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I'm glad to hear that your ants are going great!(:
But how many cocoons did u catch?(:
21st July
Ants are still doing amazingly! I have a population of about 60-70 right now, most of them are pretty close to being fully black, they filled up the tube and are piling the cocoons up outside, by the end of the week I think most of the cocoons will of hatched :D.
Oh yeah FredeP, I think I got about 200-300, as the test tube is full, 60-70 of them have hatched and there are loads still outside. I just hope my small tank will be big enough to hold all of them.
Roflcopter, my ants look so silly all stuck in a small test tube crammed with cocoons and young yellow ants.
Oh yeah I forgot my queen seems to be alright but because of all the cocoons I have not given the colony much to eat. I read that in the wild the queen will lay her eggs and sit by them until they hatch and they take ages to hatch. I think it will be only 1 or two days before the ants have relocated all of the cocoons and I cant feed them, will she be ok and can she just get the other ants to regurgitate food for her if she is hungry?
If she is hungry the other ants will feed her, because that is the workers job, and to cleaning the nest and many other things. That day I took cocoons I only took 15, because I think that more was to many, and my queens shall also have a job, if u understand (;
- but it's okay with 200-300 workers, but I mean it's to many when u are new to ants (: But fine ; )
young yellow ants
If the ants are really yellow they could be Lasius flavus that is not really a problem as long as they accept them.
You should feed your ants, the queen and brood needs food. Also the workers need food. Give them insects and sweets (honey or sugar water).
I just hope my small tank will be big enough to hold all of them
If that is already the case you need a new setup soon. This species gets big soon (the colony i mean) they can grow up to 40.000 workers in one colony.
I read online that they eat grass seeds but you have had more experience so I will stop giving them
I don't know where you read that, but like i said. They don't eat seeds. ;)
also the eggs I gave them would have gone in the bin because we were throwing away the climbing frame, I just thought that recycling them was better. You don’t have to accuse me of being impatient
Okay maybe you are not impatient than, still it is not a must to boost this species. And personally i think 300 cocoons is to much for such a small colony.
Thanks JimmyVe, ... I said young yellow ants because the ants are yellow when they hatch , I don’t have enough money right now to buy a new tank but I will buy a bigger tank when I can. I agree that 300 cocoons is a bit much for my small colony but they were hatching really fast and I didn’t want to waste them, anyway the colony isn’t so small anymore ;) I have almost 80 ants now, I will give them fresh bugs tomorrow, they already have sugar water.
Oh yeah and I know about 300 ants is a few to many ants for a newbie :D but I will try my best :D
You have been so much help!
Oh wait I have a BIG question!: Some of my ants have tiny white bugs on them, I read that they are probably mites that hang on to the ant and feed of waste and are harmless, but they seem to be making it hard for them to walk, there was one with a mite on its antennae and the ant kept of trying to get it off. So far I have seen 2 mites and have picked the ants up with tweezers and pulled the mites of them, the ants were fine when I put them back, should I be worried and keep on removing the mites, or are they really harmless and ignore it?!
i think you should be worried and remove them. dont forget to bil the insects.
Thanks JimmyVe, ... I said young yellow ants because the ants are yellow when they hatch , I don’t have enough money right now to buy a new tank but I will buy a bigger tank when I can. I agree that 300 cocoons is a bit much for my small colony but they were hatching really fast and I didn’t want to waste them, anyway the colony isn’t so small anymore ;) I have almost 80 ants now, I will give them fresh bugs tomorrow, they already have sugar water.
Oh yeah and I know about 300 ants is a few to many ants for a newbie :D but I will try my best :D
You have been so much help!
Oh wait I have a BIG question!: Some of my ants have tiny white bugs on them, I read that they are probably mites that hang on to the ant and feed of waste and are harmless, but they seem to be making it hard for them to walk, there was one with a mite on its antennae and the ant kept of trying to get it off. So far I have seen 2 mites and have picked the ants up with tweezers and pulled the mites of them, the ants were fine when I put them back, should I be worried and keep on removing the mites, or are they really harmless and ignore it?!
this is just one of the many reasons why you shouldnt top your colonies up with wild brood ;)
some of these mites can be detrimental to the health of the colony, but its hard to say without good pics what they are, usually 'food mites', small white harmless type, do not cling on to ants, but walk around in the substrate or on food
Miszt is wright about this, if they are just small white mites they don't harm the ants. If you see that your ants are having trouble with the mites you could remove them.
Well I have seen them a couple of them going around the test tube and have not seen any actually on my ants since yesterday, I will keep an eye out for them.
oh and mzfckr when you said to "bil" the insects, was that a typo and you meant "kill" or "bile", if you meant kill, did you want to kill the mites or the ants as well in case of eggs.
I read a post of the forum where some guy has mites that eat the ants legs... kind of like reading a horror story.
Oh well, my colonies pop will be large enough to hopefully cope with something like this, I will do a diary update later today :D
Tuesday 22nd July
This one is going to be mainly about the mites.
The mites seem to be appearing on newborn ants, I notice them sometimes when the ants are helping the other ants our of their cocoons, strangely none of the older ants have any mites. I saw a glimmer of hope when one ant tried to pull the mite of the newborn. It pulled and pulled with the other ants leg stretched out but gave up. I think that maybe when the ants get older and they go black and their shells harden, they become strong enough to pull the mites off themselves. Anyway whenever I see a mite; I pick it up with tweezers, pinch it very lightly with my fingers and use the tweezers to pull it off. Strangely the thing that I pull of does not resemble a mite even slightly… it doesn’t look alive (not in an evil science fiction way). I have seem mites scurrying around my nest but what I pull of doesn’t look like those mites, maybe what I pull of are offspring.
Anyway my ants numbers are still increasing and many of them are fairly dark. They have filled up the test tube and are just piling the entrance up with cocoons, its an enormous pile. I am thinking of taking away the dish of cocoons, I think they have had enough. Its really tempting because I want to see all of the ants attacking a fly, but there are still about 50 cocoons left.