Eloy's M.barbarus colony

[edvf]

Thank you for the detailed comments . I agree that patience is being hard for me. In my case it combines with having no clue about keeping ants of course...

Today was a very interesting day with the colony. The ants kept working on their tunnel, extended it another couple of centimetres. Unfortunately, the whole length collapsed later, and it looks like they've given up digging for now.

I would like to do a count but I'm afraid I'd have to disturb the tube a lot just to remove the paper covering it. However, today I connected the tube going to the new nest, and I think it's been positive. After connecting it to the foraging area, the ants became very curious about. More ants than never before left the test tube, and gathered around the entrance to the connecting tube. At some point I counted 15 ants!

So the colony may be doing far better than I thought. Also they have been exploring the new nest continuously (they clearly spend more time in the rooms intended to have more humidity, so the gradient may be working). The queen hasn't left the test tube however.

A picture of the foraging area + nest below, with lots of ants exploring the nest, way more than previously exploring the foraging area.

[Wood~Ant]

Ants will only dig tunnels in damp sand or soil, so if you keep it dry they won't dig as it will always collapse.

[edvf]

Jun 3, 2018 7:04:48 GMT Wood~Ant said:

Ants will only dig tunnels in damp sand or soil, so if you keep it dry they won't dig as it will always collapse.

I've never moistened the sand but for the last week I had to move them to a room with higher humidity, perhaps this confused them.

When they are in the new nest (the one covered with red sheet), they actually try to bite the plastic floor, I guess to dig. They take the same bent posture as when they dig in the sand.

On the one hand seeing them dig makes me wish I had a sand vertical nest. On the other hand, seeing clearly the ants explore the new nest has got a lot of attention from my 5yo, I'm really happy with this.

[Wood~Ant]

I keep my own colony in this set up, half filled with sandy soil. Converted Worm World

[edvf]

Bad news .

Today I spotted one ant with a lump on the side of the head. I had seen in a Spanish youtube channel ("El mundo de las hormigas") one case of an ant with a yellow mite, so I became a bit worried about it. The ant was struggling at times, unsuccessfully, to remove it. Following some instructions my wife found online, we put the ant in a separate container, with wet cotton and some garlic.

Perhaps the garlic worked, as the mite first moved to under the head, then to the tail, and after a while the ant apparently managed to detach it. You can see a very bad picture of it under the microscope (30x) here: photos.google.com/share/AF1QipM-fmSqkSn3pqf43BCmBKioxvmW8Yd34Bhe8ajd_qMhSstqbzRTbzVI8RN4P4FG8w/photo/AF1QipOPe9hCs7iOBDDkNM9VS5vTsjRXZftqPQDh_la8?key=S3FZQVVHMEUxMlBHazlqdGdfc0JiRUp4WXplcmVn (the live view was quite horrifying).

I have the poor ant under quarantine, and I've been watching other ants carefully, but haven't spotted any other mite. Also I checked and cleaned the new nest, but it didn't seem to have anything wrong. The colony is very quiet again after removing the new nest.

I'm hoping that the rest of ants are not affected, wondering if there is a chance of that. Do you think the affected ant can be returned to the colony?

[tatufmetuf]

I would not risk the colony for one ant ! I would not put her back.

[shadowynne]

I would return her.

If you can not see any more mites on her, I would return her. 
As for contamination, well she has been with the colony so they have already been exposed. 
Just watch them for any signs or symptoms.

That's just me though, everyone is different. Go with what you are comfortable with.

[edvf]

A delayed update .

-- 9 June --

I returned the ant that had the mite back with the colony. I appreciate all the advice on this, even if it's contradictory of course! I had had the ant in a separate container for one week, and it looked healthy. I inspected it as carefully as I could with the 10x/30x microscope, and couldn't see anything looking like a mite. 

So I'm taking my chances with this. I hope it won't prove to be a big mistake.


-- 10 June --

Big day! The ants became very active visiting the new nest, after a few very quiet days. I got a big surprise when I noticed the ants moving the pupa and eggs from the tube to the new nest. Apparently there were two factions, pro-nest and pro-tube, because they moved the pupa back and forth a couple of times. At some point the pro-nest faction won and they finished moving the little ones to the nest.

The queen left the test tube a few times, perhaps annoyed at being deserted by the workers who had gone to the nest? The first two times she went out, she just had a look around and returned quickly to the tube. The third time however, some small workers nagged her towards the new nest and the move was complete.

In the following hours, the workers picked many seeds and stored in the nest. I haven't seen them eating or working on the seeds, but I finally believe that my colony are actually harvesters!




-- 11 June --

The ants organized themselve inside the new nest: the queen, pupa and eggs are in the room with highest humidity. The seeds were initially all over, but they are now mostly in the center room.

The headcount was slightly disappointing. Previously I had once counted 15 ants outside the nest (the day I connected it). At that time, I was hoping that there would be more ants inside the test tube with the queen. But no, that was it. There are exactly 15 workers plus the queen. There is a bunch of eggs, and a 4-5 pupa. I haven't seen any larva. So I guess it's still a very small colony.

On the plus side, the queen has not tried going back to the test tube, so they might like the new nest.

I removed the test tube (in which they arrived). I've been afraid there'd be mould in the cotton, as they have been living in the tube for one month. The cotton inside was a bit dirty but there wasn't any mould. So kudos to Anthouse for a setting up the tube very nicely.

-- 18 June --

The ants seem content in the nest. No dead ants recently, no evidence of mite either. As the queen/eggs/pupa spend their time in a corner room, it is possible to observe them under the stereomicroscope, this is really nice. I've noticed some new tiny larva/pupa; I need to apply more light to see more clearly, but even through red film they become very agigated with light changes. Do ants get used to lights eventually?

They have some insect remains inside the nest (legs and wings), I'm hoping they'll take these outside the nest. One problem with my set up is that they are using the connecting tube as dump site. At some point I'll have to remote the connector and clean it.

I'll try to post updates more frequently from now on!

[UKantz]

Ants can be conditioned to adapt to lights by just constantly exposing them to it. However, personally I've found that Messor barbarus are an exception to this as they seem to be very high strung and prone to stress when exposed to lights and vibrations.

[edvf]

Hi,

Some pictures taken with the microscope (30x/10x). My phone's camera is very bad, and the quality is much poorer than the image when looking directly through the eyepiece. It could also be a matter of finding the correct position for the camera lense with respect to the microscope eyepiece. I tried for a long time but couldn't get anything better than this. I'll try to borrow my wife's phone one of these days... 

[edvf]

Jun 18, 2018 8:46:10 GMT UKantz said:

Ants can be conditioned to adapt to lights by just constantly exposing them to it. However, personally I've found that Messor barbarus are an exception to this as they seem to be very high strung and prone to stress when exposed to lights and vibrations.

Vibrations really upset my queen definitely. Sometimes just entering the room where the nest is, is enough to have the queen panick from room to room. The workers do not seem so restless. At least now they don't move the pupa and eggs from place to place all the time.

[TenebrousNova]

Yeah, the queens are definitely very sensitive. I check mine once a week at most to avoid stressing them too much, since they can cannibalise their brood if they're too often disturbed.

[Wood~Ant]

How is your Messor barbarus colony doing Eloy?

[edvf]

Apr 11, 2019 18:13:30 GMT Wood~Ant said:

How is your Messor barbarus colony doing Eloy?

In a word, bad .

In August we travelled to Spain for some time. My nest failed quite badly. As shown in the pictures above, I use rubber bands to hold the cover to the plastic box. While I was away, one of the bands broke, and this allowed some space for ants to escape. Unfortunately, the escapees went into the humidity water container under the nest box. About half of the ants died.

Sorry for not posting anything since then (I know journals are supposed to be updated frequently). I just felt depressed about this (and a bit ashamed too, to be honest). 

But even worse, the ant population has not been recovering since then. The ants take in a lot of food (they seem to love chicken, apple, and spiders). And while the are nearly always larvae, the colony is not growing. The queen does not seem to lay eggs often, and there is some problem because I almost never see pupa. 

I'm not sure what's wrong. At first, they seemed to do well in this same nest. There was always eggs, larvae and pupa. Now I'm trying leaving the whole nest completely covered by an opaque material, and not disturbing them for weeks; not any difference however.

On the positive side, the ants are not dying at a faster rate then at the beginning; also, as far as I can see the queen behaves and moves just as always. But obviously it's sad to see they are not doing well .

[TenebrousNova]

I'm sorry to hear that they haven't been doing great. It took me several attempts to have success with a Messor barbarus colony, so don't give up! I know what you mean about feeling ashamed when things are going badly. You have only to check out the journal archive subforum to see how many colonies I've lost in the last few years... it's a depressing sight.