Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Spring time and warm weather bring carpenter ants into the house. Some have managed to get into the tank with the three leopards. Will this do any harm to them? will the ants bother them? will they be compelled to eat them? and if so, is this bad for their health?

any input appreciated.
thanks

Yes, they are dangerous to hatchling and it killed over half of my hatchling last year and I use 100% Petroleum Jelly anround cages. You can get it from durgstore such as Walgreen. For adults are very rare and only one dead from it in 3 years but I been improving it.
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Preston Berry
www.freewebs.com/coolgeckoUnder Construction
restonberry@austin.rr.com" target="_blank">Prestonberry@austin.rr.com

np
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Preston Berry
www.freewebs.com/coolgeckoUnder Construction
restonberry@austin.rr.com" target="_blank">Prestonberry@austin.rr.com

None of the geckos are under two months old. They are all over 6 months, but thanks for the info.

hm. I know that Crystal was having a few problems with ants a while back. But the reptiles never bothered the ants, and the ants never bothered the reptiles, as far as i can remember.

They should be okay until you can get rid of the ants.

One of the teachers at the school where I'm working, he has 2 male beardies. He told me that he used to have a female.
Apparently, she was gravid, and he had to go away for the weekend, so she left her with his brother, in case she laid eggs.
Well, she laid eggs, and by the time they found the eggs, the ants had gotten to them and totally destroyed them.

SSOOOOoooo.. If you're breeding, get the ants out NOW. Otherwise, just keep a close eye on them until you can.
Either way, you do need to get rid of the ants.

~~Dusty
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So Many Alleles, So Little Time...!
@
~~The Gecko Barn~~

oh yeah - I should mention that Crystal didn't have any hatchlings at the time AND got rid of the ants as soon as she could. But while they were there, I don't recall any major problems, other than the annoyance.
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So Many Alleles, So Little Time...!
@
~~The Gecko Barn~~

I'm not sure for gecko but for most lizard, ant are not good food. Too much chitin, and poor nutricious value. I've read that they can have problem because the ant have formic acid wich might be bad for lizard. Correct me if i'm wrong.

Mizar 21
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1.0 Collared lizard (Ganymede)
1.0 Florida banded water snake (Serpentard)
1.2 Cats
1.0 leopard gecko (Gethsemani)
Bunch of tropical fish

Plus any insecticides and such that they pick up along the way.
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So Many Alleles, So Little Time...!
@
~~The Gecko Barn~~

Ants also have the potential to pass stomach worms onto reptiles, nasty nasty things, they get pretty big too.

Thanks all of you for your responses. We are working on getting the ant problem under control. We havent seen them eat any, but who knows what goes on when our backs are turned. Hopefully they will stop coming around.....

They are usually after the crickets, mealworms, water, and feces of the geckos. The can and will bite your geckos. I had then get into one of my incubators and literally bite a newly hatched baby to death. It was horrifying...
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Marcia McGuiness
Golden Gate Geckos
www.goldengategeckos.com