ANTSTORE World of Ants

[mtrein]

Hi Lewis

How are they doing?

[Zagone]

I had trouble with this sort of set up. some workers would get their legs stuck between the ytong and glass, and sometimes they'd lose the legs. :/ So abandoned the idea. It works better for smaller ants, or if you can get a more flush surface between ytong and glass.

[Lewis]

hi,

had a bit of disaster through hibernation and 3 workers dies and all the brood I think they got mites.
Any suggestions?

[jbc]

You already got them out of hibernation?

[ProXi]

Mites like moist environments. So you have to keep it dry.
When it is dry you should put your colony in a very cold area (Not freezing)
Mites should die when it's cold.

I had a tip that you should spray the colony with a mix of lemonjuice and water.
I have been told that the lemon should kill the mites.
You should also feed them honeywater with lemonjuice.
If the ants drink that, the mites don't like eating/sucking on the ants.
Don't know if it works. Trying it myself at the moment too.

And you could move them to a new clean environment/nest.

But first you have to be sure it is the mites. If you can make close up pictures/video's or watch the dead ants under a microscope you will know.
It could also be the cold that have killed the ants when they where in hibernation or maybe the age.
The first workers don't live that long.

Or maybe something is wrong with the nest. Maybe it's to dry, to hot, to moist, or to cold.
I don't now if you have a plastic outsideworld?
Mine don't like plastic.
And when the outsideworld is to high my workers are starting to die to.
So my outsideworld is only a few centimeters high.

Don't have more tips. Good luck!

[Lewis]

Cheers ProXi,

I have inspected the dead ants and from what i have seen in this site it was not mites. But to be on the safe side i will try the lemon juice thing
They are now i a test tube with a small ice cream tub for an out world, both workers seem to be foraging well and have had some honey water. They have a have a heat mat under the ice cream tub and the temperature is 20C, is this ok? it is also quite humid. Oh and when i do move them if they grow at all what is the best set-up i could possibly have for these?

Regards

[Lewis]

You already got them out of hibernation?

yes they have been in hibernation since the end of august.

[ProXi]

I keep my colony in a very dry environment.
The Ytong nest is very dry and the outsideworld too.

I keep my colony at roomtemprature.
At the moment it is very cold because of the winter.
I think it's between the 10-15C in the room where they are standing in and they are still very active and the brood is devoloping very good too.
But my colony is al little bit bigger I think, so that might be the difference.
But I never heated them up.

In the beginning I had them in a tube with no outside world.
One a week I fed them with a little bit of sugerwater in a pillstrip and gave them a few fruitfly's.
You should not disturb them more then that.

When there where more workers and I could fed them easily any more.
I made a small tube set-up. Just one tube connected to a small outside world with low walls.


When one tube wasn't big enough anymore I made a tube nest with 2 and after that with 3 tubes connected to a small outside world with low walls.


When that was a little bit crowded I layed 5 testtubes in a container and connected that to a small outside world with low walls.

Here you can also see whick outside world I used. I used the same in all the stepps above.

After that I moved them to a small Ytong nest

Still using the same outsideworld.

I fed them sugerwater and fruitflys and mosquitos in the beginning.
Now I also give them mealworms.

At the moment I have 100 workers.
And In a couple of weeks I think I have 150.

[Lewis]

thanks man,
great videos!
How big was the colony when you got it?
and with my colony at two workers and the queen in warm environment with food how long should it be before i can expect eggs?

Regards

[Lewis]

Hi,
I was wandering how often I should check them? once a week maybe?

[Lewis]

hi there here is an update

she laid some eggs!!!!