35 replies to this topic

[skocko76]

Usually the older workers do the foraging, size does not matter. My Camponotus have around 10 majors (out of about 200 workers) and they have never left the nest, they usally stay close the the queen and the brood. Messor majors are also used to crack larger seeds carried in by the smaller workers.

And you don't need to worry about giving your ants lots of space to roam, they won't get lost and probably won't wander off too far anyway.

 

Messor barabrus btw benefits from a heat source or a warm room, they are meditarranian ants and the difference in development time between 25°C and 30°C is pretty extreme (basically cuts it by half).

 

Thanks, great info! I am living on Mediterranean coast, so they should be in adequate temperature. I did not know the difference in development  time is so large between 25 and 30C! It is currently 27.5C in my air conditioned office.

Edited by skocko76, September 1 2017 - 2:22 AM.

[Serafine]

You can also try green bottle flies or meat flies as a protein source. Ants often react much stronger to dipteres than they do to roaches or mealworms (they're especially interested in the wing muscles of the flies).

27.5°C sound good, it's just that everything below 25°C is definitely too low (it isn't killing the ants but they take forever to develop and are far less active than above 25°C). You can also influence their growth by the amount of insect protein given - with more insect protein the will raise more majors and alates (and also grow a bit faster in general).

 

Remember that Messor barbarus colonies can grow quite quickly (they're often underestimated in that regard), their colonies can become reaaaally huge (10000+ workers) and that they have an enormous destructive potential after reaching a certain strength in numbers - these ants are super creative and may turn the entire outworld upside down to make it more comfortable. They will also need a lot of water (no open water areas, they tend to drown in these), not just for drinking but also for building tunnels and stuff.

And make sure there are no blind ends of vinyl tubing (big issue with most AC products), sometimes the majors start chewing through these if they can get a grip on them.

[skocko76]

I unplugged the passage to the outworld. They are thrilled. They are already digging a tunnel non-stop.

A bummer... I took substrate from outside... looked red and light in the sunlight.. much darker in the outworld. Ants barely stand out.

The tunnel is close to the glass, but I can't see crap. The ants are there, I see the movement, but they bland in.

A mental note to myself - use a light colored substrate next time.

 

There is an ant next to the entrance. You probably can't see it, but, trust me, it's there

[Serafine]

You can still add lighter colored substrate to the outworld. Messor are very passionate builders and will likely carry both substrates around or even combined them to the point where they mix entirely, allowing you a better view on them.

[skocko76]

The colony was a part of an experiment: http://www.formicult...it-work-though/

They hated the part in which I increase the incline of their test tube. 

Connecting them to the formicarium I wished them to move in, gave them too much space and they dumped loads of garbage in it.

Seeing their test tube dried out and they had no intention to move in a dumpster, I decided to "help" with the move.

And since I was going to force the move, I decided to change the dirt to a lighter color substrate.

First I blocked off the dirt from the rest of the colony. I used a "seed trap" to catch the ants digging the tunnels.

It is simply a length of tubing, with some seeds at one end. A worker finds them, starts dragging a seed, and I disconnect the other end of the tube and connect it to the rest of the colony.

There were only 5-6 workers in the dirt so it did not take a lot of time.

Anyway, the ants are now in the formicarium, calming down under some tin foil.

I will unblock the access to the new substrate tomorrow.

[skocko76]

This morning I found the colony moved into the tunnels in the substrate. 

I am happy for them, and some tunnels are quite visible. I can't see the queen, but I haven't rotated the formicarium yet.

I don't want to disturb them. They are happily digging non-stop.

How often do I need to moisten the substrate? I understand it has a lot to do with the substrate itself. It is basically ground limestone.

If I left a test tube full of water, would the ants know how to moisten the nest themselves? Do they have that skill at all?

 

 

[skocko76]

The Messors are thriving in the substrate. They are quite calm, even when I bump my desk, and keep themselves busy with moving seed back and forth.

They stopped digging, occasionally doing some maintenance rubble cleaning. They dug the entire bottom of the substrate container, with a vertical tunnel near the middle and one at the ends.

The bottom seems to be the only chamber, low ceiling, except for the middle tunnel that expands towards the bottom.

The queen is chilling in the middle, and it looks like I got my second major worker. It hasn't gone out still, but I'm pretty sure I saw it through the red film.

The downside of this substrate formicarium is that you can never tell how many workers you have. 

They take protein without hesitation, so I assume they have a healthy amount of larvae, but I cannot see them.

I got my first major at circa 20 workers, now if I have a second one... does that tell anything about the potential colony size?

I don't think they have grown over the population of 30 though.

 

Oh, and my fist major is going out regularly now. She's a bit of a b*tch. She loves throwing boulders into entrance holes the smaller ants have dug. I call her "Major Issues" 

Edited by skocko76, October 10 2017 - 10:02 AM.

[skocko76]

The Spring has come and the antsies are full of energy. I have removed the red acetate since, and it doesn't seem to bother them.

I had some 10-15 ants die of dehydration as they weren't smart enough to find the water tower attached to the ceiling. I guess they aren't good climbers after all.

They knew the tube was there, there were some ants in it occasionally, but never many visits. I did not water the substrate as it was winter and had the water tower.

Anyhow, once I watered the substrate mid-winter, they got frantic, sucked the water drops from the glass and shook their gasters (stridulation I guess).

I removed the water tower and placed two smaller ones in more approachable places. 

They count more than 30 at the moment. 4-5 majors present. They just recently dug new hallways through the substrate, close to the surface. No chambers yet.

The queen seems to have layed lots of eggs and are now in larvae phase. 

 

 

[T.C.]

That soil is looking really dry.

[skocko76]

That soil is looking really dry.

It is pretty dry, but I try to prevent molding. I wet a corner of the formicarium every Friday with 2-3 pippettes worth of water. I go left-center-right corner to allow the soil to dry sufficiently to prevent mold. Do you think that's too little?

[skocko76]

The colony is having a boom in activity and size. A lot of brood can be seen whiting the bottom of the formicarium. I estimate around 70 workers and growing.

They dug a lot of vertical tunnels, perhaps to ventilate better as the top only has a few small holes.

 

Here's the result of a contest from a couple months back: boiled egg white vs. pineapple; The ants' reaction was "are you f*** kidding me?"

 

Here's an unrelated photo of a Messor trail I took from my condo window. Those are either M. structor or M. capitatus, I haven't checked them out in detail.

I read somewhere that M. capitatus don't form trails (rather broad columns), but I also read somewhere else that they help their clumsy supermajors out to cut grass and other obstacles when they are in the way of the trail. So I'm not so sure about them not forming trails.

Anyone know from real life?

 

 

 

 

 

[skocko76]

So the entire substrate collapsed this weekend. The entire bottom of the formicarium was excavated, and the entire substrate block slid down.

I may have clumsily bumped the formicarium 

A great panic ensued, workers that weren't trapped, digging frantically.

As they dug out some of their comrades, they joined in the rescue.

This is a photo 1 hr after the great collapse:

And this one 4 hrs after:

 

In the end, I finally spotted the queen, safe and sound. As far as I can tell, there were no fatalities.

It is incredible what an army of approximately one hundred workers can accomplish.

 

 

Edited by skocko76, July 9 2018 - 5:04 AM.

[skocko76]

The colony shown no signs of a slowdown. They are already at 150-ish workers. I'd say.

Last night they got a nest expansion, now having twice the size. They dug in immediately.

The red and white sediment of the old half got completely mixed, making the substrate pinkish 

 

Some really big larvae & pupae are in the works:

Edited by skocko76, July 15 2018 - 5:12 AM.

[skocko76]

The ants have accepted the second nest expansion and dug tunnels into it. The leftmost square enclosure is used as a granary, and the right one as a graveyard/trash heap. Currently only minor and media workers are attending the second nest expansion, as the tunnels are rather narrow for some reason. The huge pile of brood has enclosed and now I estimate the colony size of 300-500. They still have brood, but the pile is much smaller.

There are around 70 ants present in the outworld at any time. At feeding time, there's more.

 

 

[skocko76]

OMG, are these ants aggressive and destructive once they reach half thousand strong!

I have sent the colony off to an antkeeper with better conditions for them.

I wish them well, and to their new formicarium as well.

[AntaholicAnonymous]

I read through the whole journal can't wait for mine to explode in numbers.

They are 31 strong now and their setup that'll hold at least a couple thousand is soon to be ready.

Looks like they like to dig deep and I have a solution that'll allow them to dig half a meter down.

I'm sure everything will go smooth for now but I'm curious to see what issues come up once they hit the thousands