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Post by IceWhyte on Oct 5, 2012 13:45:08 GMT
Queen Latifah is continuing to produce large numbers of eggs. The colony have slowed down a wee bit in terms of foraging and seed collecting but there is constantly a group of ants at the water supply. I bought some Morio worms for my colonies which my barbarus seemed to enjoy, they have taken the whole worm into the lowet chambre, hopefully they remove the remains (if there is any). I posted previously a picture of a large pupea, well it turned out to be a super major. Today was the first time I seen it and it seemed to be getting groomed by 3 other ants. Here are some pictures of the super major, it seems to just wander around aimlessly until it gets pulled back other workers which makes me think it is only just enclosed but it's head looks to be fully hardened. Maybe it is ill or something because it falls over a lot and this morning when I woke up it was sleeping out on the open on the sand.
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Post by IceWhyte on Oct 27, 2012 14:07:07 GMT
Think I am due an update on this colony. The queen continues to lay eggs, I just seen a large number of ants with brood at the heat spot of the nest giving them a little heat. I haven't been giving them as much protein as usual recently, although when I have given them some they have snatched it up quick. A couple of days I put a small piece of cooked turkey in, which was wrapped in tin foil and the workers have taken the whole piece including the foil down into the nest and they have been ripping up the foil for some reason. They have also had the odd morio worm but they only seem to suck up the juices from it and discard the rest. I will maybe order some more crickets for this colony and hopefully keep them active and producing throughout the winter months. There was a bit of bad news last week, I forgot to refill their water test tube and after two days around 10 workers had died because of it. I have now filled up the biggest test tube I could find. Because I don't water the ytong nesting area, there is always a number of ants on the surface retrieving the colonies water supply. Other than that everything is going good for this colony, still seeing large chewing groups and foraging.
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Post by IceWhyte on Nov 12, 2012 22:07:53 GMT
My ants like Swedish meatballs but appear to have lost interest in their once loved Crickets.
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Post by IceWhyte on Nov 29, 2012 18:00:44 GMT
My Messor barbarus colony have really started to slow down over the last week or so. They have blocked off the entrance of the nest (very well I might add) using sand as well as stones. Below the surface they have started to use the whole area rather than just the small brood chamber which I carved extra deep for that purpose. They also seem to group together at the ceiling of the nest for some reason, I am assuming it is either for heat or moisture. As they have now blocked off the nest completely I am not sure what they are going to do when they get thirsty because normally there is always a number of ants collecting water to feed the colony from the test tube on the surface. I will keep an eye on that but I can always spray the surface so that the moisture seeps through the upper part of the nest and doesn't affect the seeds collected. Also, because the ants have spread throughout the nest I can see that there are around 100 workers and it looks like Queen Latifah has finished laying for the year as there is no more brood of any form. My plan now is to slowly lower the temperature so that the ants can go into a torpor state for the winter without suffering any major losses. Over all I am happy with how this colony has grown this year and hopefully they will continue to do well next year.
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Post by IceWhyte on Nov 30, 2012 15:33:43 GMT
They may be winding down for the winter but they still are hungry, I put a frozen Cricket in the upper section and within 5 minutes there was around 20 workers on it.
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Post by IceWhyte on Dec 6, 2012 11:01:43 GMT
Still hungry for crickets. I placed this one in last night but due to lack of foraging I thought they wouldn't be interested but this morning I could see that this wasn't the case. They were dismembering the cricket at the surface but soon after I disturbed them they began to widen the entrance tunnel and drag the carcass down beneath the surface. It seems strange to me that they are consuming so much protein when there are no larvae in the colony. Maybe it will temp the queen to start laying more eggs although I think maybe I should give her a well earned rest for a couple of months. Here is also a picture of them playing tug of war with a cricket head. All the ants in the colony are looking pretty full up but seem to keep eating.
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Post by IceWhyte on Dec 7, 2012 11:50:57 GMT
I had a wee peek in the brood chamber late last night to see if this recent consumption of protein has spurred the queen to lay may eggs and I was surprised to see that there was indeed a freshly laid ball of eggs getting carried around by a worker. There was probably around 20 eggs in the ball so I will just continue to offer crickets every couple of days and hope that she keeps laying more and if she doesn't then at least the new brood will be well fed.
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Post by IceWhyte on Jan 6, 2013 14:59:37 GMT
The last time I checked my barbarus colony there was a pile of eggs and I have just checked again and there is still a massive pile of eggs but also a pile of larvae and pupae too. Queen Latifah must have only stopped laying for about a month and it is pretty clear that she has started again. There must be around 100 eggs in the brood camber and the pile of larvae/pupae was around 50 until the workers started taking then away to safety.
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Post by IceWhyte on Apr 13, 2013 22:48:42 GMT
Spring is now upon us so I have started giving the colony more heat and it was appreciated straight away. The day after I turned up the temp, the queen had laid another batch, which as the days went on, became bigger and bigger. Only a couple of weeks past and the new batch has become a pile of pupae and fat larvae. There has also been a massive increase in foraging and surface activity. The ants for the first time, decided to dig in the soil which the small cactus is in. They made such a mess as the white sand on the surface was littered in chunks of soil and bark. However they have started moving the soil into a rubbish tip at the back of the tank. In the queen chamber there is some really big larvae so hopefully one of them will be a super major, since my first one died.
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Post by IceWhyte on Jul 27, 2013 12:32:30 GMT
The rate of laying has slowed down quite a lot but I think this is due to the fact that I didn't allow them much time to hibernate over winter.
Foraging levels have remained high and colony numbers are around the 200 mark.
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Post by IceWhyte on Aug 11, 2013 12:32:25 GMT
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Post by Black Ant on Aug 11, 2013 14:03:53 GMT
Cool video Ice
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