Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I made a vivarium about a month ago and I still have the frog in his plastic box. But today I went to finnaly seal everything up to put the frog in and I find sugar ants have made their home inside my vivarium. I live in the city and dont know where they have been.. But by the amount of ants it seems they have been there for a while. Should I find the queen and remove her or just change all the substrate?

If they are indeed sugar ants, why not just add the frog and let him take care of the problem.

joe

Because I live in the city and who knows what they are carrying. Not like pesticides are used but theres a few abandoned houses nearby. Even though if they had anything it would be gone by now becuase they seem to be well established I am reluctant to put the frog in there.

My concern would not be what they are "carrying" in terms of any disease or parasite that would affect a frog, but in the disruption of the terrarium soil and subsequent plant root disturbance they will cause. I would also wonder what they are living on in there, as they are foragers. If they are sugar ants or Pharaoh ants they will eventually go foraging through your house if your frog doesn't happen to eat them up first. You could offer him a couple of them and see how he reacts to them while he's still in his container. (Like Joseph, I hate to see potentially good food go to waste).

I don't know much about the different ant species, but have read some recent horror tales of an ant specie that invaded a tree frog tank and actually killed all the frogs. Although the tiny sugar ant, or Pharaoh ant species would be unlikely to do this, I wonder if a large number of them would cause some stress to the frog.
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Patty
Lost River, Idaho

4 D. auratus blue
3 D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
5 D. imitator
4 D. leukomelas
4 D. pumilio Bastimentos

hi,
My frogs love to eat the small ants and i would love to be in your situation. If the frogs can get away from the ants in the event that thjey are getting harrassed than i wouldn't worry, How big of a tank do you have. Anyway i would probably leave them, but i don't know much about ants. Also if you run out of food your frogs can have some extra treats.

hope i have helped.
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Nate
1.1 alanis tincs
and some day, if it cools down...
0.0.2 Azureus (soon)
0.0.3 imitators very very soon

ITs a 20 gal high.