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Observation of Ants' Abnormal Behavior
Obviously, they have prepared enough feed, but the ants are reluctant to eat and seem to lack vigor.
Most of the worker ants hide in their nests and no longer gather in the feeding area as they used to do in the past.
What is the cause of this anomaly?
The Dilemma of Ant Colony Decline
If you are experiencing this problem and have been struggling with it for a month, things are not getting better.
No matter what kind of feeds are used, even the sugar water which is the favorite of ants, the worker ants will just glance at it and leave.
You may also start to wonder if you are not able to maintain the ants properly.
After another two months, the queen ants have not laid any new eggs, the worker ants do not come out, and you may observe that there are less and less larvae or even no larvae at all.
Toxic feeding zones
Look at the cat next to you, whose big, innocent eyes seem to be comforting you.
However, the key to all these problems is hidden in the insect repellent of dogs and cats.
Pet insect repellents such as "Flea Not" are highly toxic to parasites and fleas, and ants are also insects, so ants will be poisoned as well.
Acute poisoning, more than half of the ants will die within two weeks.
In chronic poisoning, more than half of the deaths occur within six months.
Strange behavior of ant poisoning
The ants in the open feeding area showed a strange "paddling" behavior which was puzzling.
They are trying to move forward in a very strange, paddling gesture, a bit like the Grand Master. The 6 legs of the worker ants will start from the root, stretch upward uncontrollably, and then twist rapidly, as if they want to walk, but their legs are not their own.
Surprisingly, the ants in the open feeding area showed this phenomenon, while other ants kept in test tubes or cabinets were fine.
The Price of Successful Recovery
In my case, a large colony of 1,000 to 2,000 worker ants, after spending 8 months and paying the high price of reducing the population of the colony by 70%, has been restored to good health, which means they have resumed normal feeding, normal egg laying, and newborns in the colony.
Poisonous hair.
After deworming, the cat hair/dog hair will be toxic. Even without direct contact, these hairs will still stick to our body with our cat sucking behavior, and when we are feeding and taking care of the ants, these toxic hairs will naturally fall into the feeding area, and then get rid of the ants along with them.
At the same time every other year, we had to help our cats to get rid of fleas again. This time, we were well-prepared, and had planned a detailed placement and evacuation plan. During the flea removal period, the ants would be isolated, and anyone who wanted to come into contact with the ants would have to change into clean clothes that had not been worn today, or even isolation suits in order to enter the premises.
Nowadays, when I examine the cause of death of ants for someone, the first thing I ask whenever there is a similar situation or all the ants have died within a week is "Do you have cats and dogs at home?
