ANTSTORE World of Ants

[ford-ute]

Hi guys

first up i love this site it is the best ant web site i have ever found i have read alot of the forum and many others and have learned alot here.

as you can tell i live in australia which from what i can tell is one of the luckies ant countries in the world now for the first time ever i have managed to find a queen (let me tell all the other beginners i had lots of trouble utill i learned to identify the differance between queen and worker and their flight habits now that i have i am seeing queen every where it is the right time of year after all) from the ant australia web sit i have identified it as a subfamily DOLICHODERINAE Genus TAPINOMA i will post picture when i can the workers are about 1cm in length and my queen is about 2 cm in length i was able to get 3 and a soon as i have confirmed that they are firtile and have a set of eggs i will be happy to help other ozzies out with one of the other because i know how hard it is the get this type of stuff in oz . the ants are red head and thorax and a black abdomen. i found one of then with her head part way into diggin her self in and another with wing on the ground and after i colected her she ripped her wing off with in the hour so im pretty sure i am onto a winner.

i have made my own farm which is 70cm x 50cm x 4cm wide filled with the same dirt in the area i collected the queens from, i under stand i may loose site of some of the colony but is this too thin for ants of this size? also i am in the dessert area of north WA the ground that they nest in is hard as rock i have tried to dig in it ( not to dig up any ants ) and it does not rain here for months some time so how much water should i wet the soil with to help out my ant? im way up north near Port Headland and it is some what tropical here ( rains in summer during the cyclone season and not in winter)and is 50 degrees C in the heat of the day in summer and about 25 derees C in winter but gets to about 2-3 degrees C at night because im in a desert s do you think i should hybonate the ants?

any help will be great

[ford-ute]

She is from the FORMICIDAE family

[SteveUK28]

nope.. ants from from such a hot tempra wouldnt hibernate.. so no point trying.. it will be interesting to see some pics tho

[JimmyVe]

Hello ford-ute and welcome.

Always nice to see some Australian people over here, like you said, you live in the best land if you look at the species you have over there.
And thank you for liking this site so much.

It would not harm the ant if you moist the sand a bit (not to much) so she can dig herself in.

No i don't think they need hibernation.
Pictures are always welcome.

[ford-ute]

my queen has never been in a test tube (i already had the farm set up) so i put here straight in the farm from off the ground ( apart from a bottle for a little while when captured) would it be better to put here in a test tube let her lay eggs there and the let here move her self into the far or just leave her in the farm where she is now and let her dig in and lay eggs?

she has been there for 24hrs now when i last seen her she was still on the surface i will re wet the soil today ( there is still alittle condensation on the glass) and i have i have a wet cotton bud and a shallow tray with about 0.1 of a mm of honey water in the bottom of it ( she would not even get her ankles wet)

[JimmyVe]

Well it is not necessary to put here in a tube but it is easier to check up on here when she is in a tube, also the conditions are better in a tube, moist and temperature are easier to control. I keep my queens in a tube until the first workers hatch (sometimes i keep them in tubes until there are about 100 workers before i move them to a farm, depends on the size of the ants of course) if the first workers hatch they could make a nest in the sand for you queen and take care of her. Put her in the best place and feed her.

[ford-ute]

thanks for the help

i wet the soil last night and make a hole in the center of the farm and made a small chamber for her with a small opening to the front of the farm which i can seen in.

woke up this morning and found her inthe chamber so i have covered her with a towel so she does not cover my spy hole with sand and i will check in on her from time to time

she looks happy there ( you can tell from the smile on her face ) so i might just leave her to do her thing. she has not plugged the tunnel yet but im sure she will

[JimmyVe]

She is smiling, nice. lol

Yes leaf here in than, hope she will be laying eggs soon.

[ford-ute]

hi guys here is a picture of my queen

i hope this works alright

=>edit Mod
Post from 2:09pm

sorry not working but I'm trying to upload to my gallery

[JimmyVe]

yes put them in to your gallery ore post them here, i would love to see some pics. How is she doing, laying eggs already ?

[ford-ute]

the queen i have in my ant farm i have not seen i about a week but im sure she is fine i have sand in that one. i can not see any eggs yet. the other one i have as a back up in a small screw lid container is still alive but has not laid any eggs yet i have a wet cotton bud in there and im feeding her a water and honey mix i feed her every three days which she is eating (well its going ) but she seem happy enough when i take the lid off the feed her or change the cotton bud she does not try to escape even if she is right under the lid just miler meters from freedom. so im hoping for some eggs soon it have only been 2 weeks since capture.

[ford-ute]

i have posted her in my gallery but here one for the thread

[mpir]

Nice queen you got there. Two weeks and still no eggs? Hmm ... I think the problem is that she has too much "open space" and she feels insecure. Give her something where she can hide or be snugged. Like test tube. I'm sure she'll start laying.
Good luck

[ford-ute]

thanks for the advice mpir i have just moved her to the new farm i finished today covered it with a towel and put her in my shed where its dark so hopefully she will come out of her container and explore and find the farm i put her container in the foraging area so time will tell

the farm is a cork farm i built as starter nest area is 30cm x 20cm x 1 cm and the foraging area is 30cm x 20cm i hope that this will make her happy

be in in Australia good farms are hard to come buy and info even harder so i have to make my own its all trial and error. i just try to adapt the info i find here and see if it works.

[miszt]

some areas of Australia do have a 'temprete' climate, it may be that they need hibernation, depends where you live, if the temp drops below 10-15C in the winter, then they need to hibernate


good luck with her