ANTSTORE World of Ants

[yomchi86]

Hi all, I've recently got myself a colony of Pheidole pallidula from Antstore. Firstly, they are amazing little creatures, very active and seemingly always up to something. One thing that is concerning me slightly (as a complete newbie to ant keeping) is the fact that the queen keeps moving around the "labyrinth" (http://antstore.net/shop/product_info.p ... box-i.html) from top to bottom every 12 hours or so. Does this mean that she isn't happy with the conditions? I have a small heat mat stuck to the back of the labyrinth and red plastic on the front and the back to make sure its warm enough (as its rather cold where I keep them so at least the heat mat keeps a constant 25 deg c ish). They have honey and water trays but I never see them eat anything. I've also got a tray of seeds in the arena area to give them a bit of choice.

Should the queen pick a spot and just stay there or is it normal for her to move about?

Many thanks
Stuart

[baumarkthammer]

Pheidole pallidula always move to the spot with the best temperature for them.
The queen moving around in the nest is completley normal even in natural environment. In the morning the queens often are just very little under the ground or under a flat stone with most of the colony and later in the day as temperature rises they move deeper into the ground.

The nest you got probably has changing conditions so they keep moving to the spot with the best temperature.
That behaviour is very good because it is hard to overheat them (which is more often than freez ants to death) because they even carry the brood out of the nest when it gets way too hot.

In natural environment they sometimes even build small towers the size of a small finger in which they can only fit about 10-20 pupae but it seems that the investment of that energy pays off.

[yomchi86]

Hello - thank you for the reply. That's good to know and I'm glad it is normal. I'd hate to think that I was not providing them with a suitable environment and they were getting distressed. Unfortunately the temp does change but it does not go below 10 Deg C - with the heat mat I am confident that the nest stays significantly warmer than this. The good news is that when I checked this morning, it appears the ants have taken some seeds into the nest so hopefully they are getting everything they need with the seeds, water and honey. Might try them on some protein jelly next week and see what they think of that.

Many thanks
Stu

[baumarkthammer]

That temperature should not be a problem for Pheidole pallidula. The nests are never very deep in the ground and the temperature in some parts of southern Europe is even lower than 10°C at night in fall and spring.

However you will have to feed them insects. Pheidole pallidula sometimes can be seen on flowers and other natural nectar (sugar) sources however they feed mainly on other insects or spiders. Colonies that don´t get insects don´t grow really good.

I have actually never seen Pheidole pallidula eat seeds nor have mine ever taken any. Ants like Messor, Pogonomyrmex and other specialized geni and species do feed mostly on seeds but Pheidole pallidula is no such species. Pheidole specialises in finding and taking over sources of food very quick and transporting them away before any other ant gets hold of them.

[yomchi86]

They seem to be taking and eating what looks like grass seeds. I'll get them some insects to chow down on

[yomchi86]

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