# Ants colonized my filter!



## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Ants love humidity.


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## Jeffww (Aug 6, 2010)

It's warm and insects are attracted to electricty/electromagnetic sources.


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## Sharkfood (May 2, 2010)

That's definitely one of the weirdest things I've ever heard of in the aquarium hobby.


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## Alyssa (Sep 16, 2011)

Oh gods - that is like my worst nightmare - part of the reason I haven't had the heart to reset up all my terrariums is because one winter I had three ant colonies engaged in battle in multiple tanks that pretty much killed everything I had, was totally devastating and it took me months to kill them in the dirt without poisons.

One of the things that soothed me was that it couldn't happen with a water tank ... now I will have nightmares, ack!

Good luck with them!! Hope they decide that is a bad bad bad place!


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## Sharkfood (May 2, 2010)

Just put some spiders in to eat the ants. Of course them you will need a frog to catch the spider, bird to catch the frog, cat to catch the bird, dog to catch the cat, and a horse that then gets swallowed by an old lady. At least I think that's how the song goes.


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## Abrium (Jan 7, 2011)

pictures please!


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## sampster5000 (Oct 30, 2010)

Sharkfood said:


> Just put some spiders in to eat the ants. Of course them you will need a frog to catch the spider, bird to catch the frog, cat to catch the bird, dog to catch the cat, and a horse that then gets swallowed by an old lady. At least I think that's how the song goes.


:thumbsup:

I've got the ant problem as well on my 5.5 gallon. They fill up the empty space on the between the water line and the top of the rim and they also cover my filter. I dont see them doing any harm but they are very annoying!


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## Jeffww (Aug 6, 2010)

sampster5000 said:


> :thumbsup:
> 
> I've got the ant problem as well on my 5.5 gallon. They fill up the empty space on the between the water line and the top of the rim and they also cover my filter. I dont see them doing any harm but they are very annoying!


Free fish food.


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## Sharkfood (May 2, 2010)

> Free fish food.


No kidding. I can't imagine my tetras letting a glob of ants get past them.


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## iKine (Aug 4, 2011)

Thats crazy!

We had a spider mite problem in our health canada garden, we tried everything to get rid of them with no success. We first tried lady bugs, which ended up being over-come by the mites and couldnt eat them fast enough. We finally called our local university for help and they sold 3000 "devil-mites" which apparently are genetically bred to help rid people of insect problems with no pesticides.

The best part, once they get rid of the spider mites, they go canabalistic and eat each other haha


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## AdamP. (Sep 30, 2005)

I raised everything up off the ground and out of the cabinet to make it harder for the ants to locate a new nook to occupy. I just checked and it appears all the ants have gone away. I think I rinsed the queen down the drain. I did feed a few of the ant eggs and larvae to my fish, the rummynose liked it!


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## Alyssa (Sep 16, 2011)

Well, you know ... it might be a great excuse to get an archer fish - those guys are great fun to watch when they squirt water to push their prey into the water! I really enjoyed those guys.


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## JoraaÑ (Jun 29, 2009)

I have posted 1 before regarding ant in tank and filter...can't find the post. But try this use a piece of Cinnamon stick near the tank.over the filter(outside) and see what happens in a day or 2.


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## astrosag (Sep 3, 2010)

That is incredible...understandable yet still bizarre at the same time!

We have ant problems with our gecko tank if food is left on the top of the tank. Always struggled to keep any measurable number of crickets...ants would get to them and kill them all!

Makes me feel less guilty for using hairspray + lighter on all those ant colonies when I was young!


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