ANTSTORE World of Ants

[Krabbie]

Hi everybody,

Maybe some of you already saw some topics about my research for school with Myrmica rubra.
One of the things I want to do is catching some workers and give them a wipe with a piece of cotton containing a fluid that could be so strong smelling for ants that they wouldn't smell the colony scent and that the worker with the fluid on it's body would not be recognised by it's colony.

What I learned from the over 700 pages book 'the Ants' by Edward O. Wilson and Bert Hölldobler is that colony scent are big heavy hydrocarbons on the ant itself.
So i'm looking for some fluids that will either wash off these hydrocarbons or so strong in smell that they will work like a parfum.

I was thinking off:
- (olive/sunflower) oil because I heard that ants don't like oily substances.
- acetic acid because it is an non lethal acid that could(don't know) wash off hydrocarbons.

Do you guys have any suggestion off what kind of non lethal fluid or substance I could use for this experiment.

Gwenaël

[Necturus]

hello, if you are looking for an actual repellent none of those will do. Oil will be avoided on touch only, and acid fumes are harmfull to the ant, but i doubt they will show avoidance behaviour. I think i read something about anis oil, but am not certain of the actual effect. Obtaining repellent substances from biological individuals might be a bit too complicated for your objective.

Removing the colony odor can be attempted with a fitting fatsolving agent. You have to ask your teacher about what you have available. He will be able to point something out to you. Again, make sure its not harmfull to the ants - alcohols and acids are a no go.

On another idea you might wanna run different tests about the natural dissipation of the colony odour, ie. removing an ant for a few days from the colony, then putting it back, and observing how it is treated. Doing that for different lengths of time (1day, 2 days, 4days, a week...) with several individuals might turn out a nice graph for your work (and even give you a bit of an insight into statistics, if youre willing).

Greetings,
Necturus

[SteveUK28]

WOW Necturus... Long time no seee.... i thought you had left us.. hope your doing ok mate

@Krabbie, im sorry but i dont have any ideas as to what you can do there, i do like Necturus idea tho.. i also saw a video not that long ago, cant remember where tho.. Where some1 got an ant and gently took so its its chemical by squeezing it.. then used the chemical to draw lines.. and the ants would follow the trail he had made.. it was pretty neat.. Id advise to just search around the net and see what u can find..

[Krabbie]

thanks very much for you replies!
especially necturus' one!

I do want to keep it simple so something like anis oil (i think its anisE oil) would really be great. I will search for it on the internet.
It's funny that you mention the isolation of workers because that is my first experiment (almost done) and this one is the second one!
I will ask and look for a non-lethal fat solving agent!

@steve: I think i saw it too on youtube with edward o. wilson doing that to a big colony of fire ants (i think solenopsis invicta).
But I am scared to harm the worker and as my colony is only 20 workers I do want to keep them al healthy (they have a lot of eggs and larvae at the moment).
I someone has more ideas I would be glad to hear them!

Gwenaël

[Krabbie]

I searched for a fat solving agent as necturus said but my biology teacher couldn't help me with something non-lethal. Then I went to my chemistry teacher and he said that he had to know the precise molecule structure but I couldn't find the precise molecule structure of the colony scent of Myrmica rubra. So I went to him and said that I just wanted something that could solve fat or fatty acids. He said that salad oil was the best to use with small organismes.
So I'm going to try salad oil and anis oil(if i find it).

I will let you guys know the results.

[JimmyVe]

Could work. Sure do let us know.

[Necturus]

Damn, i just noticed i must have never pressed "Send" on my old post...

anyways, i did some digging, and Hexane is the way to go. Will solve them pesky hydrocarbons right off of 'em.
To be honest i cant guarantee that it will not cause any damage in the individual. You might want to mention that in the discussion. But its what is used in scientific research when it comes to removing cuticular hydrocarbons.