ANTSTORE World of Ants

[SteveUK28]

hey guys..
So yesterday i got my new colony of these really lovely ants. Prob around 50 of them.. When they arrived i had about 15 dead... then another 5 died after, but no more dead today. Guess they didnt like the long old trip.
Righty i found some time today and put together a quick ytong.. still need to do the glass for it tho..
Now as im new to these ants.. and i cant seem to find any decent info i wanted to ask a few questions...
1. Do i need to use a leg on the ytong to make it moist at all... not sure as i was told they are desert ants and didnt need it.. but i want to be sure.
2. Im gonna be putting some Cati into the setup.. and i was planning on leaving the cati in there pots.. is there any chance the ants might try and nest in them?? Im gonna be fillin the pots with some compost and sand mix.. but they will be burried under fine sand and maybe even some chippings?

I shall upload pics as soon as i can sort a new lead out for my camera.. my new puppys chewed my old one

Anyways.. thanks in advance for the input

[AndyB]

hi steve good luck with them, the cheque is on the way btw

[SteveUK28]

Anybody got any answers.. Please lol...

[JimmyVe]

Sorry for the late response Steve.

1. They dont need a moist nest, they are desert ants so they are used to heat and dry climate, could harm them if you moist the farm once in a while.

2. They like ytong very much but i can not guarantee they will not dig in the sand.

[TimLarge]

For me my Cataglyphis velox stay in their tube, even though I have the arena wired to an Ytong nest. So I am not that sure about them loving ytong very much They do reorganise the arena a lot, and have dug at least 2-3 cm deep getting the soil to fill the entrance to their tube.

Good luck with the velox! Quite a lot dead during transport

[SteveUK28]

Mine do love the ytong.. a lot still in the entrance tunnel to it.. but they are in it.. seem to like the heat from the lamp. They really are amazing ants tho.. i got some pics to put on that il do tomorrow sometime.. but i think they are Great.. My Fav ants by far

btw Tim.. do you have pics of yours and your setup??

[McK]

Seems like xcom is selling his Cataglyphis velox colonies to everyone these days :/

[SteveUK28]

Pics as promised...

[McK]

Just a small hint; they absolutely hate test tubes.

[TimLarge]

btw Tim.. do you have pics of yours and your setup??

Yeah, I got a few:


The arena


The ytong


The ants (nesttube)


The ants (nesttube, after a week of building a mound in front of it)


The ants


The ants (dragging a cricket into their tube)


The cats (1)


The cats (2)

[JimmyVe]

It seems that your cat likes your ants to.
You both have nice setups.
Like McK said, they don't like tubes very much. If you heat up your ytong with a heat mat, they will move quick to the ytong.
(i finally made them a ytong today, they are in a big tube for about 2 weeks now. I will move them to the ytong tomorrow or the day after )

[SteveUK28]

mine moved out of the test tube in like 10 minutes.. as soon as it was in the setup they was all out lookin about.. They seem to love it.. There is always 2 in the test tube tho.. chewing away at the wool.. either they are drinking.. or they really dont like the wool.

[SteveUK28]

Hiya guys,
Just a quick update. Ive covered over the nest so they can just get on with things... I was a little worried that the queen had died in transport.. but it seems she has not. I took a peek today to find a lovely bunch of larvae looking very healthy and wriggling about.. and very pink.. so obviously been fed. So happy days the colony is doing great and will hopefully increase fast

Another something i have noticed... im using a bird feeder to keep them with fresh water.. which has cotton filter so they dont drown.. the first night it was in there i woke and all the water was gone.. Now thats a lof of water for ants to have drunk it all.. and the sand around it was still resonabily dry.. i just dont understand how they could have emptied it all in one night.. very strange

Apart from that.. all is great.. sorry about the quality of the pics.. just couldnt seem to get it focused right this morning.. Enjoy

[McK]

Looks great! They pile of larvae looks familiar

[SteveUK28]

aint it bud.. ive never seen ants with larvae like this lol.. pretty awesome i have to admit How big is your colony now?