ANTSTORE World of Ants

[Gaster]

@miszt: This species does not have gamergates. It happens from time to time that dominant workers lay eggs, but thats not normally seen in a colony. And of course this eggs aren't fertilized so you will get males.

I also keep this species. I know most of you don't understand German, but there are also some pictures - here you have a link: http://www.antstore.net/viewtopic.php?t=4686

[miszt]

From what I've read Gaster, its pretty common for workers to lay eggs, but as you say they do not lay fertilized eggs, but produce males

Saw your pics last week very nice, also spent some time reading thru via babelfish

[JimmyVe]

Damn miszt, you're a lucky man. These ants look really great. I hope they do well. (great pictures to, keep them coming)

@ Gaster: so you also have these nice ants. They look great. Sadly my German is not so good.

[Gaster]

I thought about translating the journal into English, but I guess my English is much too bad. Maybe some time in the future.

[miszt]

Damn miszt, you're a lucky man. These ants look really great. I hope they do well. (great pictures to, keep them coming)

Lucky, but poor


Also extremly lucky I didnt burn my house down last night, I switched the electric fence off last night, as I hadnt had time to install a fan to keep condensation levels down, very very good job i did! this morning was very cold in my house, and the glass is covered with huge droplets of water, including the electric fence!

Fan is now installed, and working nicly, fingers crossed tonight it will keep the condensation away, so i can switch the fence back on tomorow!

However I am going to install a 30 second timer in the circuit, so that the power will cut after 30 seconds, just incase the fan fails or somthing! Also a loud buzzer that will sound when ever something completes the circuit of the fence eg water!

[JimmyVe]

It seems you are making a factory over there. I hope this al works out so you don't need to move again after burning down your house.

Good luck.

[mzfckr]

mizst, why humidity is soo high?the offerer told me that they can be kept without any specific humidity,they only need temparature.

[miszt]

Well they come from areas that have very high humidity, and I like to keep things as natural as possible (they also come from drier areas like Mexico)

Also I have various tropical plants which require very high humidity

[ratgreen]

do they males look any different to the normal females, that way you could tell if you have workers making some eggs. must say 3cm is BEASTY so cool. also what are they living in i saw the pic of your setup so are they just tunneling in the soil or is there a ytong underground somewhere?

[Kale^^]

wow.. Real nice things you have there! I wouldn't want to get bitten by one of those!

[miszt]

they have 2 seperate nest sections at the moment, I have placed a ytong tower in the tank, but they'r not interested in it, probly to dry for them, at the moment some of the colony is a crack in the wood, the rest is digging into the soil.....which is a pain, coz they are digging up my plants! lol

having a rethink about the setup, i'm probly gona attack a ytong in a farm n keep the tank kool, hopefully they will move into it, then i can think about ways to stop them digging up my plants lol

[mzfckr]

im probably keep them too. mizst what nest you reccomend for them?

[miszt]

a new pic, its a bit grainy i'm afraid, was having trouble getting the lighting right, really need to get my light ring fixed!

[JimmyVe]

Nice picture. Ants look great to !

[miszt]

I've moved my colony to a Y-Tong this evening, I noticed a sunken area of soil above one of the nest exits, and I was afraid that the soil may be collapsing, due to the air escaping as it became 'compacted'.

Using a VERY thin tube, I very slowly flooded the tank**, from the base, as the water level slowly rose in the substrate, the colony left the nest to look for a new one, which I had ready and prepared for them.




**Begginers: Please!! Do Not Try This unless you are very confident with what you are doing, and it is absolutly necessary, and the ants are large and strong enough to not be sucked up by water tension, you may wipe out your colony if it goes wrong!

If you do want to try it, bear in mind the water level needs to rise very very slowly, i'm talking <0.5cm per half an hour, no more, so definitly dont try it with a small farm! Unfortunetly due to the very high tempretures we have in the UK at the moment, all the usual techniques for moving the colony would not have worked....it will be a few days before I know whether the whole colony and brood have survived, and more importantly that the queen got out before the tunnels collapsed! fingers crossed, but I am fairly confident the whole colony is safley in the YTong, once they have settled down I will tak a look