Ants in my bug shipment

[Jeevesieb]

Hi there chamily,

I got a shipment of bugs yesterday; dubia roaches, silk worms, horned worms, BSFL (the usual). I bought them from a reputable source I have ordered from many times. (I don't want to name them here yet because I have reached out to their customer service and am waiting for an answer from them). The dubia roaches and silk worms both had TINY black ants in the containers. I didn't add the dubias to my existing colony and kept the other containers separate while I reached out to the company. Now, these are not ants I have ever seen before (in California our little black ants are bigger than these). I woke up this morning to find the ants had eaten all my silk worms and the dubias are struggling. I considered this shipment of bugs a loss, emailed the company again, and put the containers in ziplock bags. I'm worried these ants are not native to my area. I just found them trying to get into my fogger. Now I'm worried about them getting into my cham's enclosure and what if he eats them? Sorry this is so long. Just trying to figure out if I'm unnecessarily freaking out. Thoughts? I attached a picture for reference.

 

[Troia]

I honestly would put everything in the freezer or escape proof containers

 

[MissSkittles]

Poor silkies! Poor roaches?
Ants (and every other bug known to God and man) are always a fear and occasional problem here for me in Florida. I keep bait traps for ants and roaches scattered around everywhere. I do spray the areas uninhabited by my animals. I’ve accidentally brought in ants a few times when using hibiscus. My chams pretty much ignored the ants, but I freaked seeing the dratted things walking on my chams. If they had decided to eat a few, I think they’d have been ok. This might help you. https://reptilesguide.com/can-chameleons-eat-ants/ To get rid of the little crappers, I use Terro drops. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=terro+li...o+drops,aps,132&ref=nb_sb_ss_pltr-xclick_2_11 I get the bottle of liquid so I can put as many or as few drops as I feel I need. In the past, I was able to put the small cardboard tabs with a drop of Terro on each outer side of my enclosure and poof! No more ants. I once had a colony living inside one of the body panels of my car (that was fun) and after putting some drops on my car, no more ants living in my car.
I can’t tell you what to do with the surviving dubia. Maybe try isolating them and see how they do.

 

[Jeevesieb]

Poor silkies! Poor roaches?
Ants (and every other bug known to God and man) are always a fear and occasional problem here for me in Florida. I keep bait traps for ants and roaches scattered around everywhere. I do spray the areas uninhabited by my animals. I’ve accidentally brought in ants a few times when using hibiscus. My chams pretty much ignored the ants, but I freaked seeing the dratted things walking on my chams. If they had decided to eat a few, I think they’d have been ok. This might help you. https://reptilesguide.com/can-chameleons-eat-ants/ To get rid of the little crappers, I use Terro drops. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=terro+liquid+ant+drops&crid=3UQYSCZR8K1LK&sprefix=Terro+drops,aps,132&ref=nb_sb_ss_pltr-xclick_2_11 I get the bottle of liquid so I can put as many or as few drops as I feel I need. In the past, I was able to put the small cardboard tabs with a drop of Terro on each outer side of my enclosure and poof! No more ants. I once had a colony living inside one of the body panels of my car (that was fun) and after putting some drops on my car, no more ants living in my car.
I can’t tell you what to do with the surviving dubia. Maybe try isolating them and see how they do.

In your car!?!? That is nightmare fuel right there. On my way to get Terro drops. I'm totally stunned. Everything I got yesterday is in separate sealed bags at this point. I couldn't believe they ate the silkworkms alive.