Ants!!

[B Jet]

...I has them! I was watering and doing some other maintenance I had been neglecting. I drenched the bromeliad, and noticed the little buildup of 'ant-hill' on the base. Then they went crazy. They're jet-black, and the smallest ants i've ever seen, think less than half the head of a pin. They seem to be completely arboreal (that bromeliad is over 2 ft above the 'ground'), and take no interest in my herps - in that picture there are probably 30 of em swarming around, and you can see a tree frog just chilling on the top leaves. As i watched em, they started taking tiny white pupa out of the plant, and stashing them between the bark on the log, so there's a full colony. They must have moved in recently, i've gotten shipments from both tropiflora.com and blackjungle.com in the last 6 months.

So right now, I'm taking this as a good thing. Even noticed a few appropriately tiny spiders too! I've been unable to find what they might be, does anybody have any info or idea what species they are?

...might be time to get some of these: Ant Plants




also are added as attachments

circled is the 'mound', and they are running all over in the photo, my camera can't focus close enough to see them.

[Oblivion]

This thread should solve your problems.

Have fun!

Dart Frog Forum on Husbandry and Habitat Information - Eliminating Vivarium Pests Using the CO2 method

[CLennerton]

there is also a thread here that is about getting rid of pests

Eliminating Vivarium Pests (copied from one of martys posts)

[beckdg]

marty posted it on all his forums afaik. it's on Geckos Unlimited too.

[B Jet]

thanks for the info, had no idea how to proceed. But right now i'm more of the opinion as the last post on the dartfrogz board;
"I also don't want to kill the majority of my microfauna off for one bad bug. One has to know the whole story to weigh the pros and cons."

The herps don't seem to be bothered, the plants in the area have never been healthier, and you can't even see the ants unless you are looking very closely. I imagine they could provide some useful services, make the viv healthier as a whole. But until i see any cons, i'm not gonna attempt any extermination. I at least want to ID what they are first, get some more info.

[B Jet]

Bit of an update -

I've let the ants alone, let 'nature' take it's course, and so far haven't seen any negative effects; they still leave my animals alone. I have seen them cleaning up dead insects and the like, and I believe they also feed on nectar from the various small flowers that bloom in there. I think they might help with the overall hygiene by removing dead or rotting stuff...

Also, figuring that a local species moving inside was more likely than getting an exotic type of ants via plant shipments, I started looking closely outside. Sure enough, I saw what looks like the same species crawling on a tree in my backyard (central Texas). I guess i'd never noticed them before because i just had never looked close enough.

[beckdg]

sounds like it all worked out. thanks for the update.