ANTSTORE World of Ants

[SirJet]

Hi all,

My colony of Myrmica ruginodis has arrived (1 x queen, 10-15 x workers)

I was expecting them to arrive in a test tube that I could connect directly to the farm once they were mature enough to move, however they have arrived in a plastic box full of green foliage (see pic). The test tube is inside at the bottom. few questions:-

1) When will they be ready to move to the nest box? (this is already set up with foraging tank).

2) Does the green plant stuff need to go in the foraging tank? (At present there is a thin layer of loam, stones, water test tube and some other items)

3) Do I need to start providing food immediately as the queen has workers and the ants appear to be foraging?

Thank you.


Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar

Edit Antstore - please use the edit function! thank you!

post from 19:45

Also, I got a 10ml bottle of ant food (honey). Do I feed this to the ants neat, a few drops at a time or do you always dilute with water? If so, how much water? And should I add any additional sugar?

thanks again ^^

[Calco]

same question here with regarding the tub

[miszt]

put the box into your foraging basin, and remove the lid, put a few drops of honey solution onto some kind of small dish, then leave them to it

[Calco]

basin isnt large enough for me to fit it in, they seem to be happy in the moss, might attempt to lift them in the moss into the basin. Just hope that they actually leave the basin and go to the nest area

[MrNixy]

The best thing (in my opinion) is to take the moss from the container making sure not to hurt any, they won't notice you move them if your careful.

If the moss stays damp it will take a little while for them to move out so you could speed moving up by letting the moss dry and not add anymore water, they wont like it dry and will move.

Just be careful not to hurt any, i'm sure you will.

*edit* Why is antstore sending them in moss anyway? Is it too hot? It's a pain in the ass to move the ants from moss :S

[miszt]

they won't notice you move them if your careful.

i'm afraid thats not true, I wudltn recomend picking up the moss, Myrmica are an agressive species, and although their sting is not much from one or two ants, from a whole colony is a very diffrent matter.

I would recomend cutting a small hole, and connecting the tub to the basin, and allow them to move by themselves, let the tub dry out completly and keep the nest damp and warm, they will move eventually

[Skippy]

i'm afraid thats not true, I wudltn recomend picking up the moss, Myrmica are an agressive species, and although their sting is not much from one or two ants, from a whole colony is a very diffrent matter

one or two ants , it is nothing John ... , but try it in nature , to get with hands some 50+ stings , then it pain A LOT (!!!) , and it is very dangerous. Your hands will be red for 1 hour and it pain , you will hard breathe - also if are you not alergic. If you are alergic, it is option you can get anafilactical shock and then die (!)

[MrNixy]

Stick them in the fridge for 5mins if your worried about getting stung, the colony only has 10-15 workers. The amount of formic acid that 10-15 worker would give off would be nothing really to worry about.

Stick them in the fridge first if you don't wish to be stung at all, miszt suggestion is more sensible then mine, but i'm not a great fan of waiting when I get a new colony.

Skippy, your making me itch all over now, I think the "you can get anafilactical shock and then die (!)" did it for me

Regards,
Nixy

[SirJet]

Thank you all, I'll connect a tube from the plastic tub to the nesting box and wait for them to move.

[gabranth]

goodluck with your Myrmica ruginodis colony

[SteveUK28]

it has to be said i handle both my rubra and my ruginodis colonys almost everyday and i never got stung.. the only time i was stung was when a rubra working had gone for a walk on my desk.. and i didnt know and my elbow must have been too close and she got me.. but it was just an itch.. didnt hurt at all lol.. I guess ive been lucky lol or my ants like me

[miszt]

lol I shuld probly have read the whole post, didnt realize there where only a few workers

[MrNixy]

Pleh easy mistake to make miszt, I got stung 6 times by only 4 workers once. A small amount can actually hurt alot if they are in a bad mood.

[gabranth]

i find that Myrmica ruba's sting isn't as powerful in captivity as it is in the wild

[SirJet]

I've carefully removed the moss and found that the ants were nesting outside the test tube among the moss. With the moss gone they soon moved back inside the test tube. Once inside, I connected the test tube to the side of the nesting box. So far they are huddled together at one end of the tube, hopefully they will move into the nesting box once they're ready.