Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This morning I found a ton of ants in my gecko's tank, and they were attacking her. Her toes were especially targeted. I cleaned the ants off her, and out of her mouth, but don't know what to do for her-the vet isn't available-this being Sunday. Any first aid tips? She is lethargic, I of course moved the tank and completely removed the substrate, just putting newspaper back in. I have her under her light, but am pretty worried. Luckily they seem to have left her eyes alone.

HELP?!

id keep her husbandry the best you can, maybe a bath if shes not to stressed out and if shes really lethargic, get her to the vet in the morning! feed her if she will eat, and figure out why the ants were attracted to her set up.
good luck!
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hanging out under heat lights burns up my brain cells!!

Sorry to say she didn't make it, thank you for your suggestions. I called the vet but they didn't have an exotic vet on call today. I'd rinsed her off and cleaned all the ants off, her wounds weren't too bad, but I think she must have been stung a lot. She didn't move much and by this evening we could barely tell she was breathing.
I don't know what kind of ant it is but they are tiny (and had no trouble getting through a fine mesh screen) and seem more attracted to fats and meat than sugars. We've been fighting ants since I moved in this place, but they've always been in the kitchen. We've hesitated to use raid because of our herps, but I guess it might have saved her life-though this colony showed up out of nowhere. This morning was the first time we saw any in this room. The ants found a tub of mealworms and killed all of the mealworms and were going after the meal as well. I'm not sure what attracted them to her tank in particular since we have quite a motley collection, including another leopard gecko that was right next to hers, and her tank had been cleaned recently. They hadn't discovered anyone else, but to be safe we moved tanks out till we are sure the ants are gone.

so sorry for your loss, hope you can keep them away in the future
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hanging out under heat lights burns up my brain cells!!

It sounds like you might have been dealing with Pharoah ants, they are extremely tiny and often favour protein over sugar it seems. I have had to do battle with them as well. I found that the Raid ant traps worked well for them. They also cannot cross anything oily, a thin line of vaseline spread in strategic places or around your tank rims may help protect your other herps.

I heard about these guys. They sound nasty!

Ian