ants, but not your ordinary ants

[John33871]

ok, i got ants, i think, in my chameleon's cage. i think they came from my ficus tree i recently bought. im sure they are not carpenter ants, or fire ants. im going to remove the ficus, as well as all the real plants out. how can i get rid of these ants? there are alot of these things. they are very small and very fast. they are about the third the size of a regular ant. does anyone know what is in my cage?

 

[ColorCham427]

I have had the same problem with those tiny ants... what I did... is really wash my plants well, including the soil. I sprayed the soil so well that I took off a couple inches of it's surface. Then added a little more soil and I put some of those ant traps in my cham's room. (not in his cage!) Make sure to spot clean the cage's floor with a 1/10 bleach/water solution. Also, I cleaned my chameleon's room's floor just to make sure that there wasn't anything attracting the ants.

Hope that helps!

 

[Scotty]

does anyone know what is in my cage?

Yeh ants...lol
Seriously though, I have had the same problem in a dragon enclosure, not sure how they arrived, but they are only in my enclosure and not in the house...they are tiny black ants.
As I have a substrate (palm peat) in my dragon enclosure with a drain, I just over watered it until I virtually drowned the buggers.
In your situation, I would do as you say, remove everything wash it under the shower or whatever, personally, I would have initially when first purchasing the plant, pulled it out of it's pot, washed the roots and folage and repotted in my own potting mix. That way there would be no little bugs entering the cage at all.
Watch them and if they travel in a line, like most ants do on a mission to find food, you can follow them back to their source ie home base, then knowing that, wipe the buggers out!
Good Luck
Scott.

 

[John33871]

well i did wash the plant the night i bought it, i sprayed it with a soaping water mix, but i didnt like scrub it or anything. ok when i wash it, do i i scrub it? and when spraying the soil, can i spray off all the soil? what about spraying a very light pestaside and wash it several times after? what do yall think? these ants dont bother my chameleon, did they bother yours? thanks with all the help!

 

[Electric]

well to nuke the ants I'd say bring the plant(s) out to the yard or driveway and take the hose to those little buggers, or if you have one, pressure wash them/the plant, that will also do the scrubbing so no need for pesticides and should get rid of any survivors hiding in little cracks

i'd probably switch out the soil too if you also think they're in there

 

[Sepioteuthis]

I think these ants are called coconut ants. We had them in our chameleonroom earlier this year. They're hard to get rid of because they usually have multiple nests. We ended up putting ant baits all along their trails (notice how they always walk along the same paths)just outside of or on top of the chameleon cages. The way these baits work is that the ants take the poisoned food back to their nests and that way poison the entire colony. Chameleons don't seem to eat ants so I wasn't worried about them ingesting any of the poison.
It worked well; the chameleons are fine, the plants are fine and the ants are gone.

 

[John33871]

i dont think they are coconut ants, i googled it and they look to be a little to big for the once in my cage. anyways im going to take out every plant, and put the hose to it. im going to also go to wal mart and pick up some new mulch and 4 new pots for the plants. with spraying the tree, wont this hurt the ficus? i will it take off all the leaves? anyways thanks again so much

 

[Electric]

ah yea true i wasn't thinking of that, might want to be gentle on the ficus then

 

[bg77]

I too would take the plants out and wash the roots completely. I have had problems getting these damm worms in my soil when I buy them from the store, and all I do is wash the soil so all that is left is roots. Problem solved.

 

[John33871]

i dont think they are coconut ants, i googled it and they look to be a little to big for the once in my cage. anyways im going to take out every plant, and put the hose to it. im going to also go to wal mart and pick up some new mulch and 4 new pots for the plants. with spraying the tree, wont this hurt the ficus? i will it take off all the leaves? anyways thanks again so much

 

[Jeweledchameleons]

Try Argentine Ants.
They're dark, small and LOVE to set up shop in potted plants
that's how they've moved all over europe and the americas.
I've had to deal with those almost from day one where I live.
The dead crickets attracted them and as soon as they located the potted plant
they moved right in and make a new home.
I had the hardest time trying to figure out where these guys were coming from
once I had move the cage back indoors
eventually I realized what the situation was and started the decontamination.

Vinegar and dish soap out of a spray bottle will kill them and remove any lingering trail markers
but the safest thing to do is to remove the plant
and flush it with water
the ants will either wash away or run to the surface where you can spray them off.
be sure to rinse off the entire cage as well to remove and strays.

best of luck

 

[John33871]

well that is similar what they look like, but they still seem to be smaller than that. to me they are about the size of a flea. its funny my county in texas is in one of the red spots, but i dont know if thats funny or not. im going to take care of everything tomarrow

 

[John33871]

well i think i got out all the ants. i sprayed all the plants and the cage. i rube the cage and plants with vinegar and washed it again. scrubbed the plants and then washed it again. i completely sprayed off all the the soil from the roots of all the plants and re planted the plants in in containers with fresh top soil. man there were thousands of those things in my big ficus and pothos. no wonder i was over runned with them. well not completely good day, tho. after i finished cleaning everything, i start to put everything back, and the bottom of my cage breaks. the board didnt break, just the glue and silcon holding it to the frame. man that pissed me off so bad, lol. well im in the process of fixing my chameleons cage, hopefully will get it done by tomorrow.

 

[John33871]

didnt get all the ants

well i just go look into the cage, and guess what i find. a few of those ants ive been trying to get rid of. i worked on the cage and plants for 3 hours and didnt get them all. i dont know how i didnt get them. i sprayed the trees all down, and got rid of all the original dirt. like i sprayed the dirt right off of the roots, and theyre back. man what am i going to do? just deal with them or what? they are not as bad as they were before, but i dont want them in there. any advice would be nice

here is the original post were i started talking about the problem
https://www.chameleonforums.com/ants-but-not-your-6162/

 

[John33871]

comments or ideas?

 

[Jeweledchameleons]

I think that they may die out with time.
Clearly, you had some sort of "nest" in there
If there's no longer any queen, then all will eventually die off.

They're never easy to get rid of, Best to make sure that any new plants aren't carrying them
and watch for trails if you move the cages outdoors

I've had to break mine down like you did several times due to infestations
so I understand

 

[Scotty]

and watch for trails so I understand

Like I mentioned in the original post, watch the trail, you may have a nest in the room and not in your cage, although you killed a heap off, they may be making their way back.
If you have a few strays hanging on, then as was said before, if there's no queen, they will die off.

 

[moon61]

i had ants earlier this summer coming in from under the baseboard by the chams cage ...i vaccuumed all the ants up and put bay leaves under the baseboard and in a small crack in the foundation...guess it worked because i havent seen an ant since...i read on the net ants do not like bay leaves...

 

[John33871]

well im think thats what is starting to happen, havnt seen any ants in little while now. that or they have already started digging a new home.