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Hello Bugsy , no mate they are in the setup my Harpegthanos were in , its new to the Pheidologeton diversus but i tested it out on the Harpegthanos and a colony of pheidole noda , both did well in it for a few months each so i knew it would be ok for the Pheidologeton. I keep the moisture levels up by adding water to a well in the bottom of the setup the plaster soaks up the water this way and as soon as i see the chambers glistening with the moisture i emptie the well, the plaster then dries out and thats good for two to three days before i need to add more water. :grin:
They deffo worth ago.
I hope everyone enjoyed the video and pictures , i will update with some more soon.
Regards
Adam :mrgreen:
Do you still have your Pheidole n oda? I love Pheidole.
Edit Uta
Hello Bugsy , yeah i still have them mr , they in anouther Plaster nest.
:grin:
Well anouther update from myself , hope you guys are enjoying my diary lol :grin:
The Colonys survival has never been so critical and im sure the next week to 10 days will be distressing for me in aticipation of events. There are now only about 30 workers left, but a large pile of pupae is growing next to a even larger pile of larvae. The queen is still laying , piles of fresh eggs can be seen clearly but the workers are hardly taking food. The major soldier still has a slightly extended gaster so she has stores of food to help out. I just hope the workers begin eclosing soon.
I have nearly had these ants a month so my setup is deffiantly suited to them :P , i just hope they can survive now for reinforcments. New pics to come soon. 8)
Regards
Adam :mrgreen:
Fingers crossed for them m8. Do the workers have a very short life span wth this species, i know very little about them :oops:
Cheers Andie , yes mate about 4 -5 weeks is the life span of the minor workers :( , Because of this the queens of this species lay almost continuasly lol.
Adam
Hi Adam, as a good gint: try male bee larvae, which are dismissed the the bee-breeders, the ants soak these up like liquid protein. Good for few workers and many larvae.
everything else i can say: feed them like crazy, only if they stop taking food in, stop feeding. This is to my experience very crucial to the colony when founding in captivity.
next tip: aphids, shouldbe easy to come by nowadays and the ants also love them. they do not hatch them, but devour them completely.
Hello Major , thanks for the tips , i have tried aphids , and they took them last time, why i didnt think to try them again. #-o The bee brood (drones are harder to come by , but i know a local bee keeper , will ask him.
Thankyou mate , i just hope the workers hold on for now.
Adam
Ok guys anouther quick update , The colony has now took a drastic change in behaviour , the worker population has dropped lower and i can only count 30 ish workers, a few are in the trash pile. But the worst is i have noticed a few larva all chewed up in the grabage area :( , Due to the small amount of workers the colony rarly ventures from the queens side and the gabage pile has been moved to a few centermetres away in the next chamber. I put a few aphids in last night all were complety ingnored. I tried a fruit fly maggot and this crawled into the nest but the ants ignored it :x , this morning while checking though it was being chewed up by a worker and a minor soldier :)
There are still plenty of pupae and the queen seems ok so far so fingers crossed all stays ok. Also there are over a thousand larvae these are almost the size of workers now so hopfully they pupate soon , but im sure the workers cannot feed all these so maybe thats why they are sacrificing a few. I have noticed the major soldier and tiny workers all have swollen gasters again and the queen is still producing piles off eggs so i assume they are getting there food from the larvas :o
Adam
Hello Guys , i have a small update :grin: The colony is still here and seems to be hanging in there. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel at least lol. There are several Pupae that are yellow and a few that are darkening more so i expect these to eclose either today or tommorow :P . The interesting point is these worker pupae are tiny. smaller then the minor workers that are there now. I think they are nantics :o The colony did slowly stop feeding as the workers population went down so i think they have reverted to founding stage. The other great think is the queen is still doing excedingly well :D , laying masses of eggs daily and the larvae count is going up again and no more consuming the brood. The ants are taking flys which i prekill and then push into the nest chamber as the workers that are left dont venture far.
Population is 11 workers , one major and minor Soldier lots of eggs larvae and pupae.
Also i have Mites !!! :( but i am glad to say they are in no way parasitic, they forage in the ants trash area and go no where near the brood. I have seen ants spot them and the mites run away very quick. :D Also i have looked closly at the ants and not a single one is infested so im 100% certain they are harmless.
Will upload a few pics and perhapes a video soon :grin:
Adam :mrgreen: