ANTSTORE World of Ants

[phasenp]

Hello,

This will be my first post of hopefully many to document my progress with my new Messor barbarus colony. I currently have 10 workers and 5-6 eggs. Also looks like one larvae.

Yesterday the colony was introduced to their first basin. Test tube placed inside to give them some time to get to know the place. The first thing they did was starting to clean up seeds and pile them outside the tube. They also cleaned up the leftover cotton stuck to the wall. I noticed one had problems getting rid of it(stuck) so more came to help and together they finally got it outside.

This morning they had piled more seeds together and moved some sand into the nest to cover up the entrance a bit. I was lucky to catch my queen moving outside for the first time, except for the first minute after I opened the tube. The first time she was out for about 15-20 seconds.

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[phasenp]

I created a small timelapse using my phone yesterday and during the last 24 hours they have been checking out the ytong nest I put in there. I watched for a good 30 minutes while one of the workers went in and out probably 6-7 times. Hopefully they will consider moving there when I remove the paper giving them shade. I am currently recording timelapse with my new gopro. Since I finally got another use case than just motorcycle stuff I now decided to buy one!

Nothing special, but a short timelapse and showing one of the workers entering and leaving the ytong several times.

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Hope you guys enjoy!

[phasenp]

Late last night I noticed a red/brownish pupae in their nest! I set up a timelapse every 5 seconds before I left for work today. Hopefully I catch something cool.

[phasenp]

This pupae must have been covered good since I haven't noticed it earlier, but yesterday a new worker.. and the biggest one yet came to life and walked around inside the test tube \o/ !

I am unsure how to get the colony more keen on moving, I have kept the test tube "uncovered" so it has light on it, but they dont seem keen on moving. They have however moved some seeds from the test tube to the ytong nest and they are surveying the ytong all the time. It has been four days with the test tube out of shade, but no brood have moved. I am slightly worried that direct light will make the test tube too warm.

Can it be that the brood causes them to be more sceptical about moving? Any advice you guys could give?

[phasenp]

An update from the last couple of days, I experienced that the silicone and glass on top of the ytong came loose on one end so I decided to move the colony into a slightly larger tube connected to the test tube and refill silicone. This was monday and today I am going to reintroduce them to the basin. I am quite excited because they have been trying to get out of the tube badly. I'll post again when I got some results!

[phasenp]

Good evening!

Today I finally managed to get my colony moved into the nest. Once I got them out of the test tube I removed it from the hose and plugged it. Now just the hose was connected to the basin. It took about 2 minutes before the queen was escorted into the ytong.

First couple of minutes:
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First hour speeded up with a nightvision filter to improve visibility:
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Hope you enjoy!

Colony currently consists of 14 workers. I guess I mistook the pupaes/larvae for being eggs in the tight test tube so more workers appeared the last couple of weeks. I have 3 pupaes left from what I can see now and 2 have started to get colour.

[phasenp]

Alot has happened in the last 3 weeks. Yesterday when I came back from work I noticed two very bright coloured workers in the nest, so now it's only two pupaes left.. Its roughly 4 days since they moved into the new nest and they seem pretty comfortable and alot calmer now.

I created a timelapse for you guys, its nearly 3 hours in real time and shortened down to about 4 minutes. The start of the clip show them drinking from the watering hole I added to get a bit of moisture on that part of the nest(lower left). I didn't expect them to the that interested in it, since I have both a water through and a test tube with water and cotton. Every time I fill up the water hole they seem to gather there

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I know it's probably not too interesting being such a small colony, but if theres anything you would like to see more of or want to ask. Please do

[phasenp]

Good evening! Since the last time I wrote I've had one worker dying. After a couple of days being moved around in the nest, I found her in one of the corners of the basin. So luckily they found out how to best dispose of the dead(plus easily accessible by me)

One or two new workers since last time aswell. I took a few pictures without the red plexi today. I wasn't able to count them all, but it looks like there are more ants to come soon. 7-8 larvae as far as I can see?

I picked up an aquarium this weekend which I will work on during winter.

[phasenp]

A few more pictures of the brood from yesterday.