ANTSTORE World of Ants

[mzfckr]

i think you should be worried and remove them. dont forget to bil the insects.

[miszt]

Thanks JimmyVe, ... I said young yellow ants because the ants are yellow when they hatch , I don’t have enough money right now to buy a new tank but I will buy a bigger tank when I can. I agree that 300 cocoons is a bit much for my small colony but they were hatching really fast and I didn’t want to waste them, anyway the colony isn’t so small anymore I have almost 80 ants now, I will give them fresh bugs tomorrow, they already have sugar water.
Oh yeah and I know about 300 ants is a few to many ants for a newbie but I will try my best

You have been so much help!

Oh wait I have a BIG question!: Some of my ants have tiny white bugs on them, I read that they are probably mites that hang on to the ant and feed of waste and are harmless, but they seem to be making it hard for them to walk, there was one with a mite on its antennae and the ant kept of trying to get it off. So far I have seen 2 mites and have picked the ants up with tweezers and pulled the mites of them, the ants were fine when I put them back, should I be worried and keep on removing the mites, or are they really harmless and ignore it?!

this is just one of the many reasons why you shouldnt top your colonies up with wild brood

some of these mites can be detrimental to the health of the colony, but its hard to say without good pics what they are, usually 'food mites', small white harmless type, do not cling on to ants, but walk around in the substrate or on food

[JimmyVe]

Miszt is wright about this, if they are just small white mites they don't harm the ants. If you see that your ants are having trouble with the mites you could remove them.

[dodgydogman]

Well I have seen them a couple of them going around the test tube and have not seen any actually on my ants since yesterday, I will keep an eye out for them.
oh and mzfckr when you said to "bil" the insects, was that a typo and you meant "kill" or "bile", if you meant kill, did you want to kill the mites or the ants as well in case of eggs.
I read a post of the forum where some guy has mites that eat the ants legs... kind of like reading a horror story.

Oh well, my colonies pop will be large enough to hopefully cope with something like this, I will do a diary update later today

[dodgydogman]

Tuesday 22nd July

This one is going to be mainly about the mites.
The mites seem to be appearing on newborn ants, I notice them sometimes when the ants are helping the other ants our of their cocoons, strangely none of the older ants have any mites. I saw a glimmer of hope when one ant tried to pull the mite of the newborn. It pulled and pulled with the other ants leg stretched out but gave up. I think that maybe when the ants get older and they go black and their shells harden, they become strong enough to pull the mites off themselves. Anyway whenever I see a mite; I pick it up with tweezers, pinch it very lightly with my fingers and use the tweezers to pull it off. Strangely the thing that I pull of does not resemble a mite even slightly… it doesn’t look alive (not in an evil science fiction way). I have seem mites scurrying around my nest but what I pull of doesn’t look like those mites, maybe what I pull of are offspring.
Anyway my ants numbers are still increasing and many of them are fairly dark. They have filled up the test tube and are just piling the entrance up with cocoons, its an enormous pile. I am thinking of taking away the dish of cocoons, I think they have had enough. Its really tempting because I want to see all of the ants attacking a fly, but there are still about 50 cocoons left.

[tail__]

If the mites will become too dangerous, you may try some anti-mite drugs used by bee keepers. Of course you would need only a very small amount, considering proportions of ant and bee colony size. But maybe you will succeed in removing them manually.

[dodgydogman]

Ok I know its not the 23rd but this is cool! The mating flight happened :O I caught 15 queens, FIFTEEN lol. I have put them in syringes with one end blocked up with water and cotton wool. I have 3 of these each containing 5 queens zomg! So my question (as I always seem to have one ) is (you can probably guess) can I have a colony with >1 queen… e.g. 5... I read a post where a guy had 2 queens and when the workers hatched they split up… If that happens will they be satellite colonies or just completely different colonies?

[edit]

Can I put all 15 together and have a SUPER colony hehe.

[miszt]

no, they will kill each other and you may end up with none also make sure you only collected de-alted queens, ie ones that had removed their wings, as this is the only way to tell if they are fertilized

depending on the species, I am assuming Lasius niger, as they flew today

[dodgydogman]

Really? So Lasius Niger colonies can only have 1 queen? Damn TT, I gotta buy a WHOLE lot of test tubes now...

[tail__]

What would you do with 15 colonies? An ant soup?

[miszt]

Really? So Lasius Niger colonies can only have 1 queen? Damn TT, I gotta buy a WHOLE lot of test tubes now...

or you could juz let them go

[dodgydogman]

and shoot myself at the same time....

[JimmyVe]

Why keep all 15 queens ? What are you going to do with them ? I don't understand people. If i catch queens i (at most) take 3 queens from the same species. If they all succeed in making a small colony i give 2 away or release them where i captured them. 1 colony of each species is more than enough.

About the mites, i don't think the white stuff on the new born workers are mites. (just a guess of course, i don't see it, i only know what you write here so...)

[dodgydogman]

Ok JimmyVe thanks for the advise I think I am going to keep most of them in test tubes and see which one does the best (they have a much better chance of suviving in captivity than in the wild so I am actually helping them ) and then I will release the rest of the queens, lol kind of like a reality show. Gosh I am mean... I hate those shows...

Oh and im not sure the white stuff is mites aswell. I will explain tommorow. It is midnight... Should get some sleep lol.

[JimmyVe]

You do that. See which one makes a nice colony for you and release the rest back into nature, make sure you place them back where you found them.