179 replies to this topic

[ANTdrew]

There is so much we don’t know about ants, and captive ants in particular. This may just be one of those mysteries you never fully solve. I find nematodes highly unlikely, though, since you carefully sterilize foods. As long as births outpace deaths, they will be fine.

[BleepingBleepers]

Have always enjoyed your journal. Also want to say thanks for stopping by on my journals or posts and giving some insight and comments, whether it be for fun or ant-ucational purposes.

 

I hope you figure out the issue with your ants.

 

Something just popped into my mind, just throwing an idea out there so don't ask me about the scientific bases that it's based on as there's none, but the chewing of the foil......would there ever be issue of them ingesting it somehow, hence the possibility of it also mixing with other stuff and forming that black stuff in your ants somehow? Just saying, no clue, always thought it was kinda interesting honestly.

 

Again, if it was me, I'd prob send a sample to some entomologist / myrmecologists and probably be interested in buying a microscope and checking it out, would be fascinating and useful to us ant keepers that may come across your issue in the future as well.

 

Anyhow, GL and best wishes, hope everything goes well or gets better with the issue.

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

^ Thanks, and thanks for keeping your journals too.

 

On foil:

I once gave them a single ply unfolded bit of foil. When i looked in a couple hours later, it was missing about 15% or so, just  torn off in chunks. Which i never found anywhere.

But that was one time only and some time ago now. On all the folded foil bits that are several layers thick they never tear it apart, just dent it up but nothing ever torn off. So i don't think they are eating it. I do make sure to fold it so that single ply layers are not on the outside but folded up internally. Though honestly that's to scratch my OCD itch, wasn't thinking of them in that until after the single ply experiment.

 

 

 

I spent about three days scrutinizing the colony, and culling ants that had any oddities to them. Notably ones with a seemingly off distribution of internal blackening/discoloring in their gasters.
Among them so far i have found a few younger (lighter coloring) workers that were dying and clearly had very wrong gaster coloring.
I have preserved some of them in alcohol, in case i come into contact with the right biology field people or obtain a microscope of my own.

 

The colony appears to be doing fine, and i just imagine that they look at me differently, now that the true nature of our relationship has been revealed.

 

 

Yesterday i removed one ant(to the alcohol preserve) after not culling any for a few days. It was one of the few younger ones i found dying of whatever this is with an obviously wrong coloring internal to their gaster.

 

But only having seen a few of those and removing them quickly, I feel like it means they are not too bad off and getting better....maybe?

I figure as long as the queen is not infected, and if this is something just passing through. Then the colony can weather whatever this is.

 

Still would be nice to have knowledge and not be acting on best guesses here.

 

 

On the lighter side, the colony seems mostly fine despite my imprisonment, and continuing to grow with a large brood pile that turns out about 10+ new workers a week.

They continue to "play" with foil. Here they are going in for some fancy cat food, but you can see they decorated the fake succulent there on the right.

 

Their nest has at least 4 chambers of dried apple larder at any given time for a while now. Once they got to a >X size, they became really aggressive about cutting up and stashing apple. So i wanted to stop giving it to them as much and needed a sugar alternative for the adults.

So i got them sunburst for the first time.

They do drink it form the dispensers, but they also stuff dirt in them and they clog up kinda fast. I found they go after it the most if i just put a drop or two on a dish for them.

 

 

I do have to keep an eye on it, as it gets sticky quickly with the water evaporating. Sometimes an ant will get stuck in it. But then i just use the blunt tip and squirt a little water on the sticky spot. The ant is instantly unstuck, the water absorbs the sugar, and the ants go nuts for it all over again. Without adding more sunburst, just water. I flip a tray out once a day for them now.

 

Foraging that fancy cat food for the brood.

 

FYI technically it is cat food, but like fancy pants high quality stuff that's basically pate' for cats. My friend's cats turned their noses up at it so now my ants eat it. You'd be an idiot to pay this much for Ant food, do not buy this for your ants. But mostly cause i want to imagine my ants are super deluxe special and eat better food than all other ants. ; )
https://www.smalls.com/

Edited by Full_Frontal_Yeti, February 5 2024 - 12:36 PM.

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

As far as i can tell, whatever pathogen killed those younger ants turning their gastors back/white inside is not still around.

 

As well the die off rate seems ot have lowered a little, in terms of how many dead ants i notice each day.
It gets fairly macob to see them drink the juices from their dead sisters dismembered body parts. So if i notice a dead/dying ant I remove them. Which keeps me in tune with their die off rate. And i inspect them close these days for anything being off.

 

As far as i can tell everything is A ok in the colony.

 

 

I found they generally prefer real apple to the sunburst if i put both out at once. The apple will be busy while the sunburst is only occasionally sampled.

But if the sunburst is out on its own they get in for it. NOTE: in image below the apple is 2 day old dry while sunburst is fresh.

 

I also find they show more interest in the sunburst when i put a drop or two on a dish rather than leave it out in liquid feeders.

I wind up with a bit of interaction feeding them a drop of sunburst, and needing to keep an eye out for when it gets sticky as ants get trapped in even a thin film of it.

But adding a drip or two of water releases them and brings on a new crowd to drink the still sweet but now watered down sunburst.

 

I go back and forth all day, drip of sunburst, drips of water, drip of sunburst, drips of water. Removing the dish at night before bed.

 

 

 

And then something really special. I didn't notice this for a couple months maybe, and now i see it every time and sometimes it still gets me.

 

Oh no, an Anole got in here and is about to eat my ants!!!!

 

 

I mean that so got me the first time i noticed it. Clearly Mack at THA saw that and positioned it just right to be seen here. Like all optical illusions it works from just the right viewing angle, and reveals itself for what it is from others.

 

OMG it's just freaking perfect and i am amazed every time i see it.

Anole invader.

 

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

Long time no post.

Just been “busy”(other more interesting things) and not feeling like the authoring time.
Also I would wish for better and more pictures to offer, but again not an activity that enjoyably  passes the time for me outside of work grind. Hard to make myself do it when I could be playing video games or just enjoying the ants.

Still I continue to really enjoy the ants and spend time with them every day.
They have been with me now for a little over a year having arrived here in March of 2023. I imagine they were somewhere in the 8-15 month old range when they arrived with 28 ants and a brood pile.

They are now beyond counting, but I estimate no less than 320-375 adult ants now. The biggest outworld rarely has less than around 100-120 in it(which is  countable and what I use for estimating total size).
I estimate they average about 10 new ants eclosing a week these days. With that increasing at a very slow pace, maybe 1-2 more every 3-5 months maybe? The brood pile grows in size, but very slowly. As best as I can tell the egg  lay rate is just a tiny weeny  bit faster than the eclose rate. Hard to see it grow, but clearly it is bigger than it used to be.

 

I have given them some form of protein every week along with regular seeds this whole time.

Special near people grade cat food (smooth bird)
Freeze dried chicken hearts
High fish/shrimp content fish food flakes
And occasional feeder insects (crickets and waxworms)

For seeds I have THA seed packs as well as seeds from my local bulk food section (chia, poppy, hemp, etc) And I splurge on garden flower seed packs sometimes too. Lot of flower seeds the ants like in those that we don’t cook with, but really pricy compared to THA and bulk food isle seeds.

 

I still give them tinfoil bits to play with. Never single sheets, but tightly wadded balls or tightly folded shapes. They are hilarious to watch trying to  move around long pieces or circles where they all try to move in different directions with it. And whoever is strongest just drags everyone else along for the ride.

 

I need to expand  their nest and outworld space soon to meet their growth. At least for keeping them in the ratio of space I wish to afford them. At some point I will be out of space and have to cull their numbers or let them get over crowded. We’re rearranging  some space in the room to get more room for the ants. I’m going to move their nest to a wall shelf and give the whole current space over to one big outworld. I’m still going to go to THA for sand and decorations to use in it, but I’ll get the box made locally at TAP plastics I think. As I’m getting to a fairly substantial sized foot print box to ship it from the other side of the country.

And I plan to do loose sand and rock decorations instead of a permanent poured material as the ones I have now.
I realized I really like the first two outworlds I got but there’s just no good way to take them out of use and get them cleaned back to the state of looking new again. The next outworld I’ll do with a thin layer of sand and loose decorations. I can always redo that to a  new state easily, and change up the decoration at the same time too.

 

I recently swapped to the summer time LED overhead lights, and plan to keep them in place for the year. Allowing the colony to have maybe a little slow down in winter if the ambient is allowed to lower more. I’ll keep the heat cable on their nest but set the temps a little lower, and  the outworld to come down to whatever room ambient winds up being.At the size they are they drink a lot of water. A small bottle water lasted the whole first year, but now I’m already halfway though the 2nd bottle. I keep out at least 6 water dispenser and they are almost always busy. I just keep adding one until they are not all packed full every time I look in on them.

 

As well I noticed they are “tanking up” now that I offer them Sunburst. They were all over apple slices, however they started making an apple slice in a trash pile real fast now that they are so big. Making me need to vaccume up the trash almost 2x a week. This was going quite beyond my expectaions of being lazy and needed addressing
Lots of fat gasters to be seen that are much lighter in color now, being so full of yellow sunburst that an apple slice could not offer. And a watered down 1:3 ratio is more popular than full strength Sunburst here.

We’ve also been having escapees now and then. I have one outworld that’s 8” tall plexi walls, no lid. i ahd just been relying on their poor climing to keep them in. But their tenacidy wins in the end.
Every now and then one would make it out. Like one a month or so, very rare. And I never actually saw it happen. But then my honey found two in about as many weeks out and about in the house. So now I got a fluon smear going and much as I dislike the look, it works. No more escapees to be found.

 

Lastly, whatever makes the ants’ gasters start turning black is still present, but seems not to be slowing them down at all. As best as I can tell a few ants die earlier than normal, not having gotten as deeply dark red as they do in later age. And all the ones that die with younger looking color do exhibit this blackening of their gasters in some spot. Again not seeming to hold back the colony whatever this is, but no explanation or understanding why some of them (maybe about half at most) get this blackening on them. And only some of them seem to die early, I assume because of it.

 

I’ll post some images of the colony shortly.

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

The "smooth bird' cat food feeding.

 

Some foil antics and apple slice


medium middle outworld with nestmate water dispensers

 

large outworld farthest out

 

popular watering hole with the locals



small seed fruits and berriers are popular. they will drink the sweet juices and excavate the small seeds.

blackberry made for a cute photo i think.



Strawberry on one day and then the next.



mmm, seedless strawberries.

Attached Images

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[Ernteameise]

Awesome pictures.

I love this colony and the whole setup.

It will be very fun to watch.

And I need to try this strawberry approach with my own harvesters. But I will have to wait for summer when there are regional organic ones (won't buy the pesticide ridden stuff that is on sale now in the supermarket).

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

I had plans:

 

But then we had several weeks back to back with an escapee out and about in the house being found by my honey.
So currently my plans are on hold while i sort things out. I got some feedback here suggesting I should be able to 100% contain the ants in a no lids outworld setup. So i plan to go to her for an ask on this to do the new outworld i wanted that would be lidless. And big enough it wouldn't reasonably get one either.
At 12" x 27" it'd be a bit big of a lid. And the thing i want to do is 4" high walls, with 8"+ high climbable structures sticking up past the wall.

 

 

The problem i ran into with my deluxe outworld is the tall walls + large climb structure inside. It's very challenging to maneuver my hand around inside that outworld for cleaning and such,  without getting ants on me. There's just not a lot of space between the side walls and the main structure so i brush into contact with it consistently. And you can easily not feel an ant climb onto and around on you, at least i can't. But the other day after cleaning the outworld, i was standing in the kitchen talking to my honey and an ant fell off me from somewhere onto my foot.

 

So as the image shows they are all back under lids for the time being.

The plan had been to move all the nests onto the shelf(with room to grow more), then replace all the outworlds on the stand with just one big one.
Maybe figuring out how to keep using the nice big one for a while longer on the wall shelf.

 

I'm on hold till i decide to go for the ask on making another attempt with no lids. Just biding my time for the right moment when i think i got odds.

As i plan to order a new large no lid outworld, it's going to be a fairly pricey experiment if i fail to keep them in and have to stop using it.

I'd not be interested in a 4" high large lidded outworld really, I'd rather have the tall walls lidded with climbable vertical structures.

 

Here's a few shots of some brood, nest chambers and queen.

 

 

 

Oh and one tip i've discovered. The ants show me when a watertower is empty, they stop keeping brood in that chamber once it is dry.
It can be hard to see into these water towers to know if they need water added or not. But if you have several of them they will not all dry out at once. That lets the ants show you which one is dry when they just move all the brood out of that chamber.
 

[ANTdrew]

You will need an overhanging lip of some sort that you can apply talc or fluon to. Do you have that worked out in your plan? Are you certain ants aren’t slipping out somewhere else in the setup? I’ve had two colonies chew through rubber plugs in the past two weeks.

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

You will need an overhanging lip of some sort that you can apply talc or fluon to. Do you have that worked out in your plan? Are you certain ants aren’t slipping out somewhere else in the setup? I’ve had two colonies chew through rubber plugs in the past two weeks.

I planned to ask for a 1/2" overhang lip around the inside, not a removable lip lid but permanently attached. Though i'm not sure what the cut precision offered is, so prepared to accept 1" if i need to. The goal is to have enough lip to ensure they won't be escaping, while maximizing the open top space available.
As i need to be sure the vertical structures remain far enough inside the doughnut hole that no ants falling off them might land on the lip to escape.

I been using fluon, but was never able to witness any ants showing me where they can escape. I have imagined my poor application around the lid hold down magnets was to blame. However that's only on the 8" tall one, while the 5" tall is a sink in lid, no top magnets to fluon around. I regularly saw ants reach the fluon barrier in the 5" one but always be stopped by it. So maybe it had a weak spot somewhere, but i feel fairly sure most escapees were either out of the 8" one or from using me as the escape means when i had my hand in the enclosure.

Having had the lids on them now for a few weeks with no rando escapees. I'm confident they don't have an alternate unknown escape option.

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

no pics this time, nothing significant to show.

The interest is the queen seems to have stopped laying eggs. Maybe a week or two ago now as i watch the brood pile slowly shrink and see no new egg or tiny larvae clutches.

But I'm not feeling concerned, i just assume she's taking a break. She showed up with a fair amount of brood and has been here steady producing for about 15 months now. Going from 28 in march of 2023 to somewhere over 300 today.
Last year in I think Oct. she produced a lone male.

As everything about the colony seems normal otherwise, I have imagined she's just taking a rest and will potentially produce alates in mass this year.

 

It's getting into summer here so a day hits 80+ sometimes but mostly comfy temps in the high 70s getting fairly cool at night right now.
I keep the heat at 80 on just the one nest area where the brood pile is, and let the rest of the nests have ambient during the summer.

 

All the rest of the ants are business as usual, and the Queen seems to be doing the same as ever when i see here. Just not laying new eggs right now. I find this makes sense for a ant that uses diapause when they need to for hard times, rather than as a fixed annual schedual they must follow. Making sense that the queen on her own might just pause egg laying for herself to get a break if the colony as a whole hadn't needed to take one for a while.

 

As this is the internet, i assume someone will let me now if i'm wrong about something.

Edited by Full_Frontal_Yeti, June 17 2024 - 10:22 AM.

[NotAxo]

This is such a cool colony! Just wanted to ask, how do you plan on culling them? Just straight up genocide or are you gonna lay off of seeds for a while so birthrate decreases for a while, then give them more again? Or do you have other plans? I've had campobotus colonies but I've had to release them somehow everytime because I never was able to give them a good nest. This time, I make a proper nest but C. Parius can go up to 5k workers so I am concerned.

[Mushu]

I wonder if fully meshed cover(perhaps 50 mesh steel) would be able to simulate an open outworld closely enough where they treat it as such.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if queens do take a breaks.

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

This is such a cool colony! Just wanted to ask, how do you plan on culling them? Just straight up genocide or are you gonna lay off of seeds for a while so birthrate decreases for a while, then give them more again? Or do you have other plans? I've had campobotus colonies but I've had to release them somehow everytime because I never was able to give them a good nest. This time, I make a proper nest but C. Parius can go up to 5k workers so I am concerned.

Thanks so much for checking it out and appreciating.

I wasn't going to mess with food supply for that control. These ants do diapause as a reaction to hard times, rather than a seasonal schedule they want to obey no mater what.
I don't want to send them into diapause so i keep things all "make hay while the sun shines" for them.

My plan was to pooter up a bunch every so often when they seem to be getting overcrowded and yes, kill them. Though of course genocide would be the wrong word here, as that means to kill many with intent to specifically end the group as a whole.  Just say'n, word meanings and all that.

Though i still have room to expand at present, so i've not reached that max size end state yet. I'm not sure how large that'll be really. It's one of the reasons i wish to run an open air outworld so i know the ants out in it are likely to be older ants that would have stayed in the nest if they were younger. If they believe the outworld really is outside, i'll have a better sense they are getting overcrowded to start seeing younger ants out in it/more ants just living there full time.

But i had also assumed that once they are thick enough in the outworld i'd not go pootering all of them out before i vacuum a trash pile. And as there's only a few on the trash pile directly most of the time. I would just allow that a few will wind up in the vacuum bag from time to time. This was my fist attempt at it and it went well only culling 4 ants in the process.
My thought was not to make this a mainstay way to cull for size, but that if i just did it this way normally, it'd play to that and reduce the amount of direct culling i'd have to go in for.
Normally if i were going to kill off a pile of ants i'd dump them in a pot of boiling water. Small insects will insta die from that. And around here my honey will give me the what for if she spots a jar of ants in the freezer.
When i was worried about a possible pathogen in the colony, that was how I culled the ones that appeared to be carriers.
 

 

I'm guessing i can provide space for a colony in the 1000-2000 range before i have to start trimming them down to size as part of normal upkeep. And that's at least a few years out at a pace of about 300 or so a year as i've had.

 

I wonder if fully meshed cover(perhaps 50 mesh steel) would be able to simulate an open outworld closely enough where they treat it as such.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if queens do take a breaks.

I been looking at this. It does need to be an open enough mesh. A fine mesh allows gas exchange but not actual air flow like a less fine mesh can.
I was working out a silicone gasket with mesh top. But the outworld i was working on has beveled corners and that made making a tight fit way more fiddly than i wanted to mess with. Might get back to this on a new outworld one day if i can't keep fully open tops.
 
I'm also working out a possible ridged cage boxtop. So a screen mesh "lid" is about 3"-4" tall creating a space to allow ant alates to fly up but not out.
This way I could collect them by tapping the lid out in a baggie or whatever. I need a way to collect them all as i am obligated to not allow them to go free but kill them.

Only had one alate last year, but i like to be prepared.

Edited by Full_Frontal_Yeti, June 18 2024 - 12:02 PM.

[Mushu]

Indeed. I have 4, 1 inch holes with 150 mesh , while my ants treat it as an outworld to dump trash, I see them dragging trash back and forth to each corner, which indicates to me it's still looking for the actual outside world. 

 

I was looking to try larger mesh and bigger holes. I have also thought about putting mesh holes on the side, to allow for warmer air to rise, aka some air flow, but that's less aesthetically pleasing. I may try larger holes with larger mesh for one of my colonies outworld for the top and see how it goes.

[NotAxo]

This is such a cool colony! Just wanted to ask, how do you plan on culling them? Just straight up genocide or are you gonna lay off of seeds for a while so birthrate decreases for a while, then give them more again? Or do you have other plans? I've had campobotus colonies but I've had to release them somehow everytime because I never was able to give them a good nest. This time, I make a proper nest but C. Parius can go up to 5k workers so I am concerned.

Thanks so much for checking it out and appreciating.
I wasn't going to mess with food supply for that control. These ants do diapause as a reaction to hard times, rather than a seasonal schedule they want to obey no mater what.
I don't want to send them into diapause so i keep things all "make hay while the sun shines" for them.
My plan was to pooter up a bunch every so often when they seem to be getting overcrowded and yes, kill them. Though of course genocide would be the wrong word here, as that means to kill many with intent to specifically end the group as a whole.  Just say'n, word meanings and all that.
Though i still have room to expand at present, so i've not reached that max size end state yet. I'm not sure how large that'll be really. It's one of the reasons i wish to run an open air outworld so i know the ants out in it are likely to be older ants that would have stayed in the nest if they were younger. If they believe the outworld really is outside, i'll have a better sense they are getting overcrowded to start seeing younger ants out in it/more ants just living there full time.
But i had also assumed that once they are thick enough in the outworld i'd not go pootering all of them out before i vacuum a trash pile. And as there's only a few on the trash pile directly most of the time. I would just allow that a few will wind up in the vacuum bag from time to time. This was my fist attempt at it and it went well only culling 4 ants in the process.
My thought was not to make this a mainstay way to cull for size, but that if i just did it this way normally, it'd play to that and reduce the amount of direct culling i'd have to go in for.
Normally if i were going to kill off a pile of ants i'd dump them in a pot of boiling water. Small insects will insta die from that. And around here my honey will give me the what for if she spots a jar of ants in the freezer.
When i was worried about a possible pathogen in the colony, that was how I culled the ones that appeared to be carriers.
 
 
I'm guessing i can provide space for a colony in the 1000-2000 range before i have to start trimming them down to size as part of normal upkeep. And that's at least a few years out at a pace of about 300 or so a year as i've had.
 

I wonder if fully meshed cover(perhaps 50 mesh steel) would be able to simulate an open outworld closely enough where they treat it as such.
 
I wouldn't be surprised if queens do take a breaks.

I been looking at this. It does need to be an open enough mesh. A fine mesh allows gas exchange but not actual air flow like a less fine mesh can.
I was working out a silicone gasket with mesh top. But the outworld i was working on has beveled corners and that made making a tight fit way more fiddly than i wanted to mess with. Might get back to this on a new outworld one day if i can't keep fully open tops.
 
I'm also working out a possible ridged cage boxtop. So a screen mesh "lid" is about 3"-4" tall creating a space to allow ant alates to fly up but not out.
This way I could collect them by tapping the lid out in a baggie or whatever. I need a way to collect them all as i am obligated to not allow them to go free but kill them.
Only had one alate last year, but i like to be prepared.

genocide was the first word that came to mind, sorry. It would be more humane to dump them into boiling water, and that would be a controlled activity. If you reduced protien intake, it would seem a bit more natural, but I do see a negative aspect for it now. You'd never be able to expect how they react to it. They could be really stressed or just have a giant die off or something. But I would never remove carbohydrates from their menu ever as they need carbs for energy and protein for larvae

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

Just a quick drop to say, the queen is laying eggs again after a short break.

I estimate she took about  2+ weeks~ off based on the shrinkage of the brood pile.

But the other day i spotted a larvae clutch which had been absent for a while. I believe it indicates the Queen has gotten back to ant production. I expect the brood pile returns to size over the next month.

 

And i put in the email to THA for the next outworld. A no lid fixed 1" inner overhang lip container with 4" high walls and a couple 7"-9" tall claimable sky island structures to decorate it with. It'll fill the current space up edge to edge for maximum outworld space. And the nests will go on the wall shelf next to it.

 

I still have the issue that sometimes when workign in the worlds i tap/vibrate the side all a bit too much and the whole colony goes nuts. I believe by keeping the ants on a separate surface form the outworld it'll prevent the outworld maintenance work vibrations from bothering/stressing the whole colony/entire nest area.

I feel kind of bad cleaning up and then rub/tap something accidentally against side wall and the whole colony across all 3 nests just has a major freakout for a while.

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

Got the ball rolling with THA for the next outworld officially now. I'm all in on no lids, this outworld will be just a fixed inner 1" lip with no lid at all.
Of course if i wind up with regular escapes I'll have to bin it for outworlds with lids forever. But I want this enough i'm ready to burn the experiment money on it. Hopefully sometime in the next 2-5 months i'll be more than doubling their total outworld space.

 

While the queen took a break from egg laying for a little while she's back on and the colony continues to grow. The brood pile shrunk down to what i'd think of as one cycle. Which is a group of new ants all eclosing together in the same 1-3 day window, making for a large obvious batch of callows to be seen for a little while.

Over the last week I've spotted a couple tiny larvae clutches and the brood pile is obviously growing again.

 

I went out of town for almost a week and left them with extra water dispensers and fresh food, but otherwise on their own. And they were fine, still having plenty of water and not all emptied sunburst dispensers.

 

I've noticed that as temps get higher here they get much more active. once the temps are getting over about 85 or so ambient they are very active and move a lot faster then when it is cooler. 

https://www.youtube....rts/H9ZkDvt40wE

 

 

A few shots of the outworlds that stay fairly full of ants all the time now. Between this and some of the nest chambers being so thick with them. I estimate there must be well over 300 of them, approaching 400 if not already there.

 

Small outworld. That floor is nasty, used to be white. This is why my next outworld will be a loose sand bottom. I can sweep just the drity areas up, add fresh clean sand and not get poo build up. Once i have enough dirty sand i can wash and reuse it too. So i ordered X amount to do bottom cover, + 3x that amount as on hand for keeping things clean. And the dirty sand can just pile up till i got enough to bother washing.

 

Med outworld: They still get in for the foil bits, i highly recommend giving your ants some "toys" to stay busy with. It is also why i give them strawberries, blueberries and other small seeded frutis. Takes them a few days to harvest/excivate the seeds. And they do, so again gives em stuff to do/allows fullfillment of the programing.

 

Large outworld: They do regularly move the trash pile back and forth between these two corners that are as far from the main nest as they can get it.
Though once the pile is large enough, they seldom get 100% of it moved before they start moving it back the other corner again.

This is a lid on behavior. With no lids, they make a trash pile not too far form the nest exit and don't fiddle with it as much. Conservation of energy at work.

 

Large outworld about 5 days later:

 

 

The upper platform here is always full of ants even if i don;t keep food and water on it.

 

and the underside of both sky islands hold a constant number of ants that just seem to live there mostly.
Though it's hard to get a  good shot to show it well.

[Ernteameise]

Beautiful pictures.

This is a stunning and beautiful colony!

And I love the use of ant toys.

I also try to add enrichment, and I for example stuff a enclosed feeder (only small entrance) with dandelion seed, so they somehow have to untangle and extract the seed.

And I feed them halved organic walnuts.

They really go for it, they needed a couple of months, but have now finally dug up the contents of the nut I gave them- today is the day for a new one!

 

Maybe you should mark your ants somehow (like they do in the experiments at uni) to find out if the ants living in the upside down area really live there?

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

The Queen’s rest is very over now, though I have on idea when it started really.
The originla brood pile’s last generation is turning orange now and will all be waking up over the next 24 or so hours. They went long enough without a new worker eclosing there were no callows in the colony for at least 3-4 weeks.
There are now several large larvae and egg clutches to be seen making the next round of brood pile to replace the last eclosing one.

 

Here you can see all the orange, and a few laggers still all white and a couple larger pupae. And then piles of fresh tiny larve clucthes and eggs.

I see about 25 or so callows there soon to wake.

 

I got an update from THA on the new outworld that there is no update on the new outworld. The plexi people he works with took a vacation so work has been on hold/back logging over the last could weeks.

 

I found that the ants really want to put the foil in the trash. Though once there, they will take it out and play with it a lot. But i make etting it there a challenge these days.
If I give them balls that are too big to fit the tubes to reach the trash pile. They will move it around forever and slowly start to tear it up into tiny bits they can get to the trash.
But that seemed rude to give them a basically impossible task.

 

So now I give them long thin folded up lengths of foil.

 

It is tightly folded with many layers. So they can’t tear it up easily/at all. It has to be moved in one piece. And being so long, and often a little bent/curved. It’s a real challenge to get it through the not perfectly straight tubes.

and

But they always manage to do it.

 

 

This piece was in the small outworld first and put in perpendicular to the exit. They had  to spin it around 90 degrees first. It’s about 3.5 inches long and their small outworld is 4”x4”. But they had  moved it to the med outworld by the morning. That was yesterday. I’ll see if they got it out to the trash later today, which they likely have. This is the longest one so far and about as long as I can make it to start in the small outworld.

 

 

 

Do your ants look board? Well give em something to do, like move arbitrary junk out to the trash pile. My ants stay busy, I give’m a lot of enrichment items to interact with. Including a little lite rain sometimes. They have a rain responses behavior I’ll post a video of next time. They got a program to run in response to rain, so I make sure they get opportunity to run it from time to time.

 

Side note: they like Sunburst at about 50/50 sunburst/water added ratio. I did some experaments of more to less diluted sunbursts and this ratio was alwasy the prefered.