ANTSTORE World of Ants

[Ashton McStansfieldio]

My ph. d. finally arrived today
between 50 and 100 workers, 3 small soldiers and 2 more slightly larger (probably a third of the size of the queen) a nice clump of eggs and larva
and, of course a very large and impressive looking queen

I am going to keep them in a fish tank 48"x12"x18" I have a flurescent tube in there to help with the heat and to make the plants grow as well as a ceramic heater fixed to a thermostat for a constant 27 degrees during the day and prob 24 at night.

the tank is filled between 2 and 4 inches deep with a loamy topsoil mix which i found at homebase and I have also carved a y-tong block that i hope the ants will use as their nest.

On removing the stopper from the test tube and laying it in the tank (with the opening facing the hole in the y-tong for some sort of pursuasive effort) the workers were immediately very lively, scuttling straight out the tube to scout around. the queen and the soldiers, it seemed, stayed behind to protect the brood.

Many workers entered the y-tong but unfortunately i think my design is slightly flawed. I now believe i have made the water resevior too big as ther are actually tiny puddles forming in some of the chambers.

After a few minutes the workers vacated the y-tong completely and i was saddened and slightly disheartend to realise 4 dead workers were visable in one of the dampest chambers I`ve now drained the resevior to give the y-tong time to dry out and will persevere to fiddle with it until it is ant habitable.

Meanwhile the workers seemed to have taken a liking to a spot underneath a small ceramic plant tray and i noticed 1 or 2 of the workers had now picked up eggs and were carrying them towards it. All of a sudden the message seemed to infiltrated the whole colony at once, the activity level rose throughout the troop and they moved as one taking the brood in a long constant line to the new site.

The workers moved most of the brood only when there were very few pieces left did the soldiers pick up a piece to move (there was one soldier who looked to be patrolling just outside the test tube still staying very close) and the queen waited until the very end before she vacated the tube escorted by 2 remaining soldiers and a number of workers who rode on her back

Once i was sure all the brood had been moved i shook the couple of remaining workers from the test tube and removed it ( the ants had also been moving the few workers who had died in transit from the tube) I then dropped i live meal worm just infront of the nest entrance.....

I must admit i felt slightly sadistic and at the same time sorry for the worm when i saw it writhe in pain as the colony attacked it there were between 5 and 10 ants simaltaniusly trying to get a grip on the slippery worm and every time one got a pinch the worm twisted its body violently, it was clearly in very much pain

After a short while one of the soldiers surfaced to join in and she seemed to find it much easier to get a decen purchase on the worm with her larger mandibles. The contest turned into a tug of war with the soldier quite successfuly trying to drag the much larger worm towards the nest hole and every few seconds the worms body spasming and lifting the soldier from the ground and swinging her around although she never looked like releasing her grip....

strangely, once the worm had stopped moving the ants left it where it was. its tail had burrowed slightly beneath the loam making it harder to move although i believe the ants may have percieved the worm more as a threat to the nest and brood than as food at this delicate time of moving nest. who konows maybe it will be gone tomorrow...

Hope you enjoyed my first installment I will try to keep the diary updated as much as possible. unfortunatly if have no decent camera as yet for pictures. maybe later i will invest.

finally, I am a beginner at keeping ants so any informaation, tips, pointers and even critisism will be very much appreiciated.

thank you,
Ashton

[Kiam]

Yeah but exotic spies for beginners I think you should off got more experience before you bought an exotic species...

[Necturus]

Hey mate,
Nice read indeed:) As for the ceramic heater, are you refering to a light? Or an equivalent of a heating map? As those are known to produce trouble.
Only other hints i have, you should consider going down a bit with the temperature to around 26°C. The workers are very shortlived, and i had the feeling they react sensitivly to heat, especially in a closed tank with little air circulation. Better start a bit lower while trying to get the right feeling for it
As for your experiences, well observed Indeed Pheidologeton soldiers hardly let go again after biting, which does get very unnice when its you that they bite. I avoided beeing bitten by any other then the smallest possible soldiers and i definatly dont want to repeat that experience. Also, while the colony is small, most soldiers are confined to the queens side as "royal guards". When bigger soldiers occur, the smaler ones are relieved and can be found outside more frequently. The "Majors" hardly ever need the nest. When moving, they are the last -besides the queen- to leave the old compartment.
I hope you'll enjoy the ants and won't face any problems. Pheidologeton differes from other species by more then just the existence of soldiers.
Greetings,
Necturus

[Ashton McStansfieldio]

Thanks for the replys,

Kiam, you are no doubt right about me over streching myself a bit. I think it is in my nature. But hopefully, with the help of this forum I will cause the ants the least amount of undue suffering I possibly can.

If it is me that suffers through being eaten in my sleep or something then i only have myself to blame

Also, i have in the past kept reptiles and grown "exotic plants" although keeping ants is not exactly the same it is very similar in many respects ie. controling small environments in terms of heat, humidity, food etc.

Necturus, I have allready learned much from you and even went as far as translating and reading all of the German forums ph. d. pages (although the translations are frequently far from perfect) I will do as you suggest and lower my temp.

I use a Keramikheizstrahler 60 W (ceramic heater)for heat (hope that helps) as well as a small tube light. Are these Keramikheizstrahler things no good? if so I will change it.

Thanks again guys,
seeing girlfriend tonight for dinner so diary will have to wait for now...

[Necturus]

Hey there,
dont you joke - i heard more then one story of keepers beeing "raided" at night definitly something "girlfriends" tend to dislike, so take that as a motivator for a wellworking escape protection

As for the Keramikheizstrahler, no worries. I mistook it for a ceramic heating stone or the like. Aim the Spot to hit the side of the Ytong and observe which chambers they choose to get the right feeling for temperature.

What plants did you grow by the way? Presumed we are talking about legal ones i used to work in a botanical garden and can say it does give you a feeling about how to handle what you fittingly called "small enviroments" issues. Another tip: if you flooded the chambers already, you wont have to water for a while now, depending on the evaporation rate - do you have a lid yet? It best to use one for exotic species for obvious reasons, also it will keep moisture inside even if containing airholes. Air humidity is not a priority, make sure the substrate contains a certain level of water-not wet, but dry underground kills the workers realy fast, and you will observe the workers biting off each others abdomen.
As for other threads, have you found JimmyVE's report? It contains some valuable information AND comes in english;)
Greetings,
Necturus

[Ashton McStansfieldio]

Heh heh
I keep ants in the garden shed but i think i`ll attempt to build myself a new lid for escape prevention and another problem....

at the moment I have the lid that came with the fish tank which does`t allow for much air circulation and as a result the humidity level is off the scale, above 90% So hopefully I can find the time to make my new lid at the weekend. I`ll build it with an ant proof mesh (already purchased)enclosed in a wooden frame with a sliding cover to control the amount of air escaping.

I read the JimmyVe report and learned some more helpful stuff:) Thanks Jimmy and all the contributers. Nice pics in there too.

My y-tong is still condensating on the glass but should be better by tomorrow I would have thought. once I find a way to aim my heater at it, I hope it will prove to be a very enticing nest area

The ants themselves are hiding under a dish in the sand/loam. there are maybe 5 workers visable on the surface most of the time and I have found no more dead workers although there are plenty of places they "could" be hidden. I have my fingers crossed.

I have layed out many seeds for them which have all quickly been moved inside the nest but i don`t think they have taken any insects yet. from the information I have read i probably need to cut the insects to make them easier for the small colony to eat. Not looking forward to it but i`ll have a go tomorrow.

Ashton

[JimmyVe]

It is better to cut up the insects for small colonies. Also you give them seeds, they like them but be careful with this, they like a high humidity so the seeds will hatch .

Thes species are good in hiding there dead ants but as long as you keep the temperature right and a good humidity they will be fine.

btw: Thanks, i do my best.

[Necturus]

Hey,
i can only agree, when my colony moved into the substrate, i would see seeds sprouting from where they kept the food:) They did clean up after themselves though and took them out.
Good alternative to hard-shelled seeds (which you might wanna open yourself in the beginning) is hazelnut. When the colony was a bit bigger, i made little hills of broken up bits, which they took with a huge enthusiasm.
As for the insect question... does it help if im telling you youll get used to killing them and cutting them up? when i started dissecting animals, took me a while too before i could do the more "freaky" stuff. Hint: find a scissor you dont need anymore, and make that your new weapon of choice. you wont be able to use it for anything else, but instruments like razor blades or skalpels tend to not work at all without a decent underground material, ie. a wax filled dish.
Greetings,
Necturus

[Ashton McStansfieldio]

Hello again:)

Quite a lot has happened over the weekend, firstly I discovered the ants had moved into a clay pot which was holding a small cactus.

Shortly after I made this discovery I spotted a living ant with a missing gastor The ant in question was still running around and behaving as normal but I remebered reading that this can happen when the substrate they are living in is too dry....

With this in mind I decided that the clay cactus pot was not a healthy nesting area, seeing as i had no way of monitoring the dryness within it. I therefore took the desicion to uproot the nest ( and cactus)

I didn`t take long to carfully pull the cactus from the pot and, sure enough, out fell the majority of the dryish soil along with most of the ants and brood and most importantly the fat and lively queen.

Having caused all this stress to the ants I thought to myself now would be a good time to try to encourage the little beasts to take up residence in my lovingly and painstakingly crafted Y-tong nest (which now has my heat emitter pointed directly at the top of it)

so I set to work, armed with a tea spoon and a small brush I gently swept the fat queen into my concave grasp and swiftly deposited her and a few hitch hikers directly infront of my y-tong entrance...

Joy, joy the queen trundled staight into the nest and in the next couple of minutes the eagerly anticipated procession of egg carriers began to escort their precious cargo to my hand carved ant lair

After interestedly observing this mini migration for maybe 20 minutes or so I decided to make myself a snack and prepare for bed. today was friday after all and i had to get up early in the morning for work...

After sitting in my living room daydreaming that my bedtime snack was infact a fat, mansized meal worm that I was devouring with my own impressive mandibles I decided to have one last check on the ants before bedtime.....

Shock, horror, blasphemous expletives the little devils were migrating a new route into the base of my bonsai tree ahh well. time for bed and maybe a new plan of action tomorrow

[Ashton McStansfieldio]

What have I learnt from this little episode?

1. ants without gastors are indeed a sign of nesting substrate being too dry in my opinion.

2. plants are probably best excluded from the basins of this type of ant, although the ants dont seem quite as interested in the ones bedded directly into the substrate as potted plants. (you could maybe get away with adding plants after the ants are settled in a nest?)

3. ants can be very ungrateful creatures at times

[JimmyVe]

Hi Ashton,

1. This could be one of the reasons, probably is.

2. If you like your ants to move into a y-tong (ore other nest) don't give them any other options to move in to. If there is only one place they can move they will move there with a little patient. I now plants and stuff look very nice in a farm but for some reasons it is not good.

3. lol that is true.

[kashmir79]

sorry but what is a y-tong

[miszt]

Its the European name for Breeze Block or Areated Concrete block, a great way to make an ants nest, do a search and you will find a tutorial on here with pics that will tell you everything you need to know to make one

They arent suitable for all ants tho, so check before you spend time making on for a colony

[JimmyVe]

In deed, sorry i always forget the English name.

It is in my experience the best product to make a nest.

[Ashton McStansfieldio]

Hello again,

Lots has happened again since last time,

In another attempt to get the colony to settle in my Y-tong I added a little soil to the chambers, and then sealed it back to the glass inside my tank. after uprooting the nest again i scooped up the queen placed her outside the y-tong (she quickly hurried inside) and then, in my wisdom, I placed a stone in the nest entrance.The gap around the stone was small enough for the workers and soldiers to access but too small for the queen to escape.

Bwahaahaha!, at last victory was mine;)

As planned the other ants followed the queen into the nest and finally made it their home. I felt very smug at apparently defeating this cunning opponant in our little battle of wits:)

At this point the ants had carried lots of seeds and a partly devoured meal worm into their nest but I thought that they would only benefit from a more varied diet.

With that though still clear in my head I scoured the garden to se if I could find anything suitable. Before long I had found myself a delicious looking spider for the colony to try. not wanting the creature to harm my colony numbers i squished it a bit first and then dropped it near to the nest entrance.

The ants seemed grateful for the new dish on the menu and quickly set about dragging the spider into the nest:)

After a couple of days I noticed a few of the seeds had sprouted little shoots within the nesting chamber. I hoped the ants would find time to clear them out as they would, no doubt, die and rot in the dark, damp environment of the nest.

Over the next few days the ants didn`t seem as active as usual, the various foodstuffs I was leaving out for them were not being scavanged and even when I lifted the cover on the outside of my tank so that I could peer inside the nest, the ants had moved the soil from the chamber they were inhabiting against the glass so you could not see in.

By this point the before mentioned seedlings were indeed starting to rot looking a differant shade of green and definatly showing signs of decomposition. I didn`t like this I was also starting to notice little pin head sized white bugs in the inhabited chamber. never more than one visable at any one time but I still didn`t like it....

There was allways still 3 or 4 workers visable outside of the nest, then one day I came home to find a soldier outside of the nest wandering around unacommpanied. I thought this was a little strange and this coupled with the little bugs and the rotting seedling panicked me a bit.

I decide I was going to insert a thin plastic straw, bent at the end, into the nest entrance. The seedlings had sprouted against the glass in the stacked soil I mentioned before. So i concluded that by inserting this straw i could scoop out the rotting greenery, along with the soil that was obscuring my view and also seemed to be housing the small bugs. I hoped that i would be able to to inspect the soil more closely and I also expected that the intrusion would would upset the colony enough that I could monitor a reaction to show the the ants were actually still in there in a relatively stable number..

And so began my little experiment, i deftly inserted the straw and all seemed to be going well as I extracted the nuisance plants and soil, there was also reaction from the ants, dozens of them sprang into view, biting the straw and shoo-ing away the disturbance.

I disposed of the seedlings and sifted through the soil. thankfully there was no bug infestation, I failed to find a single specimen. re-assured I happily left the ants to their own devices. I concluded that the ants were mearly settling in to their new home and must have allready stored enough food for the time being:)

Later that night I decided to check up on the ants.... On looking through the glass side of the tank I noticed the Colony had again became very avtive so i opened the lid to take a closer look, to my surprise it seemed my intrusion had caused the ants to up sticks again:(

There before my eyes was a procession of ants scurrying towards their new home, the colony seemed to be doing fine with at least as many workers as before maybe more. Some were carrying eggs and larva but near the back I noticed a large clump of ants maneuvering what looked like a shiney dark pebble towards the new nest.

I had never seen so many of these ants working together to move an object so I leaned in for a closer look...

What was this black shiney thing the ants were so interested in? On closer inspection the detail looked familiar, It wasn`t a stone, it was part iof a once living insect....

Bo***cks, It was my queens gastor:( No doubt about it, my queen was dead.

Oh well, how embarrasing to prove Kiam right after a little short of a month spent with these creatures. I was hoping the queen would be the most resilliant of the colony with the workers at least giving me a clue that I was doing something wrong:(

Saying that, I did uproot the nest more than once. And then there`s the seedlings and the little bugs... I know the heat and humidity weren`t to blame...

Can anyone shed any light on what they think may have happened?

Besides that I am still left with a small, queenless colony numbering 100+ workers 5/6 soldiers and brood. I have transfered them to a smaller ant farm for now so I can clean my tank and hopefully start again.

If i manage to buy another queen/ small colony I hope I will be able to gradually introduce my remaining colony to them.

Oh well, I am gutted but I feel I have learnt a lot and will hopefully do better next time....

Ashton