[Lucidblue]

Does anyone know a good way to get rid of ants? A swarm of ants invaded my azureus tank and my intermedius quarantine shoebox. Luckily the frogs are all OK. I can't think of a way to get rid of them, but to keep them from coming back I was thinking of putting a ring of liquid soap around the stand I have the tank and shoebox on, would this be safe and work? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Darks!de]

Put in more frogs!!!

 

[DaFrogMan]

Put in more frogs!!!

Seriously! I bet your frogs are having a feast!

I don't think I'd do anything to get rid of the ants right now. I would probably put out some food to attract them, then catch a bunch of them and put them in a tupperware with a little food and keep them as a colony for a while and feed them off to your frogs.

Not so sure if I would try the liquid soap thing tho. Try getting some of that sticky fly paper and wrapping it around the top outside rim of the viv - there's no way those ants can climb that stuff. I'm just affraid that the ants will be able to climb over the liquid soap and get eaten and kill the frogs.

 

[joshua_delancey69]

I totally agree free food just like the spiders in the corners of the room the Mints I have love them and they dont cost me a thing.

 

[Lucidblue]

Actually, the frogs were pretty stressed out when I woke up and turned the lights on. They were in the top corners of the tank, and each had a few ants crawling on them. Usually when I reach in they hop away from my hand, but this time they just let me pick them up. It's not like there's just a few straggling ants in the viv, there's at least a hundred, probably more. I didn't do the liquid soap thing. I read that ants hate the smell of peppermint, so instead I put some peppermint extract on the small table I have the cage set up on. I also left the open bottle in the viv and closed the lid. The frogs aren't going back in there any time soon, in fact, I'm probably going to flood the viv with boiling water and completely re-do it this friday when I get home.

 

[Guest]

When I worked at the Ranario in Costa Rica, we had a terrible ant problem in their D. granuliferus tank-- they would keep eating the babies when they emerged. What we did was to first seal up the tank, but then we made sure all the frogs were off the ground and at night (when the ants emerged) we'd pour boiling water into the substrate. For you, I would suggest you take out the frogs for a day or two and just try the boiling water, then drain it, then boiling water again.
j

 

[mydumname]

Is it safe for the frogs to eat the ants, I know they do in the wild? Also, what kind of lid do you ise that allows ants to get in? I have an all glass lid and I couldn't see them getting through that. Just wondering what lids everyone else is using.

 

[Guest]

I'm not sure about getting the ants out of the enclosure, but putting a little bit of vaseline around the outside bottom edge of the tank works to keep them out in the first place.

 

[Lucidblue]

I have a glass lid from Petco. It has two really small gaps at the sides of the plastic hinge. I'm going to take a few plants and moss out today and try the boiling water idea. I left an open bottle of peppermint extract in the tank overnight, and today there doesn't seem to be as many ants as before, but they could be burrowed somewhere in the substrate. The only thing the peppermint extract worked for was making my room smell like candycanes

 

[geckguy]

I would remove the frogs and keep them in some plastic shoeboxes, basically a quarantine setup, and do the boiling water thing. It doesnt seem like the frogs are eating them, so get them out. I had a colony of ghost ants in my old leuc tank, and there were some but since the frogs enjoyed eating them there were never more than a few visible at one time.

 

[JoshKaptur]

Am I the only one nervous about cracking the glass in a standard aquarium... I've had lights crack aquarium glass before, let alone an instant temperature change from 78 to boiling.

Good chance boiling water would kill the plants anyway, so why not just completely break down the vivarium to remove the ants?

Josh

 

[Dane]

How about just sealing the holes? A dab of silicone on each side should do the trick.

 

[geckguy]

The ants are already in there so sealing the holes will just keep them in, and most likely there is a colony.

 

[Lucidblue]

The frogs are in quarantine tanks. If I used silicone to seal the small gaps, I would be afraid that I'd ruin the hinge of the lid and not be able to open it properly. I took out all the plants and found that there was a colony under a new Pilea aluminum I planted about a week ago. I flooded the tank with boiling water, now that it's drained there aren't any ants in the tank, just a couple on the outside wandering around (pretty easy to kill). I put vaseline all over the bottom trim of the tank so it doesn't happen again. Tomorrow I'm going to go to Home Depot and pick up some new plants. I'll probably post some pics of the "new" tank tomorrow as well.
Thanks everyone.

 

[Lucidblue]

A little late but here it is...

 

[amphibianfreak]

Looks good. I'd add some leaf litter...

 

[Lucidblue]

Will do, once it stops raining over here.