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Post by IceWhyte on May 14, 2012 8:37:37 GMT
I have been monitoring this colony a bit more frequently recently but they do not seem to mind at all. There is now 8 workers and the brood pile is still growing, I think that there is about 10 pupae. I have their test tube half submerged by sand to give them darkness but the workers had all the pupae out the nest yesterday to heat them on the side of the box so that is how I got a count. There seems to be constant foraging, usually done by 2-3 workers and they are eating a lot more too. I have been feeding them the occasional fly but they have mainly been eating dandelion seeds. I put a pile of hard finch seeds in to see if they would take them and thought that they had been ignoring them but yesterday I noticed a rubbish pile that contained lots of hard seed shells. Since I have the thermostat I don't need to worry about the temp at all, I can just leave it for days and days knowing that they are getting plenty heat.
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Post by IceWhyte on Jun 6, 2012 14:06:28 GMT
I had left the colony for a week or so to let them get on with business. I uncovered them today to find that they have been warming the brood on the side of the container, you will see what I mean in the pictures. The pictures were taken once most of the brood was taken away by workers but still gives an indication of their behaviour
There doesn't seem to be any more workers but there is between 10-20 pupae and piles of other brood.
Other than that not much new to report, they are still eating a lot of dandelion seeds and niger seeds. I still occasionally give them house flies but today I put in a large spider so hopefully they eat that.
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Post by IceWhyte on Jun 6, 2012 14:08:34 GMT
Had to attach this separate. Update: I was wrong about there being the same amount of ants, there must be some hidden in the test tube as I just saw my first media, she looks massive compared to the others. Attachments:
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Post by IceWhyte on Jun 8, 2012 22:53:03 GMT
Here is a short video of my first media. She doesn't look that big in the video but in real life she looks massive compared to the others.
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Post by IceWhyte on Jun 28, 2012 16:13:01 GMT
Today is the first day I have properly disturbed the colony in about 3 months and got a pleasant suprise. I blocked off the test tube and lifted it out the tub so I could see through the red acetate. I had no idea how quick this colony was growing, there are about 20-30 minors, at least 4 media and a huge major pupae not to mention masses of eggs and larvae. Up till now this colony would eat loads of flies and chicken but now they just dump the flies I put in but are eating a lot of seeds. Found out that they like sunflower seeds too. Here is a picture of the major pupae
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Post by IceWhyte on Jul 11, 2012 20:37:43 GMT
Just came back from holiday to find I now have a major. Is it normal to have a major with an orange coloured head? Surely it can't be a super major already? If anyone knows, please let me know.
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Post by IceWhyte on Jul 17, 2012 18:42:27 GMT
Today I had to refill the water reservoir so decided to take some photos. You can see here that my first major's head has changed colour to a very dark red, whereas before it was orange, thus meaning her head has hardened. She seems to play a bigger role in the colony now as even the slightest disturbance forces her out the nest entrance. In this picture you can just make out all the ants in the test tube nest along with the massive pile of brood, there looks like another couple of large major larvae present too. In this picture you can see that I have experimented with the "ant food selection" box, I placed in some "tube worm", fish food flakes and mosquito larvae all of which was dry. The ants showed interest in all three and took the foods inside the test tube. I then put dried cricket and dried shrimp in the set up and the ants investigated but decided not to take the food.
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Post by IceWhyte on Jul 29, 2012 21:45:49 GMT
Recently I have been putting in rather large pieces of chicken or fish which get eaten up pretty quickly. These ants are really going through the dandelion seeds quickly along with the niger seeds. I decided to try feeding them something sweet today. I bought a set from the antstore a while back that has lots of different types of ant food like honey, sugar water, jam and some other things that I wasn't sure of. Anyway I put a small drop of each on the top of toilet roll tube that keeps the test tube dark and within about 5 minutes the ants had started covering the liquid food with stones and sand. They must have decided it was too dangerous. I always read about how worker ants only eat liquid food but my Messors never eat liquid food and take solid food in for the larvae. It's pretty hard to do a head count but there is around 30-40 ants now. I noticed another major pupae and it looks a lot bigger than my last major.
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Post by IceWhyte on Aug 8, 2012 21:06:31 GMT
I have started feeding my Messors crickets which they love. They are going through a lot of crickets too, they eat a whole cricket within 2 days. I put two crickets in the other day, one was dead and the other was still moving but injured. The ants quickly dragged the dead cricket into the test tube and about 5 other workers started covering the injured cricket in sand. I wasn't sure what they were doing at first but it became clear once they had covered the cricket, they partially covered the cricket so it could not kick the ants with its powerful legs and then they started attacking the crickets head until it died then took it into the test tube too. Smart we critters so they there. I am going to have to go get more dandelion seeds as they are just getting eaten straight away. I have been putting a pile of them aswell as niger seeds in every two days and they quickly get snatched up. That yellow stuff you see is pollen which I am trying out. They actually seem to like it so far. I try not to disturb the queen at all these days so she continues to lay eggs at the rate she is currently but I can see the brood when the workers take the larvae and pupae out the nest for heat and there is still masses of pupae, including more majors and media. It is hard to see how many workers there are but I would guess around 50 and I seen earlier I now have 3 majors. These ants will be looking forward to getting into their big ytong nest next month.
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Post by IceWhyte on Aug 26, 2012 20:47:59 GMT
Not much changed. Colony growing at a very fast pace. It is getting hard to open the lid of their box as they soon charge up to the top. No idea how many workers there are, I will get a better idea once I put them in the large ytong nest in a couple of weeks. Made some roast chicken tonight so thought the ants would fancy scrannin' some of this juicy chicken. Within minutes of putting the chicken in, the ants of all castes began ripping it apart. The majors seemed to rip the chicken with ease.
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Post by IceWhyte on Aug 28, 2012 20:25:16 GMT
Short video showing colonies reaction to the last of the crickets being placed in the set up. This was taken a few days ago but the day after filming there was only small left overs of cricket placed in the rubbish corner.
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Post by IceWhyte on Sept 10, 2012 21:14:05 GMT
I am back in Glasgow now so I have placed the colony inside the large ytong nest. They are still inside the small container but I have made a hole at the bottom so they can get out. About 10 workers have ventured down into the ytong but the rest of the colony don't look too keen to move. I will just give them plenty time before trying different tactics.
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Post by IceWhyte on Sept 12, 2012 16:33:01 GMT
Last night the queen moved into the ytong nest along with all her workers. Most of the workers are all huddled around in the brood chamber holding eggs or chewing seeds but one worker has been taking seeds into the nest constantly from the old tub they were in. I have a large heat mat attached to the back of the tank which keeps the tank around 25 degrees and I also have a small one underneath that I will use on the odd occasion to aid brood development. I tested it earlier and after half an hour several ants came to the heat spot and placed some pupae around it, one pupae was massive, have a look at the pictures. I also made a video of the set up and the ants. My videoing skills need a little work so sorry about that It is also pretty hard to see in the brood chamber, I should of shone a light in.
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Post by IceWhyte on Sept 19, 2012 10:03:42 GMT
Here is a few pictures of the colony getting settled into the ytong nest. You can see where the ants take the brood out to the heat spot, the big collection of seeds and you can also see the brood chamber (kind of). Not great quality because I need to sort out some better lighting for such pictures.
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Post by IceWhyte on Sept 28, 2012 14:11:28 GMT
Here is a video of my Messor barbarus colony attacking a daddy long legs, I placed in the tank. They did not eat the fly, just killed it and put it in the rubbish pile. Here is a picture of them eating some grilled chicken.
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