Help!! Urgent!

[brie123]

I woke up this morning to find that there a little black ants in my vivarium.. they were attacking my frogs so I removed the frogs, and put them in an alternative tank.. how can I get these ants out of my vivarium without removing all of my plants that just started to take root??

[elly]

You could search for nontoxic ant trap recipes online (for instance boric acid (borax) and sugar) and put them around outside your tank for ants to find. That takes a while at best though. Plus the ants would be carrying the bait back to the tank and I'm not sure if the borax would affect frogs. Or you could get flypaper sticky traps, but that wouldn't pick up all the ants. All in all you'd probably be better off uprooting the plants and cleaning the tank. Hopefully someone else has a better idea and actual experience with this.

[LilyPad]

I am with Elly, get the tank 100% cleaned out. Any idea how they got in there? After it is all cleaned, I would put ant traps outside of the tank...somewhere that no kids or pets can get to, to try to prevent it from happening again.

[brie123]

The ants came in from outside.. I'm just afraid that the complete uproot of my live plants will kill them.. I'm pretty sure there going after the frogs water, so I removed that cleaned up all the ants I could see around the tank and followed the trail to where they are getting in and sprayed really well in hopes it will stop them..

[elly]

Out of curiosity, what kind of plants do you have? Some of the common ones like pothos grow from cuttings really easily, so you could periodically divide them, root them in water and have replacements ready if a plant dies. I feel for you though. I would not want to take all the soil out of my terrarium, but hopefully your spraying will keep the ants away permanently and you won't have to deal with this again.

[brie123]

I have pothos, zebra plant, moss, anthurium, an orchid, and calathea with pink stripes.

[elly]

Oh those are nice. I don't know if you can take cuttings of anything but the pothos. You might have to wait until the zebra plant and anthurium are well established enough to make pups before you can divide them. I don't know anything about orchids though. Sorry.

[brie123]

I decided to transplant my orchid into another container. In hopes that my other plants take I'm soaking them in treated water just as I did when I got them

[brie123]

Thanks for all the help! I'll make sure to post some pictures after I finish the complete uproot and re-planting

[brie123]

Pictures of the tank before the infestation..

[Strider18]

We are having ant problems at my house to right now. Clean the tank out completely and like Elly and Lija said, clean the tank out 100% and make sure that the ants stay out. Borax and peanut butter usually works as a decent trap.

[brie123]

Revamped the vivarium after the Infestation.. before and after pictures

[Lija]

Hey, I haven't said anything yet lol

but I would say I agree with Amy and Elly. Ants in a tank will end up very badly. Myself I'd rip everything apart, it is fairy easy with your tank. Don't use any insect killing chemicals, they are deadly for frogs.

Try to find the source, I had that wax pencil, I don't know what that was exactly, but I had to draw with it a line around the windows and doors.it's been 2 years since, not a single ant getting in, and it used to be bad. May be there is Smth like that in stores around you?

[Lija]

I like a new one so much better! And if you paint black paint from the outside the tank (3sides) or put fish tank type background on the 3 sides that would look awesome! Good job!

[brie123]

Thanks, I was thinking about getting a fish tank type background too!
Will the frogs be okay (say when there eating) if I don't put moss back Into their cage?

[Lija]

Moss is an impaction risk, your frogs would be much happier without a need of dealing with it
what are the frogs exactly?

[brie123]

I have 3 Whites tree frogs 2 Indonesian and 1 blue phase Australian

[flybyferns]

Josh's Frogs Bug Blade Mite Control Powder (5 oz) - Fruit Flies | Josh's Frogs

This claims to - also - prevent ants from entering the enclosure. Just in case !
I have not used it for this purpose.
Perhaps give Josh's a call if you have additional questions?