Scared me half to death

Turns out we have a wood ant problem with the coming of spring! i found this out because Fury ate one on the floor.... Talk about interrigating lizards to figure out what they just ate :roll: :shock: ( wood ants are a common name, they are big black ants that are essentially harmless, so fury will not get harmed from eating the one.)

I wonder if those are the same or a similar species to the ones that we get around here sometimes, mostly called "carpenter ants". They don't actually digest wood like termites do, but they can still be hard on the structure of a wood frame house because they live in it and make little holes and tunnels.

As I understand it, the general consensus is that ants aren't really a good thing for bearded dragons to eat, but the average beardie will scarf up any moving insect that crosses his path, usually before his human slaves have a chance to get a really good look at it, and leaving them to hope that whatever it was, it wasn't something that's going to make him really sick or worse.

In our case, we're lucky at least that there are no fireflies in Alaska... :roll:

I let Simon free-roam the floor, fully expecting to find her at the patio doors. her favorite spot....
Was looking for her for over 30 minutes, basically tearing the house apart and calling for her

There was also another time when brumating that I found her laying in her cool spot, eyes not fully closed but her third eyelid closed. Thought she was dead at first glance. She wasn't, but I cried anyway just from panic, it was already too late

That reminds me of one time when I went to tuck our beardie in for the night. If I'm still awake by then myself, my usual procedure is to pet him a little, and if he does his little snuggle up/dig in maneuver, I figure he's already done for the day and doesn't want to be disturbed, so I just cover him up and turn off the lights, but if he still seems wide awake, then we do a bedtime cuddle.

This particular time he already looked like he was asleep, and he had faded out to a light golden color, and when I petted him he didn't move at all. He's ADV positive and I had read that sometimes this can cause them to die suddenly for no apparent reason, so I watched the area behind his arms for a little while, looking for any signs of breathing. I didn't see any movement, so then I thought about trying a little more aggressively to wake him up, but he looked so beautiful and so peaceful that I decided to just assume that everything was alright one way or another and just let him be. I was still worried when I went to check on him the next morning, and then I saw him blink. Phew! :mrgreen: He's still alive and still apparently doing ok.

That third eyelid scares a lot of people.

The ant problem got so bad that I had to remove fury from my room for a little while, until we could get them cleared. I ended up having to take him to school with me for the last day!! We later found out that they were after some old Halloween candy AND Fury's live crickets. They've gone away since we removed both items... ( my Cherokee teacher really enjoyed him even though he pooped on her). Hopefully New Mexico won't have any??

I hate to say this, but ants seem to just about everywhere. When I lived in California, if you left any food out anywhere, they would be all over it in a matter of hours if not minutes. We even have them here in Alaska, especially a particularly troublesome species called "carpenter ants". Like the name implies, they don't eat wood, but they do "build" with it and live in it, so they can pretty much do the same thing to your house as termites if they get out of control.

At least you were able to find a fun place for Fury to hang out while you were getting rid of them.