ANTSTORE World of Ants

[Lewis]

Well they have started to slowly move towards the Y-tong and have fully explored the larger tank. they are very active and came out of the test tube instantly and had some honey water. they are very beautiful ants.

This was the best packaging I have ever seen.

[Andie]

Glad they arrived safely for you lewis, and looks like a bit of a bargain too with all those ants,,well done.

[Lewis]

Cheers Andie, I will continue to update as the colony grows.

[Lewis]

Another update: the ants were calmly sitting under some leaf litter while a couple of workers chewed on a cricket. Then all of a sudden one of the scouting majors returned from the y-tong after walking around and scrutinising it for around an hour, and all hell broke loose. They were frantically moving the queens and brood up the steep stick down the tube at uncontrollable speeds and into the y-tong. This lasted about 5 minutes.
But when I tried to attach the video I took of them it just said: The extension avi is not allowed. Can anyone tell me how to make it compatible?

[Lewis]

here are a couple of photos.

[Andie]

Lewis, you have to upload your vids to youtube first. Looks like your ants are settling in real fast

[Lewis]

thanks, here it is

[Andie]

Very active species

If you press the youtube tab here on the editor and place the code between the equals symbol from your youtube url, ie gmfW7knBtr8 your post will show your vid rather than the link.

[Lewis]

Thank you Andie, it worked.

The ants have fully moved in and piled there brood up up in at the necessary places and two my surprise one of the queens seems to have laid another batch of eggs

post from 15:06 - please use the edit function!

I have just noticed that they are intending to stay in he nest for a while because they have filled up the tube leading to the out world with soil. They must be stabilising themselves and letting the brood hatch. i noticed some strange behaviour today, they have this one naked pupae (white curled up ant). But for some reason they decided to destroy it and eat it, about 6 ants did this for a while until they had eaten it it. Does anyone know why?

Edit Uta

[Lewis]

more Picture

[Lewis]

Update: Well they seem to be doing great, but are obviously deciding not to leave the nest for a while until they are stronger in numbers, which is happening as three workers hatched last night and more are on the way. I have just bought a red heat lamp so now if I turn of all the lights in the room at night and just have the red light on then I can observe my ants with ease without stressing them out. They keep moving around the nest with the brood obviously looking for the best spot still but they seem to be settling now. They have put all the pupae in the first chambers because it is the driest, it is the driest because the nest is a a slant so the water is only sucked up at the far end. the larger larvae are placed in a chamber with quite dry leaf mould, i assume this is for cocooning. and finally the eggs and small larvae are in a moderately damp chamber with the 2 queens. So all well and I cant wait until they start foraging again.

[Lewis]

Update: Well I was clearly wrong about them not coming out and foraging because at about 10pm last night there were about 15 workers out foraging drinking honey and eating crickets. One cricket that I put in live managed to walk right in to the tube towards the nest. when it realised what it had done it tried to turn around but it could not climb back up the tube. it sat there for a while until the workers started to come out to forage, even though I was told that they are not very aggressive, they pulled the cricket into the nest and sprayed it with formic acid a few times while a major pinned it down. I have noticed some strange behaviour from one if the queens recently, it was holding it abdomen under it most of the time. I immediately though it was laying eggs but nothing happened, it even walks like it sometimes, If any of you have seen Messor barbarus trails in southern Europe then the queen looks the same as the workers carrying seeds back. Can anyone help?

[Lewis]

Update: Today to my surprise a young male was born. I noticed it just as I was putting a large beetle larvae with huge jaws and a long soft body similar to that of a wax worm. anyway it to found its way down the tube to the nest as well, like the cricket! it fought for a while managing to decapitate one ant... this was when I thought that this opponent may have been to powerful. But then, the two majors came storming in, one grabbed the head and sprayed in its mouth and the other just grabbed the tail and cut through the soft skin finally spraying into the open wound. The Beetle Larvae now lies in the nest seemingly paralysed and is beginning to get eaten, BRUTAL. but cool. . The nurse workers moved the brood and queens into the deepest chamber, but the male refused to move. one worker even tried to pick it up but the male just struggled.

This has been the most active colony I have ever had and I would highly recommend it.

Update: The workers just ate the male and hatched out a male early and ate that to!!



Oh and is anyone actually interested in this thread, because I have had very little response compared to the amount of views? and if no one replies then I will simply CLOSE THE THREAD!!! honestly, I am quite board of starting threads that gets no interest!

[AntsNational]

Hello Lewis,

Keep the thread going, many people will view it and learn from your experiences. This is what these forums are about, teaching, learning, experiencing, discussing. Your queen seems to be cleaning herself, as I have various Camponotus species also and my queens do this. Keep up the journal, make sure to add more pics! It's a good read.

Cheers,
Vasi

[Andie]

Please keep the thread going Lewis, i for one am always interested, i just don't have the experience to help much with species i have not kept but always read. What we need is an english speaking moderator to give us a kick up the arse.