Ants! 'Emergency' rehousing of A. gigas plings

Today I discovered that ants had moved into my 10 gallon setup for A. gigas. They weren't just sneaking in and snacking from the food bowl, either. They moved IN. A whole colony. They can't have been there long- I check on my pedes every night, and just last night gave them a good misting and some fresh cucumber. All seemed well. Today when I checked on them it took barely 10 seconds for me to realize that something was amiss. A closer look revealed that ants were digging in the soil, visible through the glass sides, creating tunnels like you see in an ant farm.

Now, normally I'm very sympathetic towards ants. But there's no way I'm letting them co-house with my millipedes, especially not with the lives of my baby plings at risk! I quickly set about putting together new housing for the gigas. Luckily I had extra substrate on hand, and didn't need to make a trip to the store. I scooped up and moved my two adults first, and then started gently rummaging through the leaf litter for plings. I moved only those that were at the surface, and counted as I worked- 42!

I know that there are more below ground, plings for sure, and hopefully my third adult is safe, and the ants have not damaged it in it's molt. I will continue to check for pedes on the surface as the night goes on, and tomorrow I'm going to take the whole tank outside and do my best to dig up and search for survivors.

This really sucks, especially knowing that there might be more eggs/tiny young deep in the substrate.

Any ideas/tips on how to keep this from happening in the future?

That's scary!!! Good thing you caught it before it got worse.

Some people put their terrariums on tables that have all their legs in bowls of water to keep the ants away.

Good luck getting everyone out! Hope you still have a ton of plings and eggs!

Double sided tape on the bottom of the enclosure can work too.

Thanks for the ideas! I'll be sure to take precautions once I get everything in order.

The count for the night is 67 plings safely recovered.

Fyreflye said:

Thanks for the ideas! I'll be sure to take precautions once I get everything in order.

The count for the night is 67 plings safely recovered.

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That's a good number! Did you find the other adult?

That sounds like a nightmare. The water bowls and double stick tape will work. You could also force the ants to relocate. When they start colonies in our home and we want them out pronto (they love electrical appliances around here) I load a 60 cc syringe with a needle with water, or soapy water and keep carefully squirting into the main mass of ants. They will often get the clue and start packing up their eggs and moving elsewhere. If they do just give them unobstructed egress as they are much more adept and removing themselves than humans.

I did what I was dreading and dug through the substrate today. I recovered an additional 46 plings, but a few were very obviously in the molt. I was as gentle as I could be, and immediately re-buried them in the safe house, but I know I'll lose some of them from the trauma of being disturbed mid-molt. I found only the remains of my missing adult pede- I can't blame her death on the ants for sure, but it is suspicious.

Well that's good that you got a bunch more out of there. Hopefully most of them pull through!

I'm pretty sure they'll be fine. I just did an emergency rehousing of my flameleg plings to stall "millipede blight".

You'll lose a few but tis how things go.

So far so good. I need to set up a larger enclosure and move my adults back into it, but I think the plings will do just fine in the KK for now.