ANTSTORE World of Ants

[SteveUK28]

my Pheidole pallidula just walk over vaseline... n they have now started to get over the PTFE... im thinking about trying veg oil.. any1 tried it with these critters ?

[JimmyVe]

I have the colony for a few years now, and they never walked over the PTFE. Only when the PTFE is to old, but than i refresh it and everything is fine again.

[akell]

Got it, thanks buddy.

[akell]

I'm assuming that you don't have a 1cm Pheidole pallidula, but if you do, what are you feeding them?
It's a joke, sorry man, I couldn't resist. Thanks for the info!

[SteveUK28]

actually soldiers can be almost that big... almost!

[akell]

I am envious of both of you. I have three workers. Mammoth colony, I know.

[SteveUK28]

lol akell.. Im sure if you feed them up they will grow very large very soon... I believe last spring i had around 30-50 workers.. i now have at least 200.. with a fair few soldiers.

[akell]

I think I might have discovered the problem. It's not empirical by any means, but it seems that a Pheidole pallidula queen does not enjoy being poked by a 4 year old with a stick several times a day. If anyone would like to volunteer thier queen to be poked I'll be happy to use mine as a control. As far as I have been able to discover, the queen poking should be performed several times a day "to see if she's alive"

[JimmyVe]

Queens should be left alone as much as possible. The stress out very easily and than she could stop laying eggs, or in worst case die.

If everything works out well, you will have a nice colony at the end of this summer (like Steve said).

[akell]

I liked to poke things with sticks when I was four years old too, so I can't really blame him. I got a big Polyrhachis dives colony today. They are some busy ants man. Oh yeah, news flash,Polyrhachis dives can bite you pretty good! It's not the quality of the bite but the quantity. Latex gloves, my kingdom for latex gloves.

[JimmyVe]

Hehe, no don't blame him. But try to put them somewhere where he can not poke them.

[akell]

Hey, there's an idea...