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trevstonbury: Ant numbers decreasing (24. Aug 2011 13:51)

Afternoon,

I am in need of a bit of advice. A couple of months back I bought a colony of Lasius n iger around 20 workers + Queen for my brothers Ant farm.

Since that time we have had issues with some of them escaping and over the last 2 months numbers declined. I have also had to move the ants+eggs as they started using an attachable food chamber as the egg chamber and I couldn't easily get in to clear out the old food that was getting mouldy. In the last couple of days I have moved all the ants and eggs successfully into another part of the nest and have cleared out the mould. There is no way for them to escape anymore but there are now only around 8 in the colony.

The queen and the remaining ants look healthy are kept fed/watered are active and there is a brood of at least 30+ eggs some of which look to be at pupa stage and 2 or 3 may have hatched over the course of the last month.

What worries me though is the decline in number and what will happen if the current workers die before the first of the current brood hatch to help out the queen. Will the queen survive and look after the current eggs on her own if she has too?

Also the chamber that he queen was using to lay eggs was not dark and was made from clear plastic, does this make a difference on the rate of laying and health of the queen? The chamber she is now in is made from red plastic. I don't wish to have to move her again and disrupt the colony.

Any advice would be appreciated

Kind regards

Trevor

DigiSERBIA: Re: Ant numbers decreasing (24. Aug 2011 17:21)

Hi,Trevor. She will look out probably but as the number of eggs that u have she cant look out for them all .... MAYBE she will eat some and leave the rest but this is just my thinking DONT trust me on this theory of mine,i dont think the clear plastic makes any difference i mean i have clear plastic also and i can't really cover it up cuz i want to see what is happening because its hot these days and i want to make sure everything is ok ... and i've only had problems with my ventilation system because of the heat some of my lasius niger queens died but my formica rufibarbis is alive which i am glad....just leave them and check on them once a day and make water/food suplies available and dont let them mold .... i put honey in my test tube close it with the cork which has little holes and when it gets dirty with food i just clean up the test tube while they are on the other side with some cotton buds.... i hope u have an idea what to do if someone has any better tip be free to anwser him or correct me

trevstonbury: Re: Ant numbers decreasing (4. Sep 2011 20:53)

Thanks for the advice Digi!