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Garbage in formicarium


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#1 Offline Canadant - Posted July 10 2018 - 12:57 PM

Canadant

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Hi everyone. I'm raising some camponotus novaeboracenis and the seem to be doibg well. In 2nd year and population about to explode. However, what to do about garbage/waste in the nest. They'll drag stuff into their nest, munch on it and park waste off in two corners. Both corners are above the water filtration screens and it is a syrupy mess there.

When colony grows will they clean it out on their own?

What to do...

Thanks

Canadant
"You don't get what you want. You get what you deserve".

#2 Offline Dotdispenser - Posted July 10 2018 - 1:53 PM

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An image would help identify the specific cause of the problem. However, my best educated guess is that your formicarium is too large.

Young colonies should only be placed in:

• Test tube setups
• Starter formicariums

No other options work as well as these two.

Anyways, once the colony grows it may be more tidy around the nest (as it will need the extra space). But, you’ll need to take steps to either clean out the dirty corners regularly, move them out into a new—but smaller—formicarium, or just make sure that no mold grows and you should be alright.

Nurturer of:

• 1 Camponotus castaneus

• 1 Camponotus subbarbatus

• 1 Formica incerta

• 1 Formica subsericea

• 1 Crematogaster cf. ashmeadi

• 1 Crematogaster missouriensis


#3 Offline drtrmiller - Posted July 10 2018 - 3:25 PM

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These ants are adept at removing garbage stored in the nest when they're ready to do so, as long as the nest is kept relatively dry so that any organic material does not mold.  You should only intervene if the garbage problem is increasing worker mortality, which is usually not the case.




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