ANTSTORE World of Ants

[MajorSpud]

Alright, good to see that you are prepared for it.

My colony is consuming - if I offer it to them - a full package ( 25-30 ) adult crickets on daily basis......

[adam james]

Wow , How big is your colony , does it have many queens ?

[MajorSpud]

well i reckon it is about 30k workers now, having two queens ( one added just three months ago )

[adam james]

Fantastic mate , have you a blog on here or anywhere , would be nice to read of your experiances with them. And see some pictures Mine at the moment are still in the test tubes , they have water with a cotton wall bung in the end bit other then that no substrate, they blocked the entrence up with substrate thou and come out throu a small hole , I hope they will be ok in them untill after weekend and i finished my changes

I take it they were ok accepting a new queen did you just place her near the entrence or somthing , be nice to read how you did it mate

[MajorSpud]

Well I have a report here, on the German part of this forum.

I will redo the whole thing soon, for the old gets a bit too confusing.

Acceptance was not so easy, I got three queens from a friend, but two were killed, and only one accepted.

BUT, My colony is right now raising their first queens and kings ))))

Pictures will follow, as soon as I have a bit more time.

Do not worry about them in tubes, 4-6 weeks at right conditions, and you will see them 24/7.

[adam james]

ok great , will look forward to reading it. Kings and queens thats gotta be exciting for you , i hear this species will mate in captivity aswell , its somthing id like to test and the re add the queens so i have a endless colony

Could i ask what conditions yours are kept at ?

[MajorSpud]

well, i donot really know exactly, but i have them at roughly 25-30 degrees, depending on area of terrarium, and a moisture level of 80% or more.

with the first mated pairs I will try to raise them in plastic boxes, just gypsum floor and heated, no nest traditionally. I want to test if it is just temperature and moisture they need, and how important soil is for a colony.

[adam james]

that sounds great i too would be interested to find out that. im hoping to remove the foil over the weekend and see if there are any batches off eggs in the test tube , mine are kept at about 27 -28 c and have been eating great. There was alot of brood with them so im hoping they dont go into colony callapse , have noticed a pile of dead workers slowly piling up in the trash area ,

I wont know anything for sure untill about 6 weeks i assume by then new workers should be increasing the numbers.

[adam james]

Hello Guys im afraid i havent got too much to update , but there is a few things. I have finished my setup for these ants now , it took the whole weekend to construct , was ment to be a quick constructtion but things didnt go to plan and changes had to be made lol.

I have some great news aswell , while moving one of the test tubes to connect it up to my new setup i peeked into it to look at the colony and queens , i am glad to say there were several pin sized masses of eggs , just hope theses develope fast.

I have a problem thou , during the move a large portion of the colony has stayed in the foraging tank , im hoping when the workers in there new nest make there way down the foraging tube and into the tank that they gather up the rest of the colony and they make there way into the nest.

Here are a few pictures below , im sorry there not any close ones of the ants as i am waiting for them to settle in again. Will take some soon.

New cabinat being prepaired.

Tube to carry rows of glass test tubes

Test tubes prepaired , ready to connect up

Test tube rack desighn, perfect for watching ants , clear Red tinted perspex covers will be fitted to lights so less disturbence to ants.

Colony in one of the test tubes, They are also currently using anouther one in the higher rack.

Setup with foraging tank, Had to re desighn the connection , The larger soldiers cannot handle too steep of a incline and even with a good grip cannot cope with too steep of a climb , they keept falling off a steep angle.

Well thats my setup comnplete for the ants , Test tubes can be took away , Refilled with water cleaned and put back with great ease. The ants seem to have settled into it well and the temperture inside the shelving unit varies between 27 c - 30 c and due to all the water in the test tubes and damp cotton wool it keeps the humidity up aswell. Its about 70 % humidity in the setup. I will know alot more in about 3 weeks when there will hopfully be masses of new larvas and pupae.

Will update again soon when more happens.

Regards

Adam

[adam james]

Hey guys , well te Ants have seemed to settle in well , they are now making there way down the tube to the foraging tank and the major soldiers are able to get around the setup very well. I have fed them 3 crickets which have been killed and then dragged into the test tube where the queens and larva are etc. I think i have seen more bathces of eggs which is great news , but due to the way the test tubes lie and the setup desighn its pretty hard to get in close , I also have tried to take a few pictures of the queens and brood but the lights have a red cover over them and the camera doesent seem to work in this kind of light even with settings at nightime settings . I tried to take a few after i removed the red covers but the ants just started to swarm round the queens and got aggitated so i put the covers back on and left them in peace.

I have noticed more workers dying now which is always a worry i know they dont live long, i still have a pile of pupae thou and larva so im confident all will be well , also a major soldier has died . Hopfully soon thou they will be replaced

Regards

Adam

[MajorSpud]

Hi Adam, good to hear your colony is accepting food, a good sign.

Try drosophyla or or larvae from meat-flies ( fishing shop ) my colonies loved drosophyla when they were small, and still go nuts when i offer the meat-fly larvae

[adam james]

Hello Majorspud , i will try those two things thankyou , how is your colony doing ?

[MajorSpud]

well, the first alates have hatched now, i will start my breeding program very soon

[adam james]

Wow very exciting , i hope all goes well , maybe when my colony gets upto reproductive size you would like to trade drones ,

[adam james]

Hey guys , just thort i would do anouther update but it isnt a happy one , I looked in on the ants last night to find one of the queens had died , They seemed to be using her aswell as food because she was covered in larva eating her , do not understand it being as they had settled in well and eggs are being produced. The other queen seems fine so i will have to keep my fingers crossed. The colony are still feeding well and taking seeds aswell as lots of crickets. Gave them a few fruit flys last night , thanks to the advice by MajorSpud and they loved them , easy for them to kill and carry off.

I hope things improve soon , When the colony is more populated and seems like it is over its critical period and expanding well , i will try and aquire either a small colony or a few queens to merge with them.

Regards

Adam