11 replies to this topic

[Captain_Morgan]

Greetings and welcome to my journal. I suppose I'd best start with by introducing myself. My names Steven Morgan I'm 35 years young and I'm from Cardiff, S.Wales UK where I work as a press operator. I have a few hobbies ants being the newest, and In the forthcoming pages il endeavour to document my experiences as a total beginner to keeping ants as pets. I hope if you do come across this journal you can take as much pleasure reading it as I have from reading others.


Entry 1, 08/02/2012.

Okay it's time to stop watching David Attenborough ant documentaries and finally buy myself a queen. After doing some research on local species and finding out a bit more about how to keep ants successfully iv decided to purchase a lasius niger queen, brood and between 10 and 20 workers. Ordered them from ant r us via ebay.

[Captain_Morgan]

Entry 2, 12/02/2020.

Ants arrived, really happy to see they they made the journey with no casualties.



Here she is, very happy man today. Offered them some honey which they seemed to relish.



Went ahead and ordered a small ant nest from ants ants to hopefully give them a better home. Long live the queen!

[Captain_Morgan]

Entry 3, 14/02/2020.

Popped down the local reptile centre today and bought a fruit fly culture so to add a little protein to their diet. They seemed to really like eating them. At one point I felt sorry for the fruit fly as he was mobbed by a group of hungry ants! Watching them I couldn't help noticing how aggressive they where acting.



This pic offers a nice look at the brood, along with them eating a fruit fly.




Another observation is that they'd pulled a few strands from the cotton ball.

[ANTdrew]

Great! Ants from the other side of the pond fascinate me, so I’ll definitely follow this. Keep the updates coming. Good choice on the fruit flies.

[Captain_Morgan]

Thanks buddy il do my best to get up to date with it asap.

[Captain_Morgan]

Entry 4, 15/02/2020.

Ant nest came today, could hardly wait to get home and see if they'd actually make the move into their new home!


As soon as I got home I went ahead and placed the new nest onto a small towel. I added a small pinch of fine coco husk in to the nest first before hydrateing to give them something to dig around in and connected the test tube to the nest. I made their test tube more uncomfortable than the nest, With a lamp placed above the tube and the nest kept covered. So the wait began. In the end I think I watched for about 2 and a half hrs in total before deciding to pop out for and hour. Well when I got back they had made the move into their new nest, with out me! This gave me the chance to put a clean tube of water into the set up.



Tube with ants all hooked up to their new ant nest. The ant nest is a 3d printed jobby and I'm well please with it, ordered via ebay from antsants.



Lamp placed above the ants, to persuade them to move.



Jobs a goodun!

Edited by Captain_Morgan, February 25 2020 - 6:15 AM.

[Ants_Dakota]

Nice! I have had worse luck with moving ants from a test tube to a nest than you. Formica especially...

[Captain_Morgan]

Entry 5, 17/02/2020.

Ants seem to have settled in nicely into one corner of the nest. Everyone seems content. They've done a pretty good at blocking themselves in with the coco husk, making themselves a small chamber in one of the nooks in the nest. You can see them in the picture below.



It's also worth noting that in this pic the ants have been placing small bits of coco husk between the acrylic and nest. Only at the location of the queen and her brood.




This pic was taken just after they made the move over so you can see how busy they have been.

Couldn't resist and bought a lasius flavus queen, also known as the yellow meadow ant. Always liked bumping into these on days out.

[Captain_Morgan]

Entry 6, 18/02/2020.



Connected up this little outworld in the hopes that one day they'll find it.

[Da_NewAntOnTheBlock]

Entry 5, 17/02/2020.

Ants seem to have settled in nicely into one corner of the nest. Everyone seems content. They've done a pretty good at blocking themselves in with the coco husk, making themselves a small chamber in one of the nooks in the nest. You can see them in the picture below.



It's also worth noting that in this pic the ants have been placing small bits of coco husk between the acrylic and nest. Only at the location of the queen and her brood.




This pic was taken just after they made the move over so you can see how busy they have been.

Couldn't resist and bought a lasius flavus queen, also known as the yellow meadow ant. Always liked bumping into these on days out.

the possible reason of placing coco husks could be 1) to absorb moisture, or 2) to give the pupae aid in their cocoon spinning. Best of luck! 

[AntsDakota]

Ants also like to seal themselves off for protection and discreetness. That’s why they built the barricade.

[Captain_Morgan]

Thanks, that's interesting. I didn't realise they'll use the coco husk for cocoon spinning.
Antsdakota their clever little creatures, they are always up to something.