ANTSTORE World of Ants

[miszt]

I got one off ebay a while ago for £75 (~$150), tbh it was a bit of a waste of money, the picture quality is almost as bad as the focus lol but its good enough to check the nest and count eggs/larve/workers

[JimmyVe]

Must say, this is a nice farm Miszt.
Here in Belgium you can buy a kind of mesh that is made out of iron. The kind they put in tanks of a car to prevent dirt floating in when you refuel.

(hope you understand what i mean)

[miszt]

thanks JimmyVe am really lookin forward to see them out n about

sounds interesting, I'll have a look round sum car shops and see what I can find, dont think Iron is a good idea tho with the humidity levels I'm keeping them at, will rust very quickly, but maybe theres a steel version, cheers for the tip

[JimmyVe]

Well i think it is steel. But I'm not sure about it.

[Lowth01]

cool! very good choice of ant lol. I have the same species. I have one worker who seems to stay outta da nest. she loves da side of the glass and not da floor. Wonder if its an instinct?

[miszt]

hmm my queen has started munching her way thru the brood and theres no sign of the hatched worker, i wonder if she ate her!

[JimmyVe]

never heard of a queen eating a worker. Sometimes they eat there own brood, but a worker. (could be, but i doubt it.)

[Lowth01]

One of my Camponotus herculeanus workers has disappeared :O the ant was always outside of the test tube and used to collect the food i gave it but there seems to be no sign of it at all and the food has not been touched. If the ant has escaped i dont think its made its way back to the farm but i dunno. The queen only seems to have 5 workers now insted of 6. What do you think? has the ant escaped or has it died? help!

[JimmyVe]

Difficult to say, she could died ore escaped. If she died there must be a dead ants somewhere ore a peace of it. If she escaped you need to search for here.

[miszt]

o no! disaster struck today, i think the queen got a bit over excited using the cotton wool that stops the water, she has been pulling bits off to plug the entrance to the tube, but i she pulled to much out n the tube flooded i managed to transfer her and the brood to another test tube, but i think the pup is dead, she's left it alone, however the larve and eggs she has pilled up together, so hopefully they are still ok, was going to leave her alone today, thank god i checked!! o well, at least another month before workers arrive then

[JimmyVe]

That was not clever of here. They sometimes do that, i try to put much cotton in the back, but not to much.

If they where not to long in the water they probably will be just fine.

[miszt]

the larvae are moving around, so they are ok n she's happily looking after the eggs, so i recon they are ok, the pup was dead tho, she put it onto the pile of trash

[JimmyVe]

Sorry to hear that miszt, but there will be more pupa soon.

[miszt]

shes eaten one of hte larvae not having much luck here! lol but mayb it died in the water before, the other larvae are still movin happily

[JimmyVe]

As long if it stays with that one, there is not a problem. Do you give here food ? Maybe she was hungry, if not, it could be it was already dead.