ANTSTORE World of Ants

[MajorSpud]

HI Adam,

I had the same issue with my colony.

Usually they have a breakdown after transport and before they re-establish, which takes 4-6 weeks.

One of the keys for this species - according to my limited expereince - also is offering a variety of food. you will notice them accepting different kinds of food periodically ( usually in 4-8 day intervalls)

My mixture is usually:

- crickets
- meat-fly larvae
- mealworm
- roaches ( argentinian ones, size adjusted to colony )
- terfly
- the occasional spider off your cellar ( just to be able to pretend they r useful to my wife.... )

The secondary experience is, if you feed the colony enough animal rotein, they will not harvest seeds at all. So if they carry in seeds, try mealworms or terfly or small roaches ( the tiny ones )

Edit: drosphyla of course, too, but I do not offer them to my colony anymore, since i would need hundreds to keep it fed

[adam james]

Thankyou for your advice Major , i will offer lots of diffrent types of food , so far i can offer crickets small ones , spiders , fruit flys and i have just bought some wax moth larvae , they killed one of them but didnt seem to keen on eating it . in the end they just left it there.

So basically in 4 -6 weeks i should know if they are going to survive. Do you think they will be ok with one queen , i wonder if the stress of being transported etc was the reason she died

[MajorSpud]

well my colony exploded literally with one queen within three to four months.

do not worry, as long as they r warm, o´moist and well fed, they should do fine.

one addition I do have, though. I offered my colony chambers cut out of ytong, filled with earth, so they could adjust the size of the necessary chambers as they need it.
I found they change this quite often, so maybe it wouldbe good to offer them an area with wet soil, so they can, if necesary, build chambers or seal the tube.

[adam james]

Yeah i agree , i have put some steralised insect substrate in the faraging tank now , i have noticed the workers carrying bits back into the nest so thy can make it how they like . I shall just have to be patient now and keep an eye out for sighns of population expansion

Thanks again mate for your advice

[DigiSERBIA]

Thankyou for your advice Major , i will offer lots of diffrent types of food , so far i can offer crickets small ones , spiders , fruit flys and i have just bought some wax moth larvae , they killed one of them but didnt seem to keen on eating it . in the end they just left it there.

So basically in 4 -6 weeks i should know if they are going to survive. Do you think they will be ok with one queen , i wonder if the stress of being transported etc was the reason she died

How do you catch fruit flys and put them in the formicarium/nest/test tube ?

[mtrein]

DigiSERBIA, I usually do that by unpeeling a banana and leaving it near a window. In less than 8 hours there will be some fruit flies, then I get a big plastic bag and put it around the banana. It is a bit messy, but really easy to do

[DigiSERBIA]

DigiSERBIA, I usually do that by unpeeling a banana and leaving it near a window. In less than 8 hours there will be some fruit flies, then I get a big plastic bag and put it around the banana. It is a bit messy, but really easy to do

So you end up with dead fruit flyes because they dont have oxygen? and then u put them dead in?

[adam james]

Hello Digiserbia , i just buy flightless fruit flys from a reptile shop , they cannot get away then lol

[Andie]

Looks like your gonna need loads Adam, did you see my thread on FF's? viewtopic.php?f=133&t=16374

[adam james]

Hello Andie , no i didnt mate but i have now , great thread , i used to breed fruit flys but had problems with mites big time , thou mine at the time were being raised on banana . Glad to see a alternative

Will do some fruitfly breeding me thinks

[mtrein]

DigiSERBIA, I usually do that by unpeeling a banana and leaving it near a window. In less than 8 hours there will be some fruit flies, then I get a big plastic bag and put it around the banana. It is a bit messy, but really easy to do

So you end up with dead fruit flyes because they dont have oxygen? and then u put them dead in?

No, I usually feed them right away. But even if I left them in the bag, they would first die of natural causes before they consumed all the oxygen there

[adam james]

Well firstly i wish you all a happy new year , i do hope 2012 is going to be a great year to grow my colony.

Right well there isnt much in growth of the colony at the moment im afraid , I had had a few issues with my setup , i woke up one morning to find the colony had moved out of the nest i had built them and into the foraging tank , i did not want this as it can get cold in my bungalow and there was no way to heat the foraging tank without further expense , i was still recovering from xmass expensis you see lol .

Well i had alot of plaster of paris left and thought why not change my desighn again , it caused a argument with my partner lol who says i have antifacation, ( His word for my obsessive compulsion disorder toward my ants lol lol )

Anyway i convinced him to help and after a few modifactions and new nest the ants moved in and settled in well. Now with my ants i have noticed a slow decline in numbers , the brood is now gone and only one larvae remains , but i have some great news , i knew they had some eggsbut i can confirm the queen is laying more , there is now a big bunch off eggs in the new nest and i have witnessed the workers collecting them from her and adding them to the pile.

Here are a few pictures ive managed to get , just to say sorry if the ant pictures arnt that good but its extremly hard to take pictures of these ants , macro needs alot of light to work great and evertime i put a light onto the nest they quickly move eggs and queen moves away from it .

New nest desighn moulded and ready to add ants

Converting my shelving unit to take new nests

Second nest moulded , i have made three to start with and will be moulding more once colony expands , Shelving Unit can take six nest moulds.

Setup finished , those red lights are not heaters , just strip lights with red plastic covers over them to light the inside of the nests but it doesent disturb the ants

Three nests but six will be there in total as the colony grows

One of the few Major Soldiers

Eggs , tending by workers

Well thats my updates so far , cannot wait for the colony to grow

Regards

Adam

[bugsy]

I think they will chew through that. If your keeping them in that type of nest I would want them in a basin.

[bugsy]

Just re-read, sorry if that message was to the point ha ha. I have had previous experience with Pheidole chewing threw y-tong in a relatively short period of time. But they were contained within a basin so an out break wasn't possible. I am pretty sure P.D. are also capable of chewing through it. I could be wrong as I've never kept them. Just a heads up mate as you may find them swarming around your bedroom. My mrs would go mental. ha ha.

[adam james]

Hello Bugsy , yeah this is somthing i have really looked in to , the guy i bought my colony off keeps his Ph diversus colonys in gypsum nests too and as off yet he hasnt had them chew throu. It is a possibility thou so i will be sure to keep my eyes open for any sighns of escape. They have chewed some of the gypsum in the chambers but they have just used this to seal around each chamber against the perspex front.

Well guys im pleased to say that the queen is laying really good and the egg pile is growing , i have watched her lay several eggs today and im very pleased. The worker population is declining alot more now , i just have to keep an eye on them , the next 3 - 4 weeks are criticle to the colonys survival

Im just asking thou , in case things do deteriate rapidly is there anyone here who has a large ph colony and could spare several hundred workers ?

I of course will pay for them and shipping , , i just want to make sure i have a optian of adding more workers in case things do not improve in time.

Regards

Adam