ANTSTORE World of Ants

[joona2134]

Ahhhhh that explains a lot I thought you used a hole saw! I found it hard to drill a 4mm hole for the thermostat.

MadIan I have gone for 12cm spheres they had no 8cm in stock lol just got the 5 for now my shelf can fit 7 on there and if they do succeed I can add another shelf above and just use big tubs as I want the spheres and foraging area to be the main thing seen.

Adam you said you took the plaster out of your spheres due to mold is there anything else I could use to regulate humidity?

[madlan]

Same here, I couldn't find the 8cm so have 5 12cm and 1 16cm. I'm going to make it vertical, so the large ball in the middle with the smaller ones above\below it.

I think I will cut a rough hole and use some files to get the hole spot on.

[adam james]

Ha ha no , the acrylic spheres would be at risk of cracking using a hole saw

As long as the air holes are all sealed up in the sphere when the fungus garden is added and you provide a little bowl of substrate the ants will narrow the openings and control the humidity themselves. The trick is to give the fungus room to grow but not putting it in a overly large sphere to begin with.

Try giving them the freshest newest leaves on the plants as these contain the highest amount of moisture and will help keep the humidity up

Checked my colony this morning to find the 8th sphere to contain a tiny fungus garden about the size of a pea , as soon as this is half filling the sphere I will have to put on another two

I too shall increase the next few spheres for a larger size. I want to experiment with raising alates in the future so will need the room for there pupae

[madlan]

Hmm, there are no holes in my spheres?

Wow, good luck, has that ever happened in captivity? The colony will be the size of your house!

[joona2134]

I used a 1mm drill to drill the top only put 7 in there and I haven't drilled the one I want the fungus to start life in. These are just tests to see if I'm heading in the right direction. I was thinking of adding a test tube filled with water and cotton wool to the connecting tube structure to add the humidity and place the fungus in the sphere then just let the ants do the rest, will it hurt if its just on plastic?

My local garden centre has a colony that's now 8 years old and it has started producing winged alates, the workers just kill them though I understand its virtually impossible to replicate the conditions needed to get them to mate.

[adam james]

yes Madlan , all my spheres have small 1 mm holes in the top , I block them up with some modelling clay and the ants remove it or replace it with dirt as they feel necessary

Yes if the colony is large enough it will naturally create alates, I know it is hard to get them to mate in captivity , doesn't hurt to try though.

No it should be ok on just plastic, Mine was just on plastic after I removed the plaster of Paris, also the little pea sized garden I noticed this morning has no substrate under it ,As long as the air humidity is high which should be the case with little ventilation and lots of leaves the fungus should produce enough humidity.

I would supply a test tube of water with a cotton wool bung in placed in the foraging area for the ants to drink just to make sure though

PS , the air holes in the top of the spheres are arranged one hole then 7 around it in a small circle madlin

[madlan]

Oh I see, I thought the small holes were there from the manufacturing process or something! Are they necessary? I think there may be enough air flow with the way I am setting up the spheres.

[adam james]

Its advisable to have them , the ants will use them as they see fit and if there's too much stale air in each sphere they have the option to open up the holes or block them. It better to have them now then disturb the colony should you find you need them at a later date

In the wild leaf cutters build chimneys to vent the stale air

[joona2134]

Thanks Adam your a star!

[adam james]

your welcome mate , good luck with your ants , Will be great seeing another journal going up on here if you decide to do one

[madlan]

Any update Adam?

[adam james]

Hello Mate , yeah will do a update this week , lost my macro lens again ha ha so haven't been able to make a video or take any more pictures. Found it now so will sort a update out this week somtime

[joona2134]

Yey! I check this journal twice a day to see if there's any news lol

[adam james]

Hey guys , I know some of you are waiting for a update so here goes

The colony are doing great , the population seems to grow every week and the fungus gardens are full of the helpless larvae. The soldier count is steadily rising too and more Major soldier pupae are appearing

I have been having problems with restriction in the foraging tube going through the wall , the steady stream of ants slowed down as it went through and on closure inspection when removing the tube it was apparent the ants had been busy indeed. A 10 fungus garden was filling the tube and it too was full of brood. I removed it merging it with a smaller garden and have decided for now the restrict the colony to a foraging box to place the leaves in. I have also acquired two pairs of domino tiger beetles which have been placed in the Atta's foraging tank, due to there fondness for ants this is also the reason the Atta can use the foraging box for now

The ants above all are in perfect health and colony life is running smoothly. I have noticed a drop in the temperature of my rooms due to the approaching autumn, this has signalled a need to build a heat box to sit over my acrylic spheres to keep my Atta at the 25-27 c required by the gardens. The gardens will keep the inside of the nest warm but due to the cold air of the room against the spheres the effect would be a build up of heavy condensation which the heat box will avoid.

Here's some pics guys and a video

Adam

[adam james]

Hey up guys , I thought id do a small update due to a few changes I have done with my Attas and a unusual event has taken place in the colony.

My colony are doing great, Nine fungus gardens are being tended, These are packed with brood of various stages which is always a pleasure to see. During a change of leaves I noticed a couple of dead soldiers in the trash pile, This wasn't alarming by itself as ants do die of there age. Later that day I was observing the gardens when I noticed a small pile of workers gathered around a major soldier , it became obvious they were biting and eventually the soldier was killed. This has happened to all my major soldiers

There were only a handful of major soldiers in this colony but now there are none. All were dismembered and dumped on the garbage heap. There are now a few fresh new major soldiers emerging but it is amazing to see these look even larger then the previous.

I will have to enquire or do some researching as other then killing of these larger casts the colony is doing great


The second thing I noticed about my colony was the temperature around the spheres, Summer is well and truly over in the uk and cold weather is beginning to sweep in, early Saturday morning the temperature around the spheres dropped to 17c , the central heating soon warmed the room back up but that would not do. It was time to get my ants back into a heat box.

Adding soil warming cable

Adding the fans to circulate the warm air and a shelf for the acrylic spheres to sit on

Acrylic doors in place and fitting the overhead light

Once complete the box was warmed to 26-27c and the fungus gardens transferred. All ready to roll and the ants were foraging hours later


Adam