ANTSTORE World of Ants

[adam james]

Your welcome Andie , how is your setup comming along ?

[jbc]

Thanks Adam. As you can see Im 16 I will try to get a job in the summer and earn some money. But Im now graduating 9th class and will need to go to the 10th class but it is in a other town like 50 km and I wont be able to tend them. But in the University with my kept up money I will buy a very good Atta species and build a setup (could you help me with the set up after 3 years?).

[adam james]

Hello Jbc , i dont understand your question ?

jbc
(could you help me with the set up after 3 years?).

[jbc]

Oh sorry.

Could you help me with figuring out the set up plan(drawings) for my Atta species, after 3 years when I will be studying in a university?

[adam james]

Hello Jbc , yes i dont mind helping.

Any more advice etc feel free to ask

Regards

Adam

[jbc]

Thanks. Hows the colony? Did the fungi garden got bigger?

What do your Atta ants eat? Only the fungus or insects too?

[adam james]

The colony is doing fine , the large soldier worker has died. The fungus garden is getting bigger and now has loads of chambers in it where i can see larva and pupae. The queen is doing fine and tends to stand ontop of the fungus with her head pearing into where the larva are.

The workers have been given , slices of apple , bramble (blackberry) leaves, willow leaves , rose leaves and the rose flower petals, all of which have been used and cut up for the fungus garden.They tend to ignore insects after they have attacked them. The workers do like the fruit thou and after drinking the juice they then cut it up and also take the pieces back to the gardens.

Here is two links to good list of food plants the ants will take.

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Also heres a good Page on information on keeping leafcutting ants.

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Regards

Adam

[jbc]

Sorry for the worker. Thank you very much for the info.

Hope that with your colony will be alright.

[Andie]

Your welcome Andie , how is your setup comming along ?

Hmmm, after the cock up with the pipes not fitting together ive just ordered the sizes you gave me so fingers crossed. My next problem is sourcing the bisque tiles, which i'm having little luck with.
I've decided to start small and add as it grows so probably starting with just 3 or 4 boxes but i'm also a bit worried by starting half way through the year instead of earlier because of what you mentioned about the fungus and winter leaves. probably the middle of july, what do you think ?

[adam james]

O right well the bisque tiles you can get from here

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Yes i can see your point about winter leaves , Well i think there are a few species on the list above im sure are evergreen , also bramble (blackberry bushes) will not lose it leaves if its in a sheltered location as in a forest etc. You can also feed apples , pears etc and garden centres are a good place to buy miniture rose bushses in the winter , all will be gladly accepted. Also you can cut a few branches of winter foodplants stand them in water on a window ledge in your house and that should encourage the leaves to start to bud out.Also oats and cerials will be taken aswell.

The above suggestions should help with lack of leaves during winter , and you will proberly find the worst that will happen is the fungus garden will just be maintained at its current size.

Also Andie just be carfull of the weather around the time you order your colony , june and july time is usally hot and if the temperture is reaching to high it may be risky for the colony to travel.

Heres the link to the seller i got my pipes from , they make all sorts and these are the best i found

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Hope that helps a little.

Also the two tubes i quoted above for you will fit inside anouther but it leaves a small about a 1mm gap but i find even the smallest caste of workers carnt seem to fit throu.I just rubbed a small amount of aquarium silicon around the small tube then inserted it , its a tight fit now but removable should i need to

Also should you need to know where i got my smaller queen containers from here is the link to anouther site , they are the 73x73x73 mm ones (plastic box type5)

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Regards

Adam

Ps , I have just ordered some new macro lenses for my camera so hopfully it will mean sharper and much better quality pictures

[SteveUK28]

Fair play adam this is pretty cool mate.. im thinking about making it a sticky topic So lots more photos and maybe a video would convince me

What cam do you use pal..

[adam james]

Ha ha , thankyou mate , yes i will upload more pictures , am waiting to recieve my macro lenses so that should make things look better , The videos maybe harder to achive really close up but im sure i can figure out somthing

My camera is a MINOLTA Z20 , it will video aswell but lacks sound. Then again ants dont exactly shout out loud

[SteveUK28]

Ahhh forget that lol.. you need to go out now and buy yourself a nice SLR camera

[adam james]

lol yeah i think i will do one day ,


Regards

Adam

[Andie]

Cheers again Adam.

The tubes arrived today, god they are so quick and from the same people you linked. Ive also ordered some tiles from the link, so many thanks for that. Good point with the tempretures so i might risk buying before my holiday and hope my neice copes ok.