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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

If there was still some flesh on the shell, it may not have been ants which got to the tortoise. However, it is hard to say without seeing the remains. I would expect that the skelton (IE, skull, neck, and leg bones) would still be there if ants ate the flesh. Larger predators might rip them off and devour them completely or carry them away.

I have used a powdered product called Orthene for killing ants which has been quite successful. It doesn't seem to harm tortoises, though I try to keep them away from fresh applications of it by placing 5 gallon pails upside down over the powdered areas for a couple of days. If there are larger tortoises, place heavy objects such as rocks, bricks, or cinder blocks on the pails. Obviously with even larger tortoises, you would need to use larger structures and heavier weights.

Actually, I use the powder and DO NOT cover the areas in some of my pens with adult Radiated Tortoises. It hasn't hurt them in the 5 years I have been doing so, or if it has, I am unaware of it thus far).

One point I will make is that this product has a very strong and not very pleasant odor. I can still smell it for days after the powder is no longer visible. Additionally, I store it in a shed outside because when kept indoors, it created too juch odor even from the tighly closed container.

i was just reading your update about yout natchlings:

"UPDATE (Summer 2006) - The hatchling gopher tortoises were the victims of nature. Within a week of them being placed outside in April, they were eaten by birds. The only evidence found was the empty shell of one of the hatchlings with a hole in the carapace, more than likely from a bird's beak. Gulls and crows are the two most common birds seen at school."

that's terribe...

any way that you could try and make that enclosure more predator-proof perhaps in order to give the little guys a batter chance? maybe some sort of fencing/wire covering...?

That is already in the works. The hatchlings will remain inside until next late spring. I will have screened the top of their enclosure and keep it like that until they are about the size of a softball. As the previos post mentioned, it was more than likely birds that got to them. I still have a big ant problem to deal with.

Mike
Sandalwood Herpetology Club

Hey Mike,
Why not give "The Boss" a call at home?
She has had some luck with various non-poisonous
ant removal methods.
She got home today.
Good luck,
Karl