ANTSTORE World of Ants

[Andie]

At the moment their are probably 200 + ish still living in the test tube or probably under it and in the sand around their small arena. I don't think it will take much to encourage them out into a new nest.
I wanted to use a y-tong or plaster nest inside a glass tank but if they are going to chew through this anyway, i see no reason then to do the same as yourself apart from the worry of the sand collapsing. Also it must be difficult keeping your eye on the queen. I suppose if there are no larvae or pupae then you would know the queen maybe dead. I still have a couple of months to decide which road i want to go down and ill have to get rid of one of my colonies after the winter break. My biggest headache is room.

[urbanAnt]

I don't see the queen but I can peek under the tank and see all the larvae but don't like to disturb them. I see worker ants carrying white Pupae to the surface, i could only guess for the heat from the red light I have over them. They do this a lot. I didn't hibernate them because I just received this colony and they it had about 24 workers 1 soldier and half dozen eggs.

Good luck with your choice - I will check in when I can to see how things are.

[Andie]

On the 1st of Feb i took my two colonies out from their winter break and raised the temps quite dramatically up to about 18 c. I'm not sure if the break has been altogether successful because the temps have fluctuated between 8c and 15c. There are no eggs or larvae to be seen so the queen had stopped laying, and i am happy that i haven't found any dead ants in either colony. The ants have eagerly accepted prey items so hopefully they will resume with a happy 2012...

I still haven't got around to building their new nests yet and i will have to loose one of my colony's I'll just wait a while so i can confirm both queens have made it through the rest.

[Andie]

Morning, just wanted to say thanks to everyone who had asked to buy my spare colony, but they have now gone.

[Andie]

I have finally made my ants their new nest and decided to use Crystacast Plaster as it sets like concrete, hopefully it wont be so easy for the ants to chew their way out. It better not as this stuff is expensive. I used a small faunarium and made the negative impessions for the tunnels from play dough that i had made from flour and salt earlier. That bit was fun. I then coated the sides of the faunarium with vedgeatable oil so the plaster would come out easier and then went to mix the plaster. Right, ready to pour the plaster in and ....BUGGER!!!!, the oil had caused the play dough to slide down into a heap to the bottom. I had to quickly chuck it all out and start again but the plaster was already setting, i added some more water twice, formed the tunnels and in a panic, poured in the plaster. Well it didnt look to good but useable. Crystacast Plaster sets like rock in about half an hour and is very heavy, infact it was setting as i was pouring it and had to make a bit more to finish it off. Anyway, next time ill know .

I wanted to use the whole box for the nest , the first part was to put in the water reserve. Also at the back the entrance and air vent.


The playdough forming the tunnels.


After the plasters been poured and cleaned.


Entrance and vent


Connected to original arena.


I took the cover of the RG's and the ants very quickly began moving their seed stores to the new nest. I don't think the queen has moved yet but all seems good.

[DigiSERBIA]

Nice job

[AntsNational]

^^^

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[Andie]

Lol at you two and thx.
Overnight the whole colony moved into the new nest and have pretty much moved all their stores too, but they have managed to get themselves and a pile of seeds into the water reserve pocket so ill have to rethink this now. Glad i didnt add any water.

[TheUneXisted]

With this species it is not neccesary to moisten the nest...

[Andie]

Thats good news then, thx

[Andie]

The breeding seasons has began again with this nice clump of eggs, although there are some larger larvae in the nest i think they must have been left over from last year before hibernation. Looks like they are content with the new nest.
I have just hatched a batch of blue bottle casters so all my ants are feeding on flies.

[AntsNational]

Where did you get the bluebottles!! And nice egg shot!!!

[adam james]

Hello Andie , great stuff mate , looking like they are doing great

Adam

[Markus]

Good luck for the new holding year, what temperatures do you have?
My breeding construction needs to be finished, 14°C are a little bit low for laying eggs (only three pleometrosis-queens have layed some eggs...).
Well may your queen lay eggs as if there is no tomorrow!

[Andie]

@ Antman
I used to use bottle flies for feeding preying mantis as they are an extremely cheap and nourishing food. For about £2.50 i can buy a pint of maggots from our fishing tackle shops, which equates into a few thousand flies. I own a preying mantis forum in the UK and i seem to remember that one of our Canadian members mentioned that your fishing shops don't stock maggots. I can't be sure of that though.
The maggots are already full grown and will pupate in 2 - 3 days and hatch in approx 14 days for blue bottles and 10 days for green bottles, at room temps. If you hatch them all at once your going to have a few thousand flies but fortunately you can put the maggots, casters and flies into the fridge which will slow them down. The maggots will pupate and hatch after a few weeks in the fridge and the flies will become dormant. The flies when warmed up can be fed on honey/sugar water or fruits, so when you them feed them to your ants, they are also getting all the stuff we already feed plus proteins and also the risk of introducing mites are virtually eliminated.

Latest batch of blue bottles being gut loaded


@ Markus
The nest is being heated from underneath by a small 6 watt heatmat the queen has positioned herself about a third of the way up from the bottom and the temp there is 21.8 c