that the frogs could absorb through their skin (sprays, foggers, etc.). you also want to make sure not to feed any insects that might have come in contact with whatever you use, even if they just jumped out of your hand and onto the floor where some of the chemical could be. i would recommend treating the around the outside walls of your house, especially around and visual ant hills and then placing baits inside, focusing on the problem areas. i also got some borax to sprinkle around the walls of my herp room as a preventative measure (borax is safe, natural and won't harm indoor pets unless they eat it in huge quantities).

    i am not sure if ant bites will harm red eyes or not. you can remove the one that is stuck to the frog with a wet q-tip. small amounts of handling is okay for red eyes--for cleaning, moving to a separate enclosure, etc. you just don't want to handle them unless it's necessary and you want to make every attempt not to let them jump (which they are very good at!) onto carpet or anywhere that they might get fibers or other foreign substances stuck to them.
    - Emily


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    Re: i have ants!! help!!! (911)

    Thank you Emily you have been a huge help!!

    I did remove the dead ant before i left for work this morning. I will try to get out and get some new soil (or bed-a-beast im not sure which i want) i also have vasline at home to put on border of the tank. you have made some great suggestions. Also, I was talking about the ant bait, the stuff they take back to their colony, but my fear is that they would take it back to their colony.. they made in the tank, if thats where it is.. ants were coming and going. Were on the third floor of an apartment building so ill have to put the actual outdoor spray around the slider that leads to the balcony (where the ants started) I had moved the cresties to the other room also before leaving before work, for extra precautionary measures.. I would be devestated to loose them now!

    The plants arent flower-y type plants so i think were safe there.. the only thing i can think of is they were attracted to the dead insects

    thank you again!

  6. #6
    rhac wrangler mlededee's Avatar
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    Re: i have ants!! help!!! (911)

    the main colony of ants is somewhere outside--that's where they are coming and going from at this point (the only reason they are going into the tank right now is for food to eat and take back with them to the main colony). as long as you take measures to prevent them from getting into the tank they won't be able to take the bait into the tank so the frogs will be safe.

    another thing i didn't mention is that you can also erase the scent trail the ants are leaving by scrubbing the floors with a water/vinegar mixture (they follow this trail back to the tank after returning to the colony with food). this trail exists anywhere you currently see a path of ants, but you should also wipe down whatever the frog enclosure is sitting on and the baseboards along the room they are in.
    - Emily


  7. #7
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    Re: i have ants!! help!!! (911)

    thank you for the suggestion.. last night (dinner time) the frogs ate and i took out the dead or uneaten crickets before hte night was over.. the level of ants went down drastically this morning!!!

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