Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am now starting to find hatchling gopher tortoises in my enclosure at school (Jacksonville, FL). I found one empty carapace with remnants of fresh flesh on it. I do not know if a bird got to it first, or if it was ants. I will be researching the ant species I have found in the enclosure very soon. I found 2 live hatchlings on Thursday and hope to find more.

One question I have is, is there a known, safe way to get rid of the ants that does not harm the tortoises? I have 1.5 adults in the enclosure (approx 1000 sq ft)and 2 adult box turtles in one adjacent enclosure and 2 young Burmese mountain tortoises in another adjacent enclosure.

Feel free to reply on the forum, but please send me your response personally as well. I am sometimes unable to get on the forum while at school, but do check email regularly.

Thanks,
Mike Monlezun
Sandalwood Herpetology Club

Though I do not have a tortoise, one technique for eliminating ants I came across while living in Florida was to use hard liquor. I never determined if there is any scientific basis to it, but I was once told to pour a shot or 2 of cheap rum or vodka (i'm sure any hard liquor will do) down each ant mound. I was skeptical at first, and being a college student at the time fearful of wasting alcohol in this manner, but decided to try it anyway. I added two shots to a fire ant mound near my front door and sure enough it worked. Since then I have used it as a more environmentally friendly method of ant removal than pesticides. Hope this helps.

Chris