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Hey guys Alex here
My ants have been in the tube that i have bought them in for about six months now. The tube is pretty dirty infact mouldy :( This is my first colony so i did some research and found out that the sand was not moist enough. And i needed to buy some sand/loam mixture.I was also advised to put clay balls at the bottom. After i have done this mini project should i tip the ants out to try and get them to leave from there dirty home???? Or let them move on there own??
Thanks
Alex :D
I'm confused, ok first of all, do not tip your ants out of their home!! a few questions...then we can help...
Tube is dirty/moldy? what do you mean? the test tube is full of dirt and mould or just mold?
Are they connected to a farm?
You dont need to add new sand to make the sand damp, you just add a LITTLE bit of water, yes clay balls wuld be better at the bottom, but theres not allot you can do about that if the ants are now in the farm.....or are they in the test tube? I'm confused...
if you can say exactly what setup you have, then I recon i can help you better....but, dont panic :)
also what species is this?
Hey mistz aprreciate your time man.
The species is lasius niger. They consist of about 25 workers and 1 queen :)
Im proud of my self because they came with about 10 workers. And they are indeed in a test tube.
They were in a 40x30x30 basin.Filled half way with silver sand. I know im feeding them the right stuff. Its just the soil conditions im worried about.
At the moment i have took them out of the basin.As i said before im gonna replace the sand with sand loam because i herd it is ment to be good.And clay balls.
I also descovered mites in the tube i managed to get red of most.But i have done a bit of searching and found out that you need to boil the bugs you feed them so i have.
Alex :)
ah ok I see now, yep use a sand loam mix with clay balls in the bottom :D
is it a Farm Basin or just a basin? no problem either way, but of course you wont see into the nest if its a basin ;)
get this sorted asap, once there is nice damp ground for them to nest in, they will move out of the test tube :)
what color is the mold? generally its not an issue, as long as the ants have sumwhere to move to, which they will soon
What color/shape where hte mites? if they where tiny white ones, dont worry about them at all, they are just cleaning up the left over food from the ants, but of course boil any insects you give to your ants, incase they have any other nasty bugs in
good luck :D
you might want to checkout my Care Sheet for Lasius Niger, its a sticky in the english forum, beginners section
it is just a normal basin. Yes i will try and get it sorted as soon as possible. But remember i am 13 xD I need to save up my pocket money :P I have looked at your care sheet i found it very helpfull :) O and the mites are tiny and white.
Alex
Alex, if you are going to use a basin for them to dig into, you dont have to use a Sand/Loam mix, the Sand is generally used for Farms, because it shows the ants up better inside tunnels, but as you wont see any tunnels, this isnt an issue, heres an idea for you that will work just as well...
Sand/Peat Mix - 5 parts Sand, 1 Peat (ie if you put 1 cup of peat, u need 5 cups of sand)
The reason you use a Loam mix, is to get the sand sticking together, but Peat will work just aswell.
You need to prepere the Peat, u can buy a bag for about £1 from virtually anywhere, make sure it doesnt have any pesticides in tho, it will say on the labels if it does.
You need to grind the Peat up, u will notice when u open it, its very chunky and full of bits, the best way to do this, is using a Food Blender, u'll probly have to convince your parents that this ok to do, if they are anything like myne lol otherwise, u can do it using a cheap flour sieve, to filter out the big bits.........basiclly the idea is to get hte peat you will use for mixing as fine as possible
Once you've got your peat nice and fine, mix it with the sand.
Now, very important! Preheat your oven to 200C, you need to cook the sand/peat mix for 30 minutes, this will kill any nasty bugs
Once thats kooled, add your clay balls, add your new sand/peat mix, then add sum water.....hey presto :) a perfect substrate for your ants to nest in :D
hope that helps ;) u dont need to buy expensive sand/loam mixes
Tiny and white, than there is no problem. ;) As long as mites don't hares you ants it fine.
Sounds cool mistz and i will look into that.
But i still have 1 or 2 questions were can you buy clay balls from?? (other from ant store)
and would it be best to moist the sand by sticking a tube in the sand and pouring water down it to keep it moist???
the method you said above by using a tube would be ok as long as your colony didn't make tunnels or chambers underneath the end of the tube as the nest would be flooded,
the best way to keep your nest moist is by using a mist sprayer that can be brought from any good garden centers it is what i use to keep my basin moist.
Sithmaster676
you can get Clay Balls from most garden centres, very cheap
I'd recomend using a tube to dampen the nest, although spraying is perfectly ok for Lasius Niger and other european ants, spraying wont work for eg Ants that need a hot tank and damp nest, because the water will evaporate before it gets into the nest, so imo its a good way to get experience for future species you might keep.
To avoid flooding the nest, put the end of the tube on the bottom of the basin, and cover it with 2cm of Clay Balls, even better a mix of Clay Balls and gravel, then cover with sand, that way you can see the water level as you fill it, as long as you have only around 1cm of water in the base, u wont flood your ants
If you use a tube long enough, u can have it coming out of the basin thru the drilled holes, remeber to bung the holes up with sumthing, cotton wool is good, that way u dont have to open the lid and risk escapee's
You will need a funnel to add water, one that will fit inside the tube, get used to measuring out the amount of water you add, so for eg add 200ml the first time, and see how much it fills up, then add 100ml at a time after that until u get the right level of water to dampen the nest, then every couple of days top the water up as you need, eventually you will get an idea of how much water and how often, u need to add to the nest
Heres one of my farms with the tube setup, you can see the tube coming out on the left (among other things like temp probes), and the gravel/clay balls mix on the base