ANTSTORE World of Ants

[Recalcitrant]

Hi Everyone.
As the title suggests I have been lurking here for a time and would like to start a colony of Lasius Niger. From the searches I have done on this site, Lasius Niger seems to be the ant of choice as they don't seem to mind totally inexperienced people like myself who might make the odd mistake. The main thing I am unsure of is the habitat, I don't have room for a 2 piece setup and I,m not really sure how the one piece units work and the difference between an "apartment" and a "basin farm". How big a colony would a 20x10cm basin farm accomodate and for how long. The last question is how secure are these units (the ones on this sites shop), as the wife has told me to keep a bag packed just in case they escape, I dont think her love of old b&w b movies like "Them" has helped my cause any
Regards David

[KiamCameron]

I dont really know how many can go in a basin like that but PTFE antstore and some people say is really good to stop them for escaping but personally I use vasaline and I think that is better but not to sure as I havent tried PTFE I also might have one lasius niger queen for sale if your interested or I might keep to raise a great colony

[Recalcitrant]

Hi,
Thanx for the swift reply... I was more interested in the ones with a lid, i really would not be able to convince my wife that vasaline or the miracle that is PTFE would not let them out. She's an old fashioned girl that believes that ants are only an issue when she's having a picknik or they have invaded the kitchen, which in our old house in the Uk they did with monotonous regularity. Took me ages to work out why we were invaded, clean counters clean cupboards empty bins etc...got home from a night shift to find the dogs leftover dogfood infested with ants, literally black with them...however I digress...so I would like a single unit if possible, not too large, small fishtank size would be acceptable (max 40x15xany height) as it will sit on top of pc tower unit, and last but not least I am pants at DIY, so it will have to be made by.....someone else
Regards David

[miszt]

20x10 basin farm wont do them for very long, they grow pretty fast, they culd easily fill the farm section in a year if you feed them correctly, i'd go for maybe a panoramic farm basin, if you ahve only space for one, a 30x20x20 will do fine, coz you get an equivilant of 100cm x 10cm x 1cm farm, which will do them for a few years, and you get a nice area for them to forage, its pretty realistic

http://www.antstore.net/shop/product_in ... splay.html


welcome to the forum

[Recalcitrant]

Hi,
Again thanx for the swift reply. Am I right in assuming that the inner box creates a dead space inside the basin leaving a 1cm gap around all the sides? And that the central area is then the raised foraging area for the ants? Ah, I also found the "made by someone else" lids, I'll assume these are a "snug" fit and require little in the way of extra proofing.
My wife has just seen the bit about rubber bungs and is wondering out loud "wont they push them out?" It's little things like that that remind me why I luv the missus soooo much...
Regards David

[miszt]

yep it creates a dead space, so you over fill the resulting panoramic farm, and then u have a foraging area aswell

i wuld use the lid that ant store sells specificly for their basins to prevent escape

I wuld also suggest a 1cm band of vasaline around the inside at the top, that way when u open the lid to feed and clean, you wont have ants getting out

lol @ them pushing the bung out hehe

checkout my care sheet on Lasius niger, will give you lots of info on starting with them its in the begginers section

[mzfckr]

i dont know really if you like the sand nest , because you almost cant see anything.maybe a basin with a ytong in it.antstore have ytongs too.

sorry for bad english!

[JimmyVe]

Hello Recalcitrant (David) and welcome.

Nice to see you have done you homework.
I see the other users has helped you a lot already. If you have more questions just ask.

Good luck with the ants and with the misses.

[miszt]

the foraging area can be anything you like, Lasius niger are very adaptable, as long as their nest is damp

imo its nicer to have a natrual looking setup, but for these ants they dont need any specific features

[Recalcitrant]

i dont know really if you like the sand nest , because you almost cant see anything.maybe a basin with a ytong in it.antstore have ytongs too.

sorry for bad english!

Don't worry about your English, it's fine, I would be delighted to speak a second language but alas I'm too [s]lazy[/s]...ahem busy...

I'm not to worried about being able to see them underground, I'm sure at some stage a tunnel will be excavated near the glass. And I'll be able to see the early stages while the queen and her first workers are in the test tube... The main thing for me is space, I already have a 3 foot aquarium which the wife likes cos I keep it clean and the fish are "pretty". The 30x20x20 panoramic looks ideal and will be easily moved to our utility room in the winter, it has an unheated toilet and a small partitioned unlit shelved cupboard that is always <10°c, will this be cold enough for hibernation?
I think I understand the principle of putting the clay in the bottom of the farm trench to retain moisture and topping it up with loam/sand as a tunneling media, will i need to put a tube vertically down one side to replenish the moisture level or is water just poured on to the top of the tunneling media?
Sorry for such a long post as a noob, but one last question (for now ) should the foraging area be "natural" like my garden or for ease of observation? Just watched a documentary featuring Bert Holldobler (sp?), he had Leafcutters, sorry don't know latin name for them, in a very grand array of tubes and beakers, all glass, the ants all looked very happy so maybe what the enviroment looks like is not important just the condition? The documentary was called Ants: Natures Secret Power, which is available as a bit torrent download on 'tinterweb for anyone interested...
Thanx again for all the great advise...
David
EDIT: added ps. just seen one of these in the gallery and looks perfect to sit on top of my pc tower, does anyone know if they are homemade or comercially available? Would need to remove rear support so that the farm would hang over the edge of the tower. I could accomodate a foraging area of max 40x20 and a farm area 40x20x2 would this be big enuf?
thnx again

[tail__]

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.

[mzfckr]

i reccomend you to have a tube(hose) down till clay balls.

yes bittorents are good...

[stringboy]

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

[Recalcitrant]

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
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

[mzfckr]

i reccomend more workers(how many you want).

offtopic: will the queens workers will fight with the queens daughters workers??