Can Messor barbarus climb?

[jeoff82]

I have my queen in a large aquarium half full of sharp sand, I have a lid but it's not airtight so was wondering if the workers will be able to climb the glass and escape? The queen seems to be a bit of an awkard walker falling about on the sand lol an she hasn't even made an attempt to climb out. Wonder if the workers will be the same?

[baumarkthammer]

Just one kind of ants isn´s able to walk on glas Messor barbarus sure are able!

[JimmyVe]

Yes they can. Just wondering, your queen is walking around in your farm ? That isn't a good sign. Queens need to be in the nest laying eggs. (or a test tube)

[jeoff82]

Yer she comes out of her hole at night sometimes bringin out chunks of sand. I suspose she's digging chambers.

[Zagone]

While they can climb class, they have a real hard time doing it. So if the glass is clean and vertical the chance of them getting up and out is like.... 1% maybe. Atleast mine are like that, aswell as my Messor minors.

[donbilbo]

my messor do not climb glass at all. its a colony with hardly 50 individuals and they never touch the glass. but i have seen pictures of messor climbing glass so maybe there will be more attempts to break out when they dont like the parameters or are a few hundret individuals....

[Antlord]

In my experience the very first workers couldn't climb glass at all, now however there are several hundreds of individuals they can climb glass easily and I already had a few escapees.
So you will definitly need some PTFE or something like that.

[Phasmid]

My Messor barbarus don't climb much but only because they don't really want to, they tend not to bother climbing rough surfaces (unless there are seeds on top, or insects ).
After all they are only supposed to collect seeds and insects on the ground and don't need to find aphids etc in trees.
Some times they go for a walk on the glass but they are soon stopped by PTFE. I have thousands of workers in my 2 year old colony but I never have any break outs, they even chase prey up the glass .

[JimmyVe]

Like i said, small colonies dont climb glass but if they get bigger be prepared. I have a glass lid on top of my out world and they even climb on that (sometimes). And i'm pretty sure they have all they need all the time.

[skywalker87]

My colony is very small. They are 5 workers. And sometimes they walk around and even climb on the glass. So I think it´s necessary to do something against the braiking out