Post by bradzila on Aug 19, 2011 21:37:06 GMT
Hello anthill,
As the subject suggest I am new to ant keeping, and have decided to buy myself some L.niger after a lot of research. I have them set up in a flat glass enclosure along with an outland area bought from antstore. I have around 25 workers so far and all seem very happy jumping on my offerings of bluebottles and fresh water, and a few have even started to make a few tunnels despite making the test tube they arrived in a More permanent home by sealing the entrance haha. I have the sides covered by red PVC along with the test tube, and after a little observation I noticed that this was adequate coverage so they felt confident going along with their business dispute me being able to see them.
I have a few questions which so far have gone unanswered if anyone would care to enlighten me;
1 - I have read on wikipedia, that all trusting data base where nothing is ever wrong *cough*, that L.niger colonies can grow up to "15,000 workers but 4,000–7,000 is average". Now this seems a little excessive to me, lets say a worker lives 2 years, now for a colony to reach 7000 workers that would mean the queen would have to lay around 9 eggs a day to keep up that kind of population, or over 20 to sustain 15,000 workers. Does anybody have any information on the amount of eggs L.niger queens can/will lay in captivity from personal experience, or a more reliable source?
2 - I am using a reasonable judgment on how moist the soil/sand/loam mixture I am using as a tunneling medium, is there any more reliable way to tell if I need to add more moisture to the soil?
I cannot think of anything else I need to ask, must be writers block, but if any of you would like to give me any advice on dos and don'ts or anything else that would help a new ant keeper it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance
Brad.
As the subject suggest I am new to ant keeping, and have decided to buy myself some L.niger after a lot of research. I have them set up in a flat glass enclosure along with an outland area bought from antstore. I have around 25 workers so far and all seem very happy jumping on my offerings of bluebottles and fresh water, and a few have even started to make a few tunnels despite making the test tube they arrived in a More permanent home by sealing the entrance haha. I have the sides covered by red PVC along with the test tube, and after a little observation I noticed that this was adequate coverage so they felt confident going along with their business dispute me being able to see them.
I have a few questions which so far have gone unanswered if anyone would care to enlighten me;
1 - I have read on wikipedia, that all trusting data base where nothing is ever wrong *cough*, that L.niger colonies can grow up to "15,000 workers but 4,000–7,000 is average". Now this seems a little excessive to me, lets say a worker lives 2 years, now for a colony to reach 7000 workers that would mean the queen would have to lay around 9 eggs a day to keep up that kind of population, or over 20 to sustain 15,000 workers. Does anybody have any information on the amount of eggs L.niger queens can/will lay in captivity from personal experience, or a more reliable source?
2 - I am using a reasonable judgment on how moist the soil/sand/loam mixture I am using as a tunneling medium, is there any more reliable way to tell if I need to add more moisture to the soil?
I cannot think of anything else I need to ask, must be writers block, but if any of you would like to give me any advice on dos and don'ts or anything else that would help a new ant keeper it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance
Brad.