Ants!

[teachincrabbie]

Sorry I don’t have time for the template. I have good conditions. My crabs were doing great.

But today there are ants all over the tank what do I do??? I’m freaking out help!!!!!!!

[wodesorel]

Remove all decor, scrape the top layer of sand, and see if they are coming from inside or outside the tank. If they are just raiding for food, move the location of the tank for now and clean well. Treat for the ants however you normally would. If they have moved into the tank - if you find the white eggs or larvae - then the crabs need removed and everything needs dumped and cleaned.

[Xenocrab]

That's good to know in case we ever have that problem. Would that be a situation to dig up molters? We have somewhere around 30 crabs, so there's always crabs down at any given time.

[teachincrabbie]

Thank you so much! I dumped everything. They were pretty deep in the soil. I know they had only been there overnight at most but they had dug deep. I had one molted but he is small and had already been down a few weeks. When we found him he looked bigger so we are pretty sure he finished molting. I changed to iso him anyway in the temporary tote with a soda bottle. He was strong enough to escape that so I think he is good. I dipped all the crabs in the fresh water because some ants were on them.

Anyway, I had to dump the substrate but had enough extra to set up a new tank but I could only get 5 inches. So hopefully I can add an inch or 2 tomorrow.

All the decor was covered in ants. Even hours later. So we are powerwashing and boiling everything.

Tonight they are back in the tank with a few climb pieces, their water and food. And we put a dish soap ring around their tank.

[RiNiKy506]

Use vinegar to wipe around their tank, ants hate vinegar and it removes their scent trail they leave behind. I had an ant problem a few years ago, I wiped my floors with vinegar/water and then I soaked paper towels in vinegar, rolled them up, and put them all along the base trim in our kitchen where I knew they were coming in and it worked great. I haven’t had any ants problems since, besides an occasional few here and there, but nothing major like that year.

[wodesorel]

That's good to know in case we ever have that problem. Would that be a situation to dig up molters? We have somewhere around 30 crabs, so there's always crabs down at any given time.

It depends how many ants there are. A few is nothing major, so long as the area is cleaned well so they can't lead the colony back to find more food. A swarm can be bad news if they go after molting crabs, they can attack and eat living crabs. If they are in the substrate then for sure molters need to be secured, but once the ants are dead there again is not major worry. If you ever find babies, that is an immediate full clean so you can be guaranteed to get them all and their queen - breeding in the tank cannot be dealt with conservatively!