14/07/2011 - About
lasiusniger1.blogspot.com/2011/07/about.htmlHello followers, and welcome to my Lasius Niger Journal.
This journal will follow the progress of my first ever ant colony, the good old Lasius niger species. I have custom built a formicarium for these guys and will post pictures in due time. It is 400x400x300 mm, with a 150x35 mm thin side divider filled with sand for them to nest in. The other area is for foraging and is about 20-30 mm deep with sand. I purchased a Queen + 4-10 workers from Edu Sci/Ants Unearthed on Tuesday 12th and they arrived on the 14th, where I will begin this journal.
Enjoy!
15/07/2011 - The First Day
lasiusniger1.blogspot.com/2011/07/day-1-14th-july-2011.htmlToday I received the ants in the post. After buying them they arrived pretty quickly and were in a test tube with cotton wool separating a water solution and the ants themselves. There was a Queen ant, 10 workers and some eggs/larva.
a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/269707_10150697617470332_510035331_19451162_3228175_n.jpgI also finished the enclosure today, which I designed and built myself using perspex. The enclosure is 400 x 400 x 300 mm (that's like a square slightly bigger than an A4 ruler and an A4 ruler tall). I have made a divider in it to give them a vertical nesting area 150 mm tall and filled that with wet horticulture sand. The rest of it is an outworld area, filled approx 30mm deep with sand.
a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/268166_10150694999675332_510035331_19433157_5169272_n.jpgAt first there was no rocks or any other object except sand in the enclosure. I put the ants in the fridge for 5 minutes (didn't want to hurt them with 10..I have a powerful fridge), and then opened the bung and placed the tube in the enclosure. The ants were very active, almost all of the workers came out after about 10 minutes, and continued to leave no grain of sand unturned. They were a little hesitant at first but soon were running around all over the place.
a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/281931_10150697616155332_510035331_19451126_4638555_n.jpgI placed a drop of honey onto the bung that I then placed back in there near the entrance of the tube. One ant found it, then he ran to two others and fed them some honey, and they returned to drink some more, meanwhile all the others seem too busy exploring.
I later caught a moth and froze it for 10 minutes in the freezer, before giving it to the ants. One ant started to attack it but it somehow defrosted and woke up and started walking away with the ant still on it! Fast forward 30 minutes and after being hit twice by me with a ruler (gently knocking it off the side of the enclosure), one then two then three ants managed to overpower the moth before dragging it around the entire enclosure and then within a few hours, into the test tube and up to the queen and her brood.
a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/270486_10150697779400332_510035331_19452347_4109077_n.jpgThat night I tried to get them to move out of the test tube by shining a bright light onto it, I left this on for an hour whilst I had my tea and watched TV, and when I came back, they had made a barrier from the light. Edu Sci had put in some kitchen roll for them, and they had placed sand on this to form a sand barrier from the light. Clever.
I pulled this out with tweezers and confiscated it, and went to bed with the light still on. The light was an LED torch placed in a cardboard mount about 350mm away from the tube. It does not produce heat just a lot of light.
I woke up the next morning to see that the ants had filled in about 10mm of the tube with sand, essentially blocking it off and giving them a front door. Very clever indeed, I decided to turn off the light and monitor what they did next.
More updates to follow.
19/07/2011 - One Week In
lasiusniger1.blogspot.com/2011/07/one-week-in.htmlSo I've had the ants now for almost a week, and they seem to be settling in. I did try again to get them to move out by putting a torch on the test tube and tilting it on some rocks I've placed in the enclosure but they are not interested. After 24 hours I turned the light off and will now just wait for them to move out when they are ready.
a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/281964_10150699119915332_510035331_19465846_7617191_n.jpgWhilst the light was on though, the ants have filled more of the test tube in with sand, and now there is about 40 mm of sand forming a barrier between the entrance of the tube and the Queen & her brood.
Speaking of which, there have been many larva and cocoons already, with many of the eggs or maybe just small larva placed onto the dead moth last week, they seemed to grow until there must have been 10+ larva. There are now around 5-10 cocoons hanging from the sides of the glass tube and more every day.
a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/284002_10150701023250332_510035331_19493083_2355867_n.jpgThe ants have been active, but only 2-4 are ever out at one time, there are 3-4 working the brood and the others I'm not sure, they seem to come and go through the tunnels. Some of the forager ants bring back sand to their tunnel, although they seem to travel quite far for one particular piece of sand, strangely.
After putting all the rocks in, I used a pencil to push holes an inch or so in under each rock, to give them somewhere to nest if they wanted to, but so far they seem to be ignoring these holes. I filled one in with a pinch sugar and buried it slightly and they found it and excavated it - although I didn't see them do it and it is possible that it dissolved into the damp sand, there is still the matter of it being dug up.
I have so far fed the ants a dead bluebottle and a dead fruit fly, freshly caught and frozen, to add to the moth they got last week.
I can't wait for more ants to spawn, and for them to move out and dig their own base!
26/07/2011 - A Few Weeks Later
lasiusniger1.blogspot.com/2011/07/few-weeks-later.htmlSo it's been a week or so since I last wrote a post and I have come to realise that this journal will not be updated daily but more every now and then, whenever something changes. I think to keep ants you have to be a patient person, as while they do work none-stop, you are really watching a civilisation grow and it doesn't change daily.. but it does change. It isn't like a hamster where all you do is clean up crap and get bitten - this is a kingdom of ants growing from 1 queen into a colony!
So getting back to the point, some updates for you. The ants are still in the test tube, there are more cocoons now and less larva, and for a time only one ant would come out foraging, they seem to be relaxing more now though and I have seen upto 6 ants out at once. Some ants are always exploring, scouting, whilst others come out only when there is food or an insect for example. They have blocked up the entrance but still drag insects into the entrance.. they did drag a bluebottle they'd sucked dry over to my corner as if to say thanks dad..we're done.
a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/223618_10150714144520332_510035331_19682963_2632598_n.jpgI gave them a drop of pure honey on a McD's loyalty card the other day, unfortunately as I took the photo my phones flash turned on (stupid thing), so as you can see you've got quite a clear bright picture, I don't think it caused the little pincher any harm though.
The ants don't seem to be that interested in the honey to be honest, the first time I gave them it they drank it all but now it doesn't seem to interest them. Insects do however, as you can see they dragged in a daddy long legs/female mosquito, and swarmed over it.
Something
strange did happen the other day though. I was looking at my queen and use a torch to get a better look and she freaked out. She is usually used to the torch I use, I don't leave it on for a long time but just quickly to have a look, but this time she freaked out, kind of ran
REALLY quickly back and forth and almost recoiled if I remember right, like it'd shocked her. All the ants ran round like the house was on fire and actually, just before this happened, I'd accidentally nudged the test tube with the loyalty card and she freaked out first then, running around crazyily, and then sat over her eggs like a protective mother. Then I wanted to get a look to see if she was OK and the light freaked her out again and they were all running round like mad hatters.
But she's ok. I'm not sure if they are trying to tunnel under a rock or not but one ant disappeared down a tiny pinprick hole before then came out after a minute. It could just be the natural cavities caused by the sand warming up.
More updates soon!
