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You can put whatever you like on the foraging area. I think the natural-like arena with sand, rocks, sticks etc. looks much nicer than plastic and glass, but ants don't really care. However, if you put more objects on the arena, it's effective area will be larger, because ants will use all three dimensions, so they they will have more living space. And you can put food in some strange places and look how they manage to get it.
i reccomend you to have a tube(hose) down till clay balls.
yes bittorents are good... :)
Hi David
I have just started a Lasius Niger colony after many months of looking at
this forum as well, and with the threat of being efficted if they get out!
They live in a basin 30x20x20 with a viewing area 1cm thick filled with sand. They moved form test tube to sand within half an hour, one worker seemed to do all the work, a bit like my work actually! This colony has now 8 workers (there was 9) when they arrived there was 5, so with the odd miss hap they still seem to have setteled in nicely. So with my little experience i can recommend this type of home. Good luck.
Andy
Thanx for all the great replies, gonna take the plunge next week, seems like a good time to start a colony. Would I be better to get a queen and a lot of workers as a beginner or a just the bare minimum of workers? I understand that that the queen is the linchpin, just want things to go as smooth as possible :grin:
One other question if I may, does a colony in the wild always produce males and new queens every year, even if conditions are unfavourable?
Cheers David
i reccomend more workers(how many you want).
offtopic: will the queens workers will fight with the queens daughters workers??
A colony only produces males and new queens every year if they have thousands of workers in there colony... or an established colony for there species like temnothroax nylanderi have only 200 in a colony I think they produce males and new queens when they have like 50 workers or so.
The colonies don't need to be very big to produce males ore queens. Some of my colonies produced males and queens when they had 100 workers.
I recommend getting a colony, not a queen on her own. The toughest time for a colony is when there is a solitary queen, and she doesn't always survive to see the first workers.
On one hand with a solitary queen you have the satisfaction of having started from scratch, on the other hand, the queen doesn't do much for months, and there's a stronger chance she'll die.
Hi All
Thanx again for the good advice, starting with a queen and a good few workers makes much more sense than a queen alone. I've decided to go for the basin with the walled farm area along one side (30x20x20). I like the idea of the full height foraging area and the chance to add some taller plants for a more natural effect. I assume I could always silicone in another walled area at a future date to expand the nesting area as the colony expands? Lastly, is this the correct medium for moisture retention at the bottom of the sand/loam mix?
Cheers David
Yes you could use that, it will work fine. ;)