Teeny ants keep invading crabitat and eating hermit crab's food!!!

For the discussion of any creepy crawlies that may have taken up residence in your tank, including mites. Please note that isopods have their own forum.
Post Reply

Topic author
TheCrabbyJohnsons
Posts: 11
Joined: Mon Jul 06, 2020 5:42 pm
Location: Hampton, VA

Teeny ants keep invading crabitat and eating hermit crab's food!!!

Post by TheCrabbyJohnsons » Tue Aug 04, 2020 11:48 am

Some teeny ants have invaded the crabitat and have been eating the food in the food dish. Anyone have any advice about getting rid of them? As best as I can tell, they are grease ants. I removed the top layer of sand and thought I got rid of them (replaced the sand so it is the right level and consistency again). But they have come back with a vengeance. I removed all fresh fruit from the crabitat. Haven't tried the vaseline around the cage yet... Would that be bad to put next to the UTH I have on the side? Trying to locate where they are coming from in the rest of the house... Would love to hear what others have done!

User avatar

CrabbyLover77
Posts: 3145
Joined: Sun Aug 04, 2019 11:30 pm
Location: PA
Contact:

Re: Teeny ants keep invading crabitat and eating hermit crab's food!!!

Post by CrabbyLover77 » Tue Aug 04, 2020 1:30 pm


TheCrabbyJohnsons wrote:Some teeny ants have invaded the crabitat and have been eating the food in the food dish. Anyone have any advice about getting rid of them? As best as I can tell, they are grease ants. I removed the top layer of sand and thought I got rid of them (replaced the sand so it is the right level and consistency again). But they have come back with a vengeance. I removed all fresh fruit from the crabitat. Haven't tried the vaseline around the cage yet... Would that be bad to put next to the UTH I have on the side? Trying to locate where they are coming from in the rest of the house... Would love to hear what others have done!
Hi!

I would replace as much substrate as you can (all of it if possible) first. As far as I know, ants can't jump. That's why I use a little hanging cup of water above my hummingbird feeders. The ants can't get around it to get to the sugar water in the feeder. Adding plain petroleum jelly or vaseline around the bottom of the tank sounds like a good idea. The ants shouldn't be able to get past it. The trick is to get all the ants out of the tank so they can't reproduce. But in the meantime, put the vaseline on the tank so no more can get in.
Sorry you're having so much trouble!

Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk

My Pets: 2 Pomeranians, 1 Russian tortoise, fishes/snails(40 gal freshwater aquarium), and 13 hermit crabs.
"Hunting is not a sport. In a sport, both sides should know they're in the game." -Paul Rodriguez-
https://www.etsy.com/shop/BigBeausBouti ... form-mcnav

User avatar

CombatMist
Posts: 58
Joined: Thu Jul 16, 2020 12:53 pm
Location: Utah

Re: Teeny ants keep invading crabitat and eating hermit crab's food!!!

Post by CombatMist » Wed Aug 05, 2020 1:56 pm

Can the substrate be salvaged? Such ad boiling or baking it? Salt it?

Would janitor bugs help? Bugs that eat the extra food. Can help remove rotting food. Any bugs that can coexist with hermies but remove ants?

Hhmm remove the ants habitat. Clean the room to see where ants are invading from.

Moat around crabitat. Few ants handle water well. Can you put crabitat on larging baking sheet and fill with water
Craber since (december 2019)
5 pps, 1 successful molt 🥳
20 gallon long

Post Reply