ANTSTORE World of Ants

[Spore]

Imagine if a person was to sucseffuly (highly unlikly) relece a Atta colonie that could cope with the british weather!!!!! This WOULD be absolutly disaterous.

But in the end, life will always find a way.

[marc.tulley]

OK OK LOL
now now lads
well im sorry i thought species found in the UK would be fine in the UK.
however, in my opinion:
survival of the fittest
Evolution for the win

dont comment its just the way i see it

There in test tubes now so no possible harm done

theres only several nylanderi left for some reason, ill see how they go for a while and if the numbers climb back ill sell them on for a v.small price.

The niger seem in good condition though , lotsa brood and approx 18 workers (there numbers have gone down too i think...did start them as just a mating flight queen though....)

[SteveUK28]

if you dont want the nylanderi i know someone who would have them off you.. as long as you have the queen.

[marc.tulley]

lol yes
a colony without the queen wouldnt be much good

[Spore]

Some species of ant can reproduce without a queen/queens. But i think it's limited to only a few exotic species.

[ashhad1]

well it seems to me they already nested somewhere else if the queens gone, if u r lucky u could try look in ur garden under rocks or sticks/wood pieces as they like to nest there
If ur unlucky theyl be in the ground somewere or in ur next door neighbours garden lol

Oh and dont forget about the birds, they also like eating ants lol

[KiamCameron]

I think he meant he has the queen.

[marc.tulley]

lol yeah never said the queen was gone lol
just lost a few workers

and MATE these thing are soooo small i have trouble finding them in a test tube let alone the garden!
anyway I DO have the queen

[miszt]

T nylanderi are generally Diurnal, they are active mostly during the day, better to wait till the middle of the night and you sould be able to get them all back

[ashhad1]

ah ok i must have misunderstood u hehe sorry there...
and u do have a point that there tiny lol
You see i actually never had them before so i didnt think they were that small

[marc.tulley]

The Rubra just moved into thier new cork nest, they initially made a thin gap on the sand surface as you can see to get the lavae safe, then spent allllll night digging sand out.



Heres a worker attacking a twitchy cricket, she had great fun with this as it still had 1 good hopping leg this colony is very healthy at the moment and are happily eating about 1 bug a day, soldier boy and queeny's abdomens reflect this too, they have white stripes where the scale like layers have stretched



These two are not as fat as the other colony but seem pretty happy. Starting this night with 4 developed pupae and about 5 v.small lavae, i watched anxiously as queeny popped out about 14 eggs! i thought they would never stop! so planty more ants too come and i cant wait for they first ants to pop out. These 2 have been fighting it on there own for quite a few weeks now.


Lil lady came out for a drink:

[SteveUK28]

Very nice marc, Hope your rubra grow into a nice colony like mine

[marc.tulley]

Today i caught a peek of the Rubra since i gave them lots of rubra lavae from the garden and put them in the cork nest, Well i was suprised when i had a male drone pop up a couple of months ago, but from what i can see in the cork nest i have 1 flying queen and 2 male drones now

the queen was probably one of the beefy lavae i got from the garden as you guys informed me a nest will normally only make 1 or the other

SOOOO do you reckon theres any chance (ill prob end up trying anyway) that the queen that came from another colony but raised in mine will mate with my drone????

[tail__]

Ants really don't want to do such things without a good, high flight.

[marc.tulley]

how do colonies get multiple queens? just by chance a mated queen from the same parent colony pops in to stay?

ok so when its mating flight time, let em fly around the house then chuck them together ?