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My friend bought me a succulent from Spain. It survived the flight. Unfortunately or fortunately my friend knocked the plant over and found ants living in its roots and soil. I told her she should get rid of the old soil asap and told she could leave the plant barerooted for couple days until she brings it to me. She had only normal plant soil, so I thought it would be better if I put it in proper soil after I get it. She said the roots were fine.
I got the plant today, she had it potted into the normal soil. And she had it watered. In four days, all the fine roots had died.
I washed the tubular root and actually found a little ant larvae sticking out of it. Gross.
After few double-checks I decided it's ant-free now. I put cinnamon powder to the root (I don't have any idea if that works or not) and now it's drying up.
It's a really beautiful species, please tell me it has a chance. Can I do something more for it? What is it?

aloe aristata x haworthia or something. Rooting aloe is much harder than rooting cacti. So whatever you did, up until this point has been by the book . As from this point on, best case would be to place the plant in moist sand and hope it roots... Use root powder if you can, if you dont believe the cinnamon was enough.

Thanks stefan!
Should I pot it right now or tomorrow morning? Should I sterilize the soil in microwave just in case? Should I place the plant in warm spot (on a heater), or a little bit cooler place? Would a bagging be a good idea? This situation is driving me crazy!

Slow down there. I said sand, not soil. And preferably coarse sand mixed with whatever inorganic components are in cactus soil, like perlite and pumice and whatnot. Add very little organic matter, and make the soil properly moist(but not soaking wet).
And all of that after the plant dried out properly(so yeah, morning). Keep it in a shady(east or west), well ventilated spot.
Moisten if soils begins to dry.

Never put a plant on or close to a heater

Oh, left that part out. Sry. Keep it at room temperature.

Oops, that's what you said I got carried away and skipped the most important part... Oh well, the potting has to wait 'till I get actual sand! Pumice I have already and grit too. What do you think, could it work if i hammer some of the pumice into smaller pieces? Would that be "sandy" enough? Is this a crazy idea? I don't think I need that much sand they sell in stores in bags... I can't even get a handful of sand from the ground since we have at least 30cm thick layer of snow on the ground.
Thanks again! (sorry if I ask silly questions, i'm new with this hobby, and really want to try save this plant )

I did it two two time successfully, once partially, and one failure. No, dont make it too fine- the roots need to fit through the empty air in the sand- and aloe roots are large and thick. Make sure the soils is not too firm, and about 5-7 cm deep.
Doesnt need to b wide.

Thanks to your great advices I'm happy to tell everyone this aloe has grown a small 2-3mm long root now. Can I tell I succeed to root it or is there still a risk to accidentally kill it? Of course I can drown it but is there any other lethal things I can do by accident?

Pompom wrote:Thanks to your great advices I'm happy to tell everyone this aloe has grown a small 2-3mm long root now. Can I tell I succeed to root it or is there still a risk to accidentally kill it? Of course I can drown it but is there any other lethal things I can do by accident?

Congratulations!! There's the risk of breaking the roots so put it in its final home and leave it be.

ElieEstephane wrote:

Pompom wrote:Thanks to your great advices I'm happy to tell everyone this aloe has grown a small 2-3mm long root now. Can I tell I succeed to root it or is there still a risk to accidentally kill it? Of course I can drown it but is there any other lethal things I can do by accident?

Congratulations!! There's the risk of breaking the roots so put it in its final home and leave it be.

Thank you! What kind of mixture should I do for it? How much pumice and how much cactus soil? The cactus and succulent soil I got from store has bits of clay in, should I remove those?

Yep. Dont bother it for a long while. Water normally after a while.

Pompom wrote:

ElieEstephane wrote:

Pompom wrote:Thanks to your great advices I'm happy to tell everyone this aloe has grown a small 2-3mm long root now. Can I tell I succeed to root it or is there still a risk to accidentally kill it? Of course I can drown it but is there any other lethal things I can do by accident?

Congratulations!! There's the risk of breaking the roots so put it in its final home and leave it be.

Thank you! What kind of mixture should I do for it? How much pumice and how much cactus soil? The cactus and succulent soil I got from store has bits of clay in, should I remove those?

Clay is good leave it. Do a 1:1 mix of pumice and soil

ElieEstephane wrote:

Pompom wrote:

ElieEstephane wrote: Congratulations!! There's the risk of breaking the roots so put it in its final home and leave it be.

Thank you! What kind of mixture should I do for it? How much pumice and how much cactus soil? The cactus and succulent soil I got from store has bits of clay in, should I remove those?

Clay is good leave it. Do a 1:1 mix of pumice and soil

Thank you wery much! This forum is awesome! Many of my plants would be dead already without information I get here

Sounds like it's going well. Agreed, just leave it be for now. Don't be concerned if the older leaves shrivel up, it's likely to consume them to fuel its root growth.