ANTSTORE World of Ants

[thomie]

I've looked yesterday into the test tube an i saw a little block of brood .
I've also saw 2 death workers :S .
I give the ants honey water, seeds and insects so i think it's just bad luck.
(some one accidentally pushed the nest, maybe that gave stress)
I hope they'll hatch son into workers

[Antlord]

@Thomie: Do your ants take the honey water?
Because mine are not interested in it at all.
Hope your colony does fine!;)

[thomie]

No the ants don't take the honeywater .
I've heard it's normal

[JimmyVe]

From all people i know that keep Messor barbarus none of them give them honey water because they don't accept it. You can always try.

[thomie]

I'll just give them as much as possible :p .
I've added today 2 different seeds, hope they'll like them .
They've taken all the ?sunflower? seeds (about 50 seeds i guess) and put them at the entrance of the test tube.
I've watched the queen today again to check if thear are really eggs :p .
The ants where very stressed out and the queen took the brood ad moved it. I guess i also saw a worker with little brood.
I'll just let them rest and watch about 1 time every week.
I've made a simple nest today and put my Lasius Niger colony in it, they are alreaddy getting more active and guess they will be fully active Friday.

[ducatiman]

i dont know if anyone else has experienced this but my messors are trying to chew thier way through the cotton into the water on the other side of the test tube,they are connected to a ytong and have been for 2 months but now im getting worried that they may cause a flood,any ideas ??

[JimmyVe]

Is the tube still covered ? Take it off the tube so the colony is in the light (no direct sunlight) and they will move to the y-tong.

[ducatiman]

@jimmy,yeah they are uncoverd,not in total daylight but much lighter than befor, also i am slowly lifting there tube up at steeper angles to encourage them to move,thanks for the advice ,if there is anything else i can do please let me know,i dont want to but i may have to tip them out

[JimmyVe]

If there is a change the tube will flood over it could be better to tip them out, try this way first. Also you could heat up the y-tong a bit that also will encourage them.

[ducatiman]

if i did tip them could it stress them out too much

[thomie]

It's possible that the brood doesn't come with the ants, and it also gives stress. But it's no stress when you watch the stress at the transportation.
When i want my test tube to get light i cover it with a peace of paper (toilet paper), the paper blocks a little light.

[mpir]

i dont know if anyone else has experienced this but my messors are trying to chew thier way through the cotton into the water on the other side of the test tube,they are connected to a ytong and have been for 2 months but now im getting worried that they may cause a flood,any ideas ??

My Messor colony was also doing this. They stoped about half way into the cotton. Most of the time, the queen was hiding in the digged out part. Now the tube is dry and they moved to a new one but they still like to pull out the cotton and take it to arena.

[thomie]

I guess Messor likes to dig to water. Many times Messor Barbarus digs truth Y tong towards the water basin. So i guess a sand nest is the best for Messor Barbarus . They dig because they aren't comfortable i guess..
My Messor Barbarus don't (yet) dig truth the cotton, but maybe when the colony is lager they'll dig :S .

[ducatiman]

that is what i found,when the colony was small they didnt dig,now it is bigger they are digging,i have moved them from the test tube to the ytong,they didnt look too happy but i did it slowly so there was minimal stress,the nest is back to normal and they seem fine

[thomie]

You really have to watch the ants!!
Some one i know had his Messor Barbarus nest just moved into Y-tong. The next day they dig truth 2-3 CM of Y-tong, they where walking truth his sleeping room.
The ants also dig to the water basin, much ants drown.