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Hey from downunder :mrgreen:
Recently found a nest of what we locals call inch ants in the front yard. Missus wants them gone, but the nerd in me thought an ant farm might be a tad more fun. So after hours of searching the net it appears this is the best resource of ant keeping information, however the knowledge of the local Aussie ants seems to be pretty scarce. So... does anyone know anything about keeping these over sized nasty super aggressive lil buggers?
I have built up an oversized ant nest for them.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/Plunk1984/InchAntNest1.jpg
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/Plunk1984/SL372259.jpg
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/Plunk1984/SL372263.jpg
As you can see its pretty much the flat panel design. Glass on both sides with some very think wood to keep the sand in. Theres drainage holes in the bottom so water can seep out when it finally gets to the bottom. Ventilation holes in the top. The copper tube allows me to fill up a little pool of water, already had a major drowning incident which has since been resolved by filling the water container with rocks. There also a feeding hole. The entire top does come off, but these guys are much too aggressive to risk that and they can see me... and they dont like me... so its staying closed :wink:
I have filled the nest with your typical builders sand, its pretty grainy and more natural than the washed sands. Also threw a plant in there, It'll be interesting to see how long that lasts.
Any idea what to feed them? I was going to go with crickets as they are easy to purchase from the local reptile shop. Would they tuck into some fruit maybe?
Also I have read alot about the Europeans needing to provide heat for their nests. Well I'm having the opposite problem. After one day in the tank, under the pergola, completely out of the sun, approx 40 of the buggers went and died on me. Thankfully there was no queen, only soldiers and workers. I noticed the ones that started to dig survived. So I've caught another 10 ants and stuck them in the tank and I've watered the sand with approx 4 jugs of water. So hopefully the environment should be a little bit better tomorrow. But does anyone else have a more permanent idea to help reduce the temperature? Summers in Aus are hot enough to kill humans let alone a few ants :?
Once I've managed to keep a few of the workers alive for a while I'll have a go at catching the queen. It's just about flight season but I'm also willing to give digging the nest up a go as they have to go anyway. They are considered a pest here and pretty much every house has a nest in the front yard. Heres how we managed to catch bulk amount of ants so far. I'm sure some of you wont agree with this method, but this was a slight bit safer than picking up individual ants with sticks. The ants survived this method really well actually, and were disorientated long enough to get them in the nest. :grin:
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/Plunk1984/SL372270.jpg
All you need is a stick... a large piece of cardboard shaped as a cone... and a vacuum cleaner. So we stuck the stick down the hole, jumped up on a nearby boulder, placed the cone down the hole, and then sucked the ants up as they ran onto the cardboard. The vacuum cleaner had a catchment device attached to the hose so the ants never actually entered the vacuum cleaner and were instead trapped into a plastic container ready to be transported. We also had another person acting as spotter. If any of you have ever met these ants in particular, you would know they can see you and will come at you in force, usually from behind you though, they are great at flanking. Within 5 minutes, my safe boulder was covered in soldiers and we had to leave them to calm down.
Of the 40 or so ants we caught I only noted 2 that died from the catchment technique :wink:
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/Plunk1984/SL372269.jpg
Really not happy they died due to the heat. They looked so good in the tank. They even started digging on the first night!
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/Plunk1984/SL372273.jpg
So any tips or information related to keeping these nasty little buggers would be greatly appreciated. =D>
Sklex (Adelaide, Australia)
You can feed them all sorts of insects and sugarwater.
But without the queen, they will not grow...
Very nice ants!
The Queens living 2 meters from my front door... her time will come, and I'm pretty sure it's almost time for the nest to release the baby queens.
Ok,
( please answer my pm. )
I've had a few pms already, so just so you guys know. I don't yet have my own queen. I've yet to figure out how to get the queen without getting eaten alive. And its illegal for me to send anything out of the country. Aus has some seriously strict customs.
You are clearly nuts. But it's all good. Kudos for the collection technique.
To reduce the heat you need deep shade. You might be able to achieve a similar effect using standing water that evaporates slowly.
Well I've started the colony again with a fresh batch. They have been in there for 2 days and seem to be settling in nicely.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/Plunk1984/SL372281.jpg
They have started digging :D
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/Plunk1984/SL372282.jpg
The soldiers seem to like standing on this leaf... and watching me :shock:
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a60/Plunk1984/SL372289.jpg
A shot from the top. Really need a better camera :?
With that number of large ants, you are going to need to be feeding them quite a lot. You'd be surprised how much food they will bring into the nest when they can forage.
As it's only adults at the moment, I would suggest honey/sugar water. You are going to need to be careful to make sure it doesn't get absorbed into the sand though or you will quickly get mold problems.
I'm also a bit worried about that amount of relatively fine sand. If it dries out, it will collapse their tunnels. I think if you are looking to set something up longer term with a queen you will need a more mixed substrate. Some larger particles (fine gravel) and also perhaps some finer clay like material mixed in that will bond everything together.
You were right about the sand, had a collapse today. I'm in the process of empting the tank to start again. Going to add a few layers of sand, dirt and even thinking about adding some sticks etc as I increase the depth to add more supports.
I don't think you need to add sticks, and it is probably best to mix up whatever you are putting in before you add it. Obviously the more fine clay like material you put in, the harder and more robust the substrate will be. The downside is that the fine clay particles will potentially make viewing more difficult.