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tegulevi
05-13-2005, 12:08 PM
I have noticed a bunch of tiny ants in my cypress mulch lately. Is this normal or should I do something.

Johelian
05-13-2005, 05:03 PM
I have stacks of ants, and they have all moved to take over my room now. They can be very troublesome if they go after your tegu (thankfully ours I believe are tiny English ants and pose little threat), and you would really need to eradicate them quickly as they are savage when they go to eat something.

Unfortunately its not unusual to get a multitude of bugs in your bags of mulch - hitchhiker bugs they call them :)

prolecat
05-14-2005, 05:11 AM
Yea often times my gf found ants in her columbians.

tegulevi
05-16-2005, 07:11 PM
I took everything out and baked all the mulch and washed to rocks. And the ants came right back the next day. they arent big enough to bite him but he is suped pissed off about them. I removed him frome the cage and set all of his stuff up in the bathroom for now. But is there anything other than newspaper I can go to. he loves to burrow. Will ant traps in the enclosure harm him?

Alan
06-28-2005, 01:37 AM
Follow the trail back to it's main source, hopefully it will lead to an outside nest and pour a mild bleach and liquid soap down any nest site opening.
This will cause certain death to hundreds of ants!
Take out the contaminated Cypress mulch and trash it. Take everything out of enclosure and wash with mild soapy water. Rinse with a water only solution.
I have had this ant stuff happen to me before. Areal pain.
Alan 8)

varnyard
06-28-2005, 02:34 AM
I have something that works, the ants are in the mulch already, along with other little pests. I have a old microwave that I use to nuke the mulch before I use it. That totally removes anything that might be lurking in your mulch. You say that you baked the mulch, If they are coming in from outside, then here is another method that works for outside (not in the house). If your house is off the ground, and you can get under the house, take a few boxes of moth balls open them, and scatter them under your house. This will remove all bugs or ants from under your house.
I live in florida, here we have fire ants, these ants will kill anything that they come into contact with. I use ant bait in my yard to keep them out, and the moth balls under my house to keep them away. I have outdoor enclosures and it would be bad if they got in them.

tegulevi
06-28-2005, 12:21 PM
i just washed everything bought new mulch and burried like 6 of the plastic covered ant traps in it. and i haven't seen one in a month so far, and hes the traps are tegu safe

Johelian
06-29-2005, 08:17 PM
Id be very sceptical about putting those in the cage, as even a quick tongue flick over the poison in those traps doesnt bear thinking about...Im glad theyre disappearing though.

Alan
06-30-2005, 12:42 AM
Hello,
About The Ant Bait Traps: These are very toxic, by burying 6 under substraight you are concentrating the material in a very close area.
If these traps get wet the material does not loose its potency immediately and can make a toxic soup that can give your Tegu a severe problem or even the occuance of Death, this 'bait' can serve a lethal blow FAST.
This bait is a multi-feed food item that is made as to allow the worker ants
to bring tiny bits back to the nest and share it slowly killing the ants off.
Read the label on the bait trap/station..........Just a thought to share.
Alan 8)

Rick
06-30-2005, 02:51 AM
I'd also avoid it. The ones I have used (behind my fridge, under the sink) state to keep out of reach of pets and children.

Rick

tegulevi
06-30-2005, 12:28 PM
these have an entir plastic casing and my tegu never burrows to get to them anyway. he has a rock cave that he chills in instead. If you guys had seen this and problem you would understand I am talking thoudands overnight. two or three nest in under 24 hours. they work fast as hell. and now that i think of it there are 4 in there under 6 inches os substrate. I have tried everything else there is to try. i baked every single piece of damn bark at 400 in the oven. and it still didnt work. and they have to be coming from it because i have no ants anywhere else.

P.S. if he starts to burrow then I will take them out. but right now they are not a threat to him. plus he spends ha;f the day roaming

Rick
07-01-2005, 03:33 AM
but right now they are not a threat to him

I'd be afraid that a few contaminated ants would find their way into my tegus water, thus infecting your tegu with minor amounts of pesticide.

I'd also be worried about the trail of pesticide the ants leave as they leave the bait trap and start carrying the pesticide back to their nest/mound. The pesticide will unlikely stay inside those plastic traps.

Hopefully the small amounts that your tegu may get exposed to doesn't cause serious damage.

Rick

varnyard
07-01-2005, 05:04 AM
It just would not be worth taking the chance of losing a tegu. I would not put anything around, or in any of my enclosures that have the potential of killing my reptiles. It is not a option to me at all.

tegulevi
07-01-2005, 02:05 PM
Well this is over 2 months old and nobody seemed to have any better ideas. I have tried everything else I could think of. do you guys have any Ideas to offer

07-01-2005, 03:04 PM
Well this is over 2 months old and nobody seemed to have any better ideas. I have tried everything else I could think of. do you guys have any Ideas to offer


Some stuff that you may or may not have tried already...try a different substrate. Maybe you'll have better luck with orchid bark. Or perhaps a different brand of Cypress mulch. I use Timberline Gold Ribbon Premium Cypress Mulch and I have yet to find a bug of any sort in the cypress mulch that I buy. It's less than $2/bag. Keep the cage extra clean. Ants aren't going to want to live where there's no food. Put the ant traps around the outside of the cage as opposed to inside w/ the tegu. The ants will find them.

varnette
07-01-2005, 03:31 PM
We buy our Cypress mulch at Walmart for 1.50 a bag, and I want to suggest, can the cage be relocated? If you are able, Clean out cage and move it, and start over with clean bedding etc, Be sure to wash allthe rocks and food bowls etc very well so the ants will not be attracted again to whatever it is they like in there. I hope you can get to the bottom of this without having to place the pet in danger of poisoning. I am new at this but I would like to see the tegu safe and happy!

Happy herpin, this is my first post in here!

Regards, Varnette

tegulevi
07-01-2005, 04:50 PM
I told you guys I am going to take them out. they have already done thier job with NO ill effects whatsoever. They were just Burried to prevent nests. And it worked perfectly. ANd I dont even feed in the tank so I dont know what the deal was other than perfect conditions in the tank for a nest.


One last comment: I did what I had to do to save my tegu, who was very very pissed off and had to live in the bathroom for a week. Ants were crawling on him and Some ants do bite. so it was either use the traps or let ants come back and crawl all over him again. He is perrfectly healthy and shedding and growing normally. BUt its over and done with now

varnette
07-01-2005, 05:18 PM
I just had to put my part in and make sure you were on the same page with the dangers, I see there is no problem now, and like I said that was my first post in theTegu. We just got three new b & w argentine tegus and have had quite a few reptiles in the past and now. My husband has many years experience with them and has made me curious. I think of them as kids I guess, and worry about them being in a dangerous place. If you think about it there are a lot of new keepers out there, and I have seen them do some pretty dumb stuff, I look at it like any other thing in life, nobody can know everything, we gotta learn it for the first time somewhere, so noone is dumb in my eyes. So no offense to you of course, as I see now you have it under control, but people have been known to do some ignorant stuff out there, right! That is what the site is for and I am glad the ones that need real help come here and I see a lot of problems resolved in here. I keep a positive note, and I hope you can do the same. It is hard to type and get your point across sometimes and people are easy to be taken wrong when typing on the net, as we lack the personality tones you would get if you were talking person to person. So to avoid that, I just want to say in closing, I am glad they are ok, and maybe this experience will help a fellow herper get the info he needs without having too much stress on the animals. Thank you for all of your input and participation in finding an ant infestation resolution.

I have not looked at this site much, do you have pics of your animals in here somewhere? This is my 2nd visit here and I have a lot to see yet. Thanks!!! Happy Herpin'

Rick
07-01-2005, 05:27 PM
I am glad everything worked out. I am sorry I somehow missed this thread when it was originally posted or I would have tried to come up with a safer solution for you back then.

I did some research and called 4 pest control companies and 12 greenhouses for a safe, natural way of removing ants from a garden location that has access to it by pets/animals. I was told of several options but one seems to be prefect for us....

Eucalyptus!

It would seem most ants (and many anphids) can not stand the smell or taste of eucalyptus. I was recommended to mix a few drops of eucalyptus oil with a couple gallons of water and spray down the area. I was also recommended by someone else to just scatter some eucalyptus leaves in the area. My assumption is that mixing a bag of eucalyptus mulch with your cypress mulch would have the same effect.

The eucalyptus method was recommended by a few places, but I confirmed it with most of the others and they all agree it is one of many DIY methods for natural pest removal.

I hope that helps.

Rick

Rick
07-01-2005, 05:32 PM
like I said that was my first post in theTegu. We just got three new b & w argentine tegus and have had quite a few reptiles in the past and now.

Well then.. Welcome to The Tegu Community @ www.thetegu.com - Feel free to introduce yourself in the 'Introductions' forum. :)


I have not looked at this site much, do you have pics of your animals in here somewhere? This is my 2nd visit here and I have a lot to see yet. Thanks!!! Happy Herpin'

He does, his tegu was also just chosen for the Picture Of The Month (POTM) for June. (http://www.thetegu.com/postt816.html) :)

Rick

tegulevi
07-01-2005, 06:19 PM
I do apologize if I sounded like a jerk in that last comment.

I will use the eucalyptus method next time I have a problem. Thanks rick

varnyard
07-01-2005, 09:58 PM
Hey man its ok, we are all just here for the same reason, we like our reptiles. And we have the same pets, everyone is here trying to help each other, and thats what it is all about.

ElliotJasChief
07-02-2005, 05:01 AM
personally I'm here to start fights because I hate all of you..... :wink:

Johelian
07-03-2005, 03:03 PM
I very recently managed to (hopefully!) eradicate my ant problem. I discovered their nest underneath my tegus heat mat (i didnt think they could possibly fit under there, but they managed) inside the cage. The first thing to do was to remove the tegu, clear away mulch around the area and pour boiling water around the nest to isolate it - a good reason as to why your tegu cage should be waterproof ;) After that, I just kept pouring boiling water onto it, breaking it apart and pouring more in and so on. After this, I took out all the mulch and soaked it all in boiling water in the bath for a couple of hours. Very lengthy process, but it has killed everything in the substrate now without needing to use ant traps. The ants I had were unaffected by them anyway.