ANTSTORE World of Ants

[marc.tulley]

Hi chaps
All these colonies are pretty new and only the rubra, nigers and nylanderi have been through hibernation.
Please excuse the picture quality , they were done on my phone, ill try and get some better ant pics with my girlfriends camera

This is the Rubra breeze block nest (bit oversized as this was my nooby 1st nest) and to keep them company I have a small tub of niger up in the 'tree' which i caught from the wild. Theres about 45 rubra who have gone mental making eggs sinse hibernation.




This is my new pride and joy Ligniperda breeze block nest:
They came the other day with 4 workers and a large worker and a lovely amount of brood n lava. i was pleased when they moved into the nest within 3 hours. I wanted these to dig there own tunnels and be visable so ive used course sand in a precarved area




This is my nyrlanderi (in there first) then i added my wild Niger on the other side, cant see them very well also got a ligniperda renting some space in the foraging area till they get a bigger colony (got it as 1 queen , one worker made so far)

ligni munching on a cricket leg:

she gets bored then the niger move in!

although im naughty and have 5 colonies in 3 farms they get on pretty well I am tempted to put the nigers and nylanderi in the garden

[marc.tulley]

=> edit Mod

Going to be removed.

[ratgreen]

nice setups, i really like them, and you must have a bloody good phone if it makes pics that big, cheers for the tip of ctrl zoom i never new that.

[JimmyVe]

Hello marc.tulley and welcome.

You're setups looks great. (sorry i had to remove them, make them smaller and put them back, thanks. )

[marc.tulley]

is that better m8?

[SteveUK28]

I have to admit marc this is very interesting and il be keeping my eyes wide open for updates as your colonys get bigger.. as im sure that they will NOT get on and your gonna have mini ant wars.. well not so mini as the ligniperda will slaughter the niger but still very interesting and brave. Please do keep us posted... Btw love the setups.

[marc.tulley]

hehe thanks
yeah well i read the nylanderi were VERY none confrontational so thats why i added the niger in, who also seem quite peacfull. The Ligniperda in the tube are only temp. My housem8 is planning a tree log any nest for them which will be our next project prob wait till it warms up a bit and they have 4+ workers.

Yeah the rubra-niger mix may be interesting though. I put the tub at a higher level beacause the rubra were always 'hanging' around thier tub. But occationally they did bump into one another at which point they BOTH sprint in opposite directions. Quite funny to watch.

But ive got huge hopes for the ligniperda in there own new formicarium.
I got all excited when they started opening a pupae but then they ate the bloody thing >< must be either stressed or the pupae died i suppose (this was the day after they movved in)

No worries ill keep it all updated as much as possible , hopefully the girlfriend brings her camera over this weekend so i can get some macro shots on the go

[JimmyVe]

That is much better Marc. Thank you very much.

I would love to see some nice macro pictures.

[ProXi]

Did you make the first nest yourself?
How much did it cost?
How do you keep it wet?
And where did you find the wooden thing

I really like it

oh yeah and I'm also wondering
you can't use the nest more than once isn't it?

[marc.tulley]

Did you make the first nest yourself?
YES

How much did it cost?
hmm breezeblock 60p from BnQ
red plastic and clear plastic £15 from Ebay
(actually this clear plastic i found in my parents shed so it was in rubbish condition but free in this case)
Metal trim £8 BnQ
Sealant £3 BnQ
Driftwood £5 Ebay
Sand/Loam Leftover from started set
So about £32 quid

How do you keep it wet? Razz
2 Large holes drilled diagonally down either side of the block which i top up with water

And where did you find the wooden thing Razz
As mentioned , driftwood aka bogwood from ebay

Oh yeah and I'm also wondering, you can't use the nest more than once isn't it?
What do you mean ? once a colony dies i would just pry off the front and empty it. if not as you can see it wasnt hugley expensive so ill prob bin it and make a new and improved one with what ive learnt so far

thanks : )

[marc.tulley]

Gave my ligniperda a pea after reading on here that ligni's like em and they love it! they didnt really touch the honey or cricket much , but , 2 minutes after putting one in there , two of them are munching on it! took a good pic on the girlfriends camera but will have to wait till she gets back home as her docking station is there. which got me wondering when i thought why they might like peas....pretty much no suger or fibre is there? but my grilfriend says lots of fibre so they will do good poos.....which got me thinking.....ants dont poo do they!?!??????

[marc.tulley]

No one answer my poo question?

Next stage of my plans reveiled.
1) Set the niger/nylanderi free in my local forest to make room on my shelf
2) Try the '2 carpenter queens into the fridge' trick and try and get them to work together
3) finish my super 'LOG' nest which is basically precut chambers in a cross section of a log, i am wiring red LEDs into all the chambers with a switch. Red plastic across the cross section and all placed in a sandy area with low walls

comments ?

[mzfckr]

ants do poo.you can see the test tube cotton after a time gets black or brown.

[JimmyVe]

No one answer my poo question?

Looks like i mist that one. Like mzfckr said, yes they do poo.

Looks like you have a lot of plans. Hope they all work out.

[Kale^^]

Nice setup(s), I like the idea of putting 2 or more colonies in the same setup, since this is the situation in the wild, too. It may become devastating when the colonies get bigger and more agressive, so i supposed you should separate them before it's too late (i guess u know this).

That red led plan sounds very cool, i'm gonna try that out too, since i heard that ants cannot "see" red light?