Reptile & Amphibian Forums

ok now i am really mad i hav 2 perfectly normal russian tortoises die from being eaten by ants none of my other tortoises are affected only my russians it was fine when i checked on it wensday eating fine although afraid of the slightly larger russians in the cage and dident seem to be doing 2 bad but when i went in to feed them today ( i only feed them about once every4 days because they have a wide varity of food growing in there cage as it is ) i discovered this tortoise had been eaten alive ( note previous post about how i talked about this in turtle general forum) i do not want to harm the tortoises in any wya but would also like to get rid of the ants so my russian tortoise colony can keep produceing with out the need to find any more breedable animals as it is hard enough to find 1

Oh my god! I have never heard of this. What kind of ants were they?? This makes me so sad. I'm sorry for your loss.

>>Oh my god! I have never heard of this. What kind of ants were they?? This makes me so sad. I'm sorry for your loss.

they were local black ones about 1/4 inch long i have never heard of this either but it has happened to me twice

...that's about the size of Fire ants ... perhaps it's about time to reconfigure your enclosure set up?

sorry to hear that min..
carpenter ants are eating your torts though?.. thats just weird.
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yah there small and black and will not stop eating my russians i have found them on my tortoises (russians only) but not dead each time i get more upset considering my female tortoise population has been diminished to basically nothing ( so long 2 breeding next year)

Carpender ants have been known to attack kill and eat various kinds of reptiles in captivity here in Florida including rattlesnakes.If they are carpender ants then you have some rotten wood nearby or a heavy build up of decaying organtic material.Take tortoises out look or dig for rotton wood and pore boiling water on the site.The ants will also eat trapped crickets and are very attracted to them.Put an entire box of them in the enclosure and watch it at night to see ware they are comming from and nuke the sob's with the 212F water.They will be back Vic Morgan

>>Carpender ants have been known to attack kill and eat various kinds of reptiles in captivity here in Florida including rattlesnakes.If they are carpender ants then you have some rotten wood nearby or a heavy build up of decaying organtic material.Take tortoises out look or dig for rotton wood and pore boiling water on the site.The ants will also eat trapped crickets and are very attracted to them.Put an entire box of them in the enclosure and watch it at night to see ware they are comming from and nuke the sob's with the 212F water.They will be back Vic Morgan

problem
the arera just under ist is a BIG patch of black berries which i ahve tried numerous times 2 clear out but 2 no advail i also belive that the ants are liveing in the auctual cage
i have also heard that diatamicious eatrth might be the answer doers any onw know twhat this does to tortoises

indoor: put moats (water bowls) for each leg of your tort 's table/cage, the problem is they needs to refill on a regular basis, you can coat the water surface with a layer of oil to prevent "WestNile/TigerMosq" goo goo...

outdoor: if you love your animals enough, build him/her an island and make it a NO-MAN's-LAND...sorry, let me rephase that's a NO-ANT's-LAND...extreme problem needs extreme measurement so quit your moaning, pull your brain together and do something...something that won't upset your motherEarth that is! (sorry Dupon meister!)

outdoor: if you love your animals enough, build him/her an island and make it a NO-MAN's-LAND...sorry, let me rephase that's a NO-ANT's-LAND...extreme problem needs extreme measurement so quit your moaning, pull your brain together and do something...something that won't upset your motherEarth that is! (sorry Dupon meister!)

sounds great 1 BIG problem with that idea though as with most of these i have all my tortoise cages built into a hill so the back wall is the same height as the hill so digging a moat would be both increadbly hard as well as worthless since it would soon fill with dirtmeaning i would need 2 re do it every month

... unless you got a whole Russian village, an 10' x 10' raised "log-cabin" shouldn't be that hard, sink a few TALL beer kegs (or something like that ) to the hill as moats (fill them up with Piharanas if you will ) ... better sweat now then watch your bambinos perish one by one ... if this becomes the MAJOR threats to all your animals, it's probably time to reconfigure their habitat...build a wall, make a river...whatever, just remember if there's a will, there's a way...but i can't imagine you loose your day job just to gallop around AntHills with boiling water

You can use something called diatomaceous earth. You find it at a garden center- I found it at ACE hardware. It is completely organic, safe and will not harm torts. It is basically crushed up fossils and although it is like a white powder to us, and harmless, it cuts up insects when they walk across it. I sprinkle it all around in my outdoor pen. We have bad fire ants here in Florida.