there did seem to be allot of dead ants in the colony, but the workers have cleared them up, and already the water is full of dead ants lol they've also decieded to dig a massive hole in the peat, so the water has turned a murky black already! they are messy things!
am very suprised by the number of dead ants in the water tho, it is a bit worrying, i recond theres at least 50-100!! i've added some detergant to reduce the water tension, incase some are getting sucked in while clearing up....but its not a major issue, these guys are very incestus, and i've seen at least 6 queens being mated and de-winged today!
its getting on to being a mature colony, 250-500, hard to estimate how many there actually are really, but i think 250 is a good estimate, even with the dead ones
a few managed to climb out of the water and onto the otherside, so i'm gona have to get the PTFE sorted asap lol they sat on top of the lid looking as angry as they culd ready to squirt formic acid on me when i approached...but a pair of tweezers soon had them back in the nest
Good strong colony, with lots of Alates, that even during the stress of moving several hundred miles accross Europe are still mating with one another lol
maybe some saboteurs ^^
