ANTSTORE World of Ants

[Quitsche-Ente]

WOW Your queen looks wonderful!

[bugsy]

She is doing really well, but its still early days yet. I think the secret is to leave her in as much peace and quiet as possible. She has recently laid a load more eggs so when the colony doubles in size i'll post another pic. Fingers crossed for a major.

[bugsy]

I've been experimenting with the humidity levels in the y-tong and have noticed significant changes in behaviour. When i allow the y-tong to dry the queen stops laying regardless of how much food and protein is available. When I increase the levels to that of which you would normally keep exotic species of campo in, she starts laying again. This could however be coincidence as ligniperda queens tend to lay in batches.

[SteveUK28]

a nice interestin read bugsy... you are very lucky.. i have tried everything you have said in your diary.. and mine still go very slow... i believe jimmy had the same problem.. at least mine are growing even if it is slow. Nice thread mate.. keep the photos coming

[bugsy]

[bugsy]

Hi Steve my queen seems to definitely lay in batches as you can see from the picture above, never anymore than 10 at a time. The colony also keeps each batch separate from each other, seems weird but its good for keeping track of the development. She also resides in the most humid chamber with the eggs and small larvae. The pupae and larger larvae then get moved to a separate chamber. I don't understand why yours aren't developing, i keep them in a room under my stairs and it every quiet. Maybe she is weak or wasn't looked after properly before you received her. What are you feeding them?

[SteveUK28]

They get a mixed diet.. crickets, meal worms, roaches, spiders.. even worms..

I'm going to change the honey i use this week.. maybe that will push them a little bit...

@JIMMY... How are yours mate....

[bugsy]

Mine wont even accept honey, I've tried several brands. They cant get enough of plain old sugar water though, seems to do the trick.

[bugsy]

The queen laid around 40 eggs 2 weeks ago. They are at the small larvae stage now, she hasn't laid since. From my experience she wont lay again until the brood are starting to hatch. But when she does the egg batch will probably double in size. So far so good

[bugsy]

Can anyone tell me what they think this is on the left????? It looks like an old cocoon that an ant has emerged from but all these larvae were laid at the same time and are still very small. There hasn't been any pupa in the colony for weeks now. Any ideas

[Creature]

Looks like a cocoon to me , too. I am not sure what else it could be , i dont think that ants produce something like this. It might be a part of something u fed them.

[Icon]

Hi,

It also looks to me like a cocoon.
Could it be, that your ants stored the cocoon on a place you couldn't see it?

May they have found a dry and warm place, where they're keeping their cocoons...
It's the only solution to the puzzle what comes to my head in moment.

On the other side it also can be something other, something what comes from out into the nest.
But then your ants carry it certainly not into the nest, near the brood..., besides it is fodder.
But then it will disappear soon.

Keep us up to date in terms of your mysterious cocoon!

Greetings Icon

[bugsy]

It seems to have gone now, i do also believe it was a cocoon. I think they stored it, then used it to help the larvae spin. There is no soil or sand in the y-tong to help them stick to, so maybe it was used for that purpose. Smart ants if it was. I'm going to add some sand to the basin, if they move it into the y-tong then i think it will confirm this.

[bugsy]

Since the last batch of eggs turned into small larvae around 6 weeks ago the colony has virtually come to a stand still. The larvae haven't grown in size and no more eggs have been laid. The colony rarely moves and they have stopped taking food. Every few days a worker will venture out for water and sugar solution. I know its early but i think they are going or have gone into hibernation. I will continue to heat the nest until October then switch the heat off. Has anyone else experienced early hibernation yet ???

[abz-uk-ants]

How many workers do you have mine havde 12