ANTSTORE World of Ants

[adam james]

Hey guys its been awhile, but dont worry that hasnt been a bad thing , its actually been great. I had no problems with the colony. They are doing fantasticly. They forage every other day and swarm over the live food . but the great news is there has been a sudden population explosion. lots and lots of new pupae are eclosing, there must be over a thousand all yellowing up and the best part is this is follwed by equal amounts of larva and eggs I have seen several larvae almost the size of a major soldier and they have there first new major soldier pupae

The queen is doing great and the humidity is staying settled around 80% -90% The temperture hovers around 28c - 30c I will deffiantly be posting a few pictures soon and if they allow the light instrusion long enough for me to film, then i will try and get a video of them.

Speak soon guys

Regards

Adam

[adam james]

Hey guys , Well my colony are doing great , the queen is laying all the time and they are feeding extremly well. Yestarday there was a very large foraging party in the arena so i put in a few fruit flys and crickets, the ants didnt pay much attention to them and i began to wonder why. I checked the nest to find the plaster nests completly dry and the whole colony had moved into one small champer and bunched up. The humidity had dropped so low anf was only 47%. I added more water to the plaster and immediatly the ants began to drink from it and slowly moved into the other chambers again. The foraging party made there way back to the nest and most the ants stayed inside the nest. I shall have to keep a closer eye on the humidity in the future. Other then that the colony are doing very well, i wouldent say there increasing in size , well not from what i can see but are cetainly keeping up with worker loss and staying stable. I have had these ants now nearly 12 weeks so i feel pretty confident colony callapse is not a option unless somthing happens to the queen. I am still awaiting my second colony of one queen and 2000 workers which i shall carfully merge with my own, a second queen is a great insurance policy in case my one fails, Hopfully in the future i will add a few more as i would like four queens in my colony

Heres a few pictures of my colony. Im sorry the pictures arnt the best but as the colony settled in now they seem to have took a great dislike in light, the macro needs this light so as soon as i expose them to light the queen heads into the tunnels and so does the workers and brood, i dont like distrubing them much.

Fresh batch of eggs

Newly emerged Major soldier joins the ranks.

Her Majersty covered in a layer of protective workers, she doesent stay in the light long.

Well guys thats my update so far, hope you like

Regards

Adam

[adam james]

Hello guys, well my colony are doing excelent more workers hatch every day and there are thousands of brood, they colony has expaned into the other plaster nests and will be soon ready to add anouther few on I have a new pupae, it is a soldier but far far bigger then any the colony has already. It is almost as big as the queen but its deffo not a alate as you can see the large pair of jaws and it hasnt any wings. I will be looking forward to seeing it emerge.

Heres a few pictures of the colony.

Regards

Adam

masses of brood

one of the major soldiers

[adam james]

Hey guys , been awhile since i posted a update on my colony. They are doing great , too great in fact lol The queen continues to lay masses of eggs and the brood completly fills there nest , I tried extending there setup but due to a designe fault wasnt able to,so i went ahead and built them new nest chambers that i could add too. Once i had finished i removed there nest , connected up the new one and placed there plaster nests in the foraging area and exposed the chambers to light. It didnt take long for the colony to vacate and move into the new nest. I filmed a little of it so heres the video for you

Regards

Adam

[AntsNational]

I love the set-up! Great filming job too!

[mowalk]

Great Vid. I loved the music it sounded like it could have been the soundtrack to a lucas arts movie
Also your arnea looks pretty sweet

[adam james]

Hey Guys , thankyou ever so much for the great comments

Glad you liked

Regards

Adam

[Andie]

Wow,, just Wow

[adam james]

Hello Andie

thankyou very much mate, They certainly have come along way since the many unsuccessfull attempts at keeping them.

Adam

[Phasmid]

Very nice! Would you say that you've been lucky with the success of this colony or that you are just finally doing everything right? I can't help but think that this species is really hit and miss (based on yours and other peoples journals), even if they are given the best chance at life. One day i'll try my hand with these, but for now my nuisance Acromyrmex take priority lol

[adam james]

Hello Phasmid , its really a case of getting a multiple of things right, the humidity temperture are important. The the final thing is the size of colony you begin with, Most people start with too small a colony , below 500 ish workers the chances of settling the colony down and then the queen starting egg production in time to cover the loss of workers is very demanding on her. I have had large colonys as you can see from earlyier posts with 1000 workers and one or two queens and these have failed. This time my setup is perfect, temp and humidity is spot on for this colony and it makes a big difference as they are doing so well.

Regards

Adam

[MajorSpud]

Hi Adam,

I have to disagree with you on this.

In my recent testing, I separated 1 queen which was able to lay eggs, two gynes and six drones ( male alates, dunno correct express.) together with approx 200 workers and 100 "pieces" of Brood, they also had two supermajors and two medias with them to feed.


I put them in a 10 by 18 cm plastic box, lay a glass on top to cover and prevent escapes, put a nutshell and approx 5 spoons of soil in, and they are doing splendid.

Experiment has only "heating by small desk-light shining on the box, but heating it up to up to 34 degrees, day and night.

This was approx six weeks ago, and the colony has quadrupled their size in living workers by now, and has over 500 pieces of brood, with one gyne still alive at least, as well as the two supermajors.

I have made simlar separation, but had temp a bit lower, just 30 degrees, and it collapsed.

So, imho the colony founding phase is HIGHLY depending on the temperature, if it is just slightly too low, it will not work. Since a.) workers develop too slow and b.) queen does not nearly lay as many eggs.

Of course, you have to feed them good....

But still, this is what I witnessed.

Addition: This is on no way a scientific research, but only my personal view and experience.

all the best
Major Spud

Edit: Great video adam, but: the foraging area looks great, but the security is like zero, open foraging area is not an option for PD - anything that glues or similar willbe covered with their dead simply when they try to wander - I made this experience. And when they do it, they r pretty damn fast and efficient.

[adam james]

Hello Major Spud . cheers for the reply, i have never had problems with workers sticking there dead or anything to the layer of grease around there setup, they simply avoid it. Saying that they have quite a large area to forage so this may be the reason they have no need too . Also regarding the colony size , i was speaking in terms to somone who has never kept this species before to try with large colony to get the bestest resuilt. Also i may add i did say getting the humidity and temperture right is a success to getting a colony to grow so there was no reason to disagree

Regards

Adam

[MajorSpud]

maybe i expresssed it wrong, no offense here plz.

but seriously, try to cover the area, the buggers will invade your house once they give it a serious try

[adam james]

No offense at all mate , im glad of any advice and feedback on my setup . I will keep an eye out and have built a lid just incase

Regards

Adam