ANTSTORE World of Ants

[ciluvagyok]

Hello guys,

I'm a newby girl here and need some info (like all newbies do):
My Lasius Niger colony has just arrived this day from AntStore, but they don't seem to be hibernated, I mean all the colony and the queen is awake and moving here-there. I dont want to disturb them if not necessary, but I dont want to shoch them with a sudden cold. There is a watery cotton stuff at the botoom of the testtube and it is plugged with a paper towel. Is it OK if I just put this whole thing into the fridge? Any other thing? When will they end their hibernation (if they start it at all...)? If they do, how can I get them into the glass antfarm? I dont have an arena just the glass farm and the testtube does not fit in
and the testtube has cca 10 workers, a queen and quite a lot of eggs.
pls pls give answers!
thx guys,
Cilu

[miszt]

Lasius Niger hibernate in response to the tempreture so in a warm room they wont hibernate.....put them in a shed or somthing, and check them every couple of days to make sure they have enough water

as you have allot of eggs, i think its safe to assume that they where not in hibernation when they where sent to you, so you need to reduce the tempreture for them slowly over 4-6 weeks, to between 10-5C, a fridge is a good place to keep a small colony in a test tube, but its important to drop the tempreture slowly, so find slightly cooler places once a week till u get to juzt above 10C, then put them in the fridge

[ciluvagyok]

Hi Miszt,

thx a lot. Now I know what to do in the next couple of months with my ants (i.e. wait) and have plenty of time to figure out how to create their home. I have been searching the net since ages but I couldnt fint a kind of 'tutorial' of making an ant farm:) if we lived in the same countries, we could manage to organize an ant-fanatic seminar, where people could actually see and try composing/watering/maintaining/cleaning an ant farm, feeding ants, removing e.g. waste food from an ant farm, or just how to catch them once they're out (without stamping them:))
I have never seen such things and though I had hella lot of pets (parrot, dog, hen, pigeon, hamster, guinea pig and now a ferret) I am here with a fancy new colony with good ideas but technically unexperienced... have you got any idea where can I find tutorial films or something? here in Hungary this ant topic is not so common. It would be a good idea to upload some video material here to AntStore

[miszt]

Ytong nests are pretty good you can also combine them with basins to make pretty nice realistic enviroments, if ur a bit creative


http://www.antstore.net/viewtopic.php?t ... hlight=wip

[ciluvagyok]

thx for the tip
I think i gotta go sleep now, im kind of sleepy...
off: miszt, has your name got anything to do with hungarian language?
it sounds and looks like a Hungarian word.
on: is a glass farm like this:
http://www.antstore.net/shop/product_in ... x20cm.html
ok for lasius niger? this is what i have and no money/room left for bigger plans...
thx everything,
C.

[SteveUK28]

Hi there Ciluvagyok..
The farm you have is just like the one i got... only i got it with the basin.
Since joining this forum and reading through.. i've now decided against using the farm and im going to make a ytong farm instead However if you dont feel up to making yourself a ytong that farm would be perfect.. Just read the stuff that the others guys have wrote about cookin the sand loam first an stuff

[JimmyVe]

First off al Hey ciluvagyok and welcome.

Like miszt said, keep them out of hibernation until the eggs turn into larva (otherwise they die during hibernation) than slowly reduce the temperature below 10°c and keep them in hibernation 4-6 months, in your case maybe better 4, because they are now normally already 2 months in it.

That farm would do just fine but like 'most' users here i also prefer y-tong nests.

[ciluvagyok]

Woa, I found out the name of my queen: Aretha Franklin! I think she exactly looks like the human Aretha, which is a compliment for an ant but not so good for a woman I thought lasius niger are bigger, we have a pretty cool camera but I don't know whether it'll be pro enough to take some good close-up pictures.
Oh, do you remember the movie 'Honey, I shrunk the Kids'? There was an ant in that movie (in Hungarian called "Hangyóca", which is something like "Antie") and that ant died because it was protecting the kids against a scorpion.. Im not sure but I think scorpions are not that common in the USA and an ant would have not really been an equal to fight with but ever since I try not to kill an ant otherwise my hen loved to eat them (I mean ants) and once she ate up half of an ant nest

[ciluvagyok]

Aretha is in the coldest part of the flat (which is the pantry) still very awake, at about 15 Celsius degrees, workers still walking around, ttube half full of water, plugged with cotton (wondering how the hell will I refill the water once it's gone) and waiting about 2 weeks before putting them into the fridge. Jeez, they're pretty vivid! it's so hard not picking and watching them so I just check them every second day.
What do you do guys in wintertime? I know stocks are full of sleeping ants but what do you do when they're hibernated? do you leave them in their farms or collect them into testtubes and cleaning the farms? it's something like skiing which you do only for a couple of months every year

[miszt]

leave them in whatever container they are in, they dont like to be moved around

[JimmyVe]

In deed, leave them in there farm to hibernate.

What we do when they are in hibernation. Well i still have my exotic species, they don't hibernate and for the others i clean there out world. nice clean place for them to wake up in spring.

[ciluvagyok]

How can you take tem out when you want to clean the farm?

[Purifier]

Normally you dont have to clean the farm. You only have to hold the sand/loam damp....

[sithmaster676]

normally the colony will try and keep the farm as clean as they can manage so you may not have to clean your farm at all, as ant colonies and generally very clean they will make themselves a rubbish pile and all you have to do is remove this every so often.
Sithmaster676

[JimmyVe]

i clean there out world

Its not possible to clean the nest, only the out world. Like sith said, they keep the nest clean themselves. And if you are lucky they put in on a pile and you can clean that.