ANTSTORE World of Ants

[adam james]

Do you mean lightbulb mate ?? , if yes then its a 6 watt cuboard light , strip light, i made a red plastic cover to diffuse the light.

Regards

Adam

[Andie]

Hi Adam, i always read your posts with great interest but i also wondered the same about my posts as you have, so i stopped posting about my exotics and just keep my info on my own blog for a personal record. I only update my M. barbarus here now as that still shows some interest. But i also have to admit that i am just as guilty of not answering other peoples posts unless i can help with something.

[bugsy]

I do check the posts with interest and am genuinely interested in how other colonies are doing. I have also asked many questions regarding the different species I keep, few reply but many seem to read. The moderator doesn't even post anymore??????? Your colony is doing fine as are mine, no one posts on them either including yourself. I get the impression there aren't many from the UK forum that are regulars.

[adam james]

Hey guys yeah i seem to find that too , we need some more uk ant keepers i think lol.

Anyways the colony are still doing great , second large larva has spun a cocoon now so i have 17 eggs and two cocoons

The other 3 newly hatched larva vanished so i assume they were eaten. The ants did go a few days without catching some live food so i assume they were sacrificed. Just excited to see what emerges from the cocoons.

Regards

Adam

[baumarkthammer]

Hmm I have to learn at the moment and the next two weeks, I will move all the posts to the discussion thread as soon as I have the time to do so.

About the english moderator, SteveUK28, I think he is inactive for quite a long time again now. Has been like that for quite some time now. I think moderating the few English posts on this forum is now my duty somehow.

The rate your Harpegnathos venator colony grows is quite good.
Keep it up and you will have a quite big colony by the end of the year maybe.

[adam james]

Hello Baumarkthammer , thankyou , do you know how long it takes the cocoons to hatch ?

Regards

Adam

[baumarkthammer]

The cocoons need very long to hetch. I think the ants spend the majority of their "childhood" as cocoons, like common within ponerinae.
Also depends on the temperature very much but I guess it could be about a month.
But since they don´t have to take care of the cocoons too much they normally have very much of them. It is nearly normal that they have more cocoons than workers later on so that there should always e some hatching. That also is why it is so hard to say how long it really takes.

[adam james]

Ok cool , well i will keep my eye on these two , i know when they were made so i will see how long they take

Regards

Adam

[baumarkthammer]

Nice to hear that your colony is doing good!
You have to watchout and feed them a lot when they are producing alates. My Harpegnathos saltator colony didn´t have enough food in that time (I fed them just as before) and not enough workers were raised in that time. The result was that the colony very nearly collapsed and for a period mostly had working alates instead of workers. It never really recovered from that!
So be sure to feed them well.

[adam james]

Hello Mate , cheers for that , They have at least nine sometimes more small crickets every few days and when they are on there last one I feed them again so they never run out. It is amazing how they are doing so well and im so happy to see the first queen.

Regards

Adam