Happy New Year 2017, AC Family!

First, please allow us to thank you for the phenomenal support this year. We wish you and your pet ants all the best in 2017, and we have a lot of great things planned ahead for you and your pet ants. Ant love forever!

Sadly, we’re off to a rough start with the Golden Empire (Yellow Crazy Ants/Anoplolepis gracilipes) who are being eaten alive by mites. We don’t know what to do! This is a severe mite crisis and in this week’s video we explore what steps we took to deal with an ant mite infestation. Do you have any suggestions on treatment?

HELP! My Ants Are Being Eaten Alive By Mites! | A New Year’s Special

Hey, wait a second here…

Guys, do you see something funny?

Those workers look kinda strange.

See those bumps on their body?

What is that?

I hope that isn’t what I think it is.

Oh my God, guys.

I can’t believe what I’m seeing!

Mites!

How did the Golden Empire contract mites?!

Please subscribe to my channel, and hit the bell icon. Welcome to the AC Family.

This is the story of the Golden Empire.

The Golden Empire

In ant keeping, as the caregiver of your pet ant colony, you can try your best to control every aspect of your colony’s life.

You control their living space or what they live in, the temperature and humidity conditions in which they live, you control their diet, you can even keep their world as aesthetically beautiful and pristine as you possibly can.

But sometimes, there may be things that might be out of your control, things that quite literally slip through the cracks.

Like when something alien from the outside enters into your colony’s universe and infiltrates the ant matrix.

When this happens, everything you and the ants have built together becomes exposed and vulnerable to these unexpected visitors.

In many cases, the unexpected visitors could be friendly or indifferent, but in other cases, they can be malevolent and unwelcome agents like infectious diseases, viruses, fungi, or parasites.

I first came to notice these unexpected visitors as I watched my Yellow Crazy Ant colony, which you guys named The Golden Empire, seem to rather be underwhelmed by their cockroach and jam meals that I gave to them as Christmas gifts.

Something was off.

I didn’t know if they just weren’t feeling my gift offerings or if there was something wrong, so I took a closer look at the colony.

Looking into the nest, the colony seemed normal.

There were lots of workers and indeed the brood appeared healthy.

The Golden Empire’s 3 queens were still intact and alive.

The Mites

But then I looked into their water test tubes, and that’s when I saw our unwelcome aliens.

Mites, and a lot of them.

See them on the ants’ bodies?

For ant keepers, spotting mites is similar to discovering a strange mark or growth on your body.

It’s alarming and you know it shouldn’t be there, and you try to assess what it means.

Some mites can be good and beneficial, like those that simply eat the ants’ garbage.

I see them in the Dark Knights’ nests congregating in their garbage rooms where they feed on the colony’s refuse.

In this case, it is a mutualistic symbiosis, but then, as mentioned, there are times when the relationship isn’t so cooperative.

It is well known in ant keeping that parasitic mites can wipe out an entire ant colony very fast.

Remember this newly acquired Camponotus colony from several videos back?

We spotted some parasitic mites on them.

Well, here’s an update: they were all completely dead the following week.

The queen never laid eggs, and the workers died one by one, as the mites feasted on their blood through soft tissues in their leg joints, necks, and gasters.

Judging from the ants in these water test tubes, the mite infestation was severe.

Every single member of the Golden Empire had dozens of mites of different sizes stuck to their bodies.

The mites also lived in their tubes, inside the nest, likely their outworld, and I could even see them being able to squeeze out of the formicarium and wander the outside of the Golden Empire’s setup.

So gross!

Obviously, from a scientific standpoint, they didn’t come out of nowhere.

The mites must have entered this colony from somewhere.

Let’s look at the possibilities.

First, they could have come in through a Trojan Horse of some sort.

My guess was a mite or mites may have latched on to the body of one of the Golden Empire’s prey insects, placed into the outworld at some point, thereby giving the mite access to the colony and the nest.

Second, they could have come in through the ants themselves.

I was looking through some older footage of the Golden Empire when they first moved into their setup, and I did notice something strange on the gaster of one of the queens.

See that strange bump?

At the time, I considered that maybe that was a mite, but brushed it off as possibly debris because in some shots the thing disappeared.

So if it was a mite, it could have gone on to become the ancestor to all of these mites that now affect the entire colony.

Third, the mite could simply have been a lone wanderer, having made its way into the Golden Empire’s setup from the outside somehow.

However the mites got in, they needed to be dealt with immediately.

I spoke to my good ant keeper friend Drew, remember our GAN Farmer from California?

Well, he sent me photos of his ants from the past that had mites.

He informed me that his experience with parasitic mites was like most ant keepers’, and that was that once he spotted one of his colonies had parasitic mites, it only took a few days for the ant colony to die out.

Indeed, not what I wanted to hear at all.

However, he also showed me a peculiar photo he took under a microscope of an ant that had some other mites that were not harming or feeding off the ant nor causing any colony harm.

They were described as “phoretic” mites, meaning the mites would hitch rides on the ants to and from their food sources, but weren’t actually parasitic nor feeding from the ants’ blood.

Hmmm… this made me think.

Could it be that these mites were phoretic and beneficial mites to the Golden Empire, eating the ants’ garbage and using the ants for nothing more than transporting mounts?

If that was the case, that would be pretty darn cool!

After all, it didn’t seem the colony was dwindling in numbers yet.

If not, and these were indeed deadly, parasitic mites feeding from the Golden Empire’s blood or hemolymph (the technical term for insect blood), then the Golden Empire, if consistent with ant keeper testimonies, had just a few days to live.

I just had to wait a few days to see if they would dwindle in numbers and die out.

Meanwhile, I couldn’t just do nothing.

I had to do everything I could to help the Golden Empire.

I had to do more research.

It seems there isn’t a whole lot of info about parasitic ant mites, at least not readily available through online articles.

So, I tapped into the best info pool source I knew: you guys, the AC Family.

I asked you on our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram if any of you had experience with getting rid of ant mites.

By the way, guys, if you haven’t yet, please take the time to follow us and like us on these three platforms so we can stay connected.

I’ve put links in the description box.

Now, the response was amazing!

You guys gave some super helpful suggestions.

Thank you so much!

So, a lot of you guys suggested that adding citrus fruits like lemon to their setup could eradicate the mites.

This, to me, seemed like a simple option, and though I didn’t understand the science of it, I couldn’t afford to wait, so I bought some lemons and got straight to work.

Here was my plan.

In the middle of this tube, I was going to attach this AC Test Tube Portal v2, and inside it place a slice of lemon.

I was also going to attach this test tube setup full of lemon juice.

I didn’t know if it was the juice or the slice of lemon that would cause the mites to be deterred, so I wanted to expose the ants to both.

Here we go, guys.

Let’s deal with those pestering mites, shall we?

AC Family, the Golden Empire needs us.

Cutting the tube and attaching our AC Test Tube Portal here and yuck, just the thought of the mites infesting this tube spilling out onto my fingers makes me shiver in disgust.

I made sure to use disinfecting wipes to clean up all debris and escaped mites.

I also proceeded to place a slice of lemon in the outworld of the Golden Empire.

AC Family, let’s watch what happens.

The very first ant has discovered the lemon and she’s called her sisters over.

Word spreads fast that something strange is just outside the nest.

Ants coming from the outworld also approached the lemon, but strangely, it seems the ants don’t want to come in contact with it at all.

May God help the Golden Empire.

The next day, it seemed as though the ants got over their lemon-phobia.

Ants were inspecting the AC Test Tube Portal and crawling over the lemon slice.

Still no interest in the lemon juice test tube setup, though, but it seems the ants piled some garbage and dead bodies in that tube overnight.

Hmmm…

Outworld

Looking into the outworld, the same was true.

It looked like ants were actually congregating around our slice of lemon.

I don’t know if the ants enjoyed the added moisture of the lemon slice or if there was indeed something in the lemon that was relieving the ants, perhaps of the discomfort caused by the mites.

I could only speculate at this point.

Looking at the tubes now, I could still see mites, but I did catch ants grooming themselves and each other.

This, to me, was a very promising sign.

Perhaps the lemon was somehow making it easier for the ants to rid their bodies of the mites or causing the ants to want to groom more?

Again, just speculation.

The other tube connecting the nest and outworld was our control study.

I purposely did not attach any lemon to this tube in order to help determine if the lemon had any real effect on our mite problem, and indeed, this control tube was still riddled with mites.

I planned on continuing to have this tube be our control by keeping it un-lemoned.

Based on all this, I figured perhaps it was too early to tell if the lemons were actually working at getting rid of our mites.

Meanwhile, I had to do more.

Changes

So, I made sure to change the hydration medium in the colony’s Hybrid Nest and made sure they continued to have fresh hydration medium over the next few weeks.

I also decided to change their water test tubes much more frequently.

I also resolved to only let food lay around in the outworld for 1 or 2 days max.

Everything needed to be extra clean now.

Now, let’s fast forward to one week later…

The ants were finally warming up to our lemon juice test tube.

Great!

Our lemon slice was now kinda dried up so I had to replace it.

Oh no, this slice was a little big.

Looks like we’re going to have to settle with a little lemon juice pond at the bottom there.

Results

As for the tube a week later, I was surprised to note that it did look much cleaner with fewer mites!

Wow!

Could this mean that the lemon is working?

Looking into the outworld, I found this interesting!

The ants were eating their food on the lemon.

See that cockroach they’ve dragged up there?

Wow!

So what could this mean?

So far, we still don’t know if these mites are parasitic or if they are just eating the ants’ food and garbage.

If the mites were indeed repelled by the lemon, could this behavior of the ants eating by the lemon be the Golden Empire’s way of controlling the mites by making sure they don’t get at their food?

And if so, could this then be a sign that the mites aren’t parasitic after all, but instead phoretic, but also somewhat of a nuisance to the Golden Empire?

It’s been a week and the colony is still alive and thriving, so could we safely conclude then these mites aren’t the lethal parasitic kind?

So many questions, but overall it seemed like 1 week with 2 slices of lemon was producing visible results, so it was time to increase their dosage!

I cut up more slices of lemon and completely filled up their outworld.

I know it looked a bit more crowded now, but this needed to be done.

Ant mites aren’t a widely researched topic, so we needed to do this in the name of science.

We are all now officially scientists hoping to make a discovery to see if lemon will eradicate an ant mite problem.

Exciting stuff.

Next Steps

The next day, looking into their water test tube, somehow it seemed the ants looked healthier, still with mites, but perhaps with fewer mites.

But what shocked me the most was this.

Droves of Golden Empire workers congregating in the tubes.

Our control tube still with tons of mites, not so crowded.

The sight was amazing and perplexing.

So AC Family, here’s where I need your help again.

My questions are as follows:

1.Do you think the lemon therapy is working, and should we continue this regimen?

2.Do you think these mites might be beneficial to the ants and we should stop this lemon therapy altogether?

3.Should we mix this lemon therapy with some other treatment, and what treatments do you suggest we try?

Let your answer be heard, AC Family, by voting on this iCard poll here, and if you choose option 3, please leave some suggestions in the comments section for ideas.

[I have been thinking additional treatments like giving the Golden Empire a huge terrarium natural nest to give them a much more open and natural setup.

I have also considered releasing predatory mites to eat these mites.

Or maybe we should just leave the mites and allow them to live on the Golden Empire ants’ bodies.]

I would hate to see these amazing ants die.

Please help me decide our next step in this Golden Empire Saga.

AC Family, the Golden Empire depends on us.

Outro

Thank you guys so much for watching this video!

Now, although the Golden Empire isn’t off to a great start into the new year, I would like to wish you all a Happy and joyous New Year 2017.

I look forward to another epic year with you guys, the AC Family, further exploring and discovering the amazing world of ants!

For those of you who haven’t subscribed yet, please do join us by hitting that subscribe button!

This channel relies heavily on you, the viewers, and the fate of these ants depends greatly on you, the AC Family.

We upload a brand new video every Saturday at 8 AM EST, and we also upload hidden videos like this one here, where you can simply do more ant watching with less of me talking!

We call those who watch these videos, the Inner Colony.

This week’s Inner Colony hidden video is of the ants reacting to lemons for the first time!

On this channel, we have also taught hundreds of thousands of people how to keep pet ant colonies, so we welcome all of you guys to watch our free tutorial videos on this channel, join this neat hobby, and check out our professional ant keeping gear at our shop.

And of course, we can’t end the video without the AC Question of the Week.

Last week, we asked:

The honey into which the Dark Knights’ cockroaches were dipped came from what country?

Congratulations to Jad Gamerz, who correctly answered Canada!

Congratulations, Jad, you just won a free AC Test Tube Rack v2 from our shop!

And for this week’s question of the week, we ask:

What is the technical term for insect blood?

Leave your answer in the comments section and you could win a free eBook handbook from our shop, which contains everything you need to know about ant keeping and, in my opinion, is a literary necessity for any new ant keeper.

Until next week, AC Family, it’s ant love forever!