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Post by Deleted on Oct 27, 2009 21:22:48 GMT
I am thinking of keeping some of the orange weaver ants from Asia and am trying to work out how I could construct a natural observation nest! The only idea I can think of at the moment is to put a see through plastic pot over where they are nesting on a plant and then cover this with another slightly larger black pot which I could then take off to see what is going on inside. Has anyone tried to construct any form of observation nest for these tree dwelling species???
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Post by Kyle on Oct 27, 2009 23:32:07 GMT
a problem is no matter what they nest in is they will cover with silk, so stopping you from seeing in the nest (unless I've misunderstood what you meant) but an idea that I've seen is have a plastic plant(or real) and letting them weave it like they normally would do surround by water maybe some how attaching to a foraging area, the only problems with that is: 1. it's could be big and use a lot room 2. you would need some way of keeping the air temperature up and maybe humidity (if its open) 3. they would chuck rubbish in the water thus making it dirty enough so they can walk across but due to the nature of them I think almost any set-up will be quite large.but it would be really good to see it happen
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Post by Wood~Ant on Oct 28, 2009 9:54:22 GMT
I can see where you're coming from on this Peter, and as Kyle said you may need to create some kind of island with perhaps a bonsai type plant on it I would suggest using a large plastic/glass tank and placing an ant island in the middle, perhaps surrounded with a moat of water or oil, much like the kind of thing some zoos keep Leaf Cutter ants in for foraging. A member of the forum did this set up below for his Atta colony, so maybe it will give you some ideas Good luck with the project, as it will be fascinating to see photos of the set up when you get your colony in it Attachments:
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Post by Deleted on Oct 29, 2009 19:45:05 GMT
What I am getting at is that I want to somehow make an observation nest - like is available for the soil nesting species. I wonder what would happen if I just presented them with a glass / see through plastic globe and positioned it on top of a thick stick. Their natural instinct is to climb upward and if they had no other place to build a nest they may be persuaded to construct it inside allowing me to observe them. Obviously it would have to have some kind of dark covering and probably a few artificial leaves inside so they have something to cling to. I think I will try out a few experiments and see what happens!
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