update and note.... Flightless fruit flies can and do climb right over the two barriers I've tried... I have, on my discolor tank, a 1 inch powder/ alcohol barrier topped off with a vaseline barrier under the lip of the tank (29 gallon) which definitely keeps ants in but the fruit flies... not so much. May resort to freezing them and putting them into a dish of some sort, as discolor are... NOT the best hunters. So the Discolor, Queen Lucy, is doing great. Tons of brood and ants are very active and patrol their home pretty extensively. I feel like they're looking for a different place to nest but I've only made one area really hospitable to them as of now.
Colony B is in a tub and tube setup and has all but disappeared. It was a queen and ten workers who were doing well but pulling on the cotton. Last I saw the queen she had burrowed into a bit of rotten wood I provided, but she barely fit in there. Going to add a much larger piece tonight. I don't see how they could have escaped but... stranger things have happened. They aren't in any of the plants in the indoor greenouse they're in so... if they did escape they are GONE. I didn't want to dig around to uncover them but didn't really see where they could have gone.
Colony C is still in their test tube portal setup and seem to be doing better than they were. 8 workers and a nice pile of brood of all stages. Eating well and taking care of their garbage (springtails help). These gals seem like better hunters and I love seeing them go for different prey items (if you haven';t given your ants pinhead crickets yet, you owe it to yourself to do so. Camponotus attack, the cricket jumps somewhere and the attacker looks around, totally confused. It makes me laugh every time. Eventually 2 or 3 ants will corner the cricket and it's over but until then... entertaining.
Formica queen is doing VERY well. I'm shocked at how fast she is! Easily as fast as her daughters. Not sure on how many eggs she has stashed but she has a good pupa pile in the sugar water tube for some reason. At least a dozen. Excited to move these girls into a more appropriate setup as soon as possible.
The trachymyrmex colony is... maybe floundering. I gave them a good amount of sand in their enclosure and they have moved much of their fungus into chambers they made in the sand, which I encouraged as they can help me give them correct humidity for the fungus as this was my biggest concern. Watching these little gals lumber around with about a half of a steel cut oat is almost hilarious. Going to change around their setup a little bit soon. They still have the tub they came in and use it now as a feeding chamber and garbage port. I'm debating pulling it out since they don't have much fungus in there at all now, or leaving it in but adding sand to that as well, in a much deeper amount. Thoughts?
