ANT WORLD by interplay (Newbie)

[kimberley]

Hello everyone, I just joined yesterday and am very new to ant keeping but keep other bugs . (But we planned and researched on the other bugs before getting them these were just sudden by our son catching them and having a huge interest in ants)

We bought our son the ant world farm by interplay years ago, set it up but didn't catch any ants and forgot about it for years till last Saturday when my 8 year old son started catching ants at his nanas in a plastic container with his cousins all day, and ended up only having 1 as someone knocked them all over. We went back the next day on Sunday for our lunch and he brought his ant farm this time, but we put new sand and soil in it and he caught some more.

On the Monday morning we thought they had all died and were looking online and saw lots of info on people saying they die without a queen ant, so we ended up buying a queen ant on eBay with some eggs and workers (www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Live-Queen-Ant-Eggs-Lasius-niger-Black-Garden-Ants-live-specimen-/290920147232?pt=UK_Toys_Creative_Educational_RL&hash=item43bc312920) then I moved the ant world out the way of the kids and saw 3 ants move, so I thought oh we do still have ants but I’ve just ordered more on eBay and I know they would fight with them being from 2 colonies.

so we got a big plastic tub, put Vaseline all around the top and opened the farm inside it and transferred them into this we made
www.artistshelpingchildren.org/kidscraftsactivitiesblog/2011/02/how-to-make-an-ant-farm-jar-and-watch-an-ant-colony-build-mazes/

I'll post pics later of it and sure enough we had all of the ants still alive (about 10) and they seem to really like it as much as captured ants taken away from there colony could a suppose. I’m not sure if we have a queen to be because one of them is bigger on the back with different colour a bit.

So now we have taken the plastic forest decoration bit with the stickers on out of the kids ant farm and made the soil and sand a bit higher, since we will be getting the queen ant and eggs and they will probably need more room.

we were looking online at the ant world instruction booklet that comes with the farm that we lost, and at the back it says they don’t supply queen ants but then tell you were to get them from so I'm guessing that queen ants and there workers will be fine in the kids ant world farm and will not over grow it any time soon?

Anyway as far as feeding goes we’ve only had them a few days, we just put a cotton wool ball in the top of the jar with honey water on it we haven’t fed actually fruit or bugs yet.

Am I doing everything ok or is there anything else I need to do before the queen ant comes? I will post some pics some point soon so you can see.

[Wood~Ant]

Hi Kimberley and welcome to the Ant Hill. 

From what I can gather from your post, you are putting a small colony of Lasius niger into an Ant World and wish to know if this is suitable? 
This set up is fine for them as a queen of this species is not too big, and she can happily live in the Ant World for several years, even if she produces a few hundred workers.

Ants are pretty good at adapting, and as long as you attach a foraging area and feed them about twice a week, plus keep the sand/soil just damp enough so it will not get bone dry and collapse on top of the ants, then things should be fine.
It is always a good idea to read journals and the species profile on the ants you wish to keep, as this will help you to find valuable information posted by our other members; but please do ask any questions you cannot find the right answers for, as we are here to help both you and your son. 

[kimberley]

Thanks for the reply 

It comes with a tube and a small circle tub at the end to feed them with but I didn't know about ants having a foraging area  8-)where would I get or make one of them?

can you just get one of the reptile tubs from the pets at home shop? oh but they have huge air holes in. I will have to search this, but they will be fine with what they have for now since there is only the one queen and a few workers. I'm just hoping they survive the journey in the post, my son will not be happy if we open it up and they are all dead....  

[Wood~Ant]

The clear plastic tub with the lid is designed as a small foraging pot. It is only when your colony gets much bigger that you'll need to worry about adding a larger kind of foraging area. Reptile pots with air holes can be adapted by covering large holes with fine metal mesh, and by burning a hole just big enough for the tubing to be pushed through, any kind of clear plastic covered container can be used as long as you can access it for adding food. 

This will give you some idea from my ant site} Ant Formicariums

[kimberley]

thanks for the website link 

Ant world with no ants in yet, I've just realized I've probably made the soil to high for when they dig tunnels and I will not be able to connect the feeding tunnel thing because the soil is to high. I will have to sort something before the ants get delivered. 



Jar or 10 ants from the garden 


I'm not keeping them on the window sill by the way, I just put them there to get some light for a picture.

[Wood~Ant]

I keep 6 of my current ant colonies in Ant Worlds. Mainly because I find it is easy to observe small to medium sized ant species in, they also take up less room than a larger set up; and they are easy to take apart if a colony dies out and the set up needs emptying and cleaning for new ants.
From my experience with the connection nipple which the tubing attaches to, the ants often build up the soil level around this, or even up to the end which which is sealed with the green plastic cover at the opposite end.

My ants leave a tunnel open to the foraging pot end so they can come and go as they please. You can however remove some of the soil beforehand down to just below the opening, as then your ants can decide if they want to build up the level around the exit hole or not. 

[kimberley]

Thank you
 I took some soil out for them, and the ants got delivered today safe and alive and with a LOT of eggs. I think she is laying more every time I look.

For some reason I didn’t think of how I would get the ants out the test tube into the ant world. I quickly looked online, and at first I put the foraging pot tube into the test tube and covered the gaps with cotton wool. 3 ants were running right to the end and turning back, so then I got rid of the tube and stuck the test tube directly on the ant worlds green entrance were you would normally put the foraging pot tube into to make the distance shorter for them and secured it all ok. I left them a few hours and came back, all the workers are in the ant world bringing back the soil/ sand with them into the test tube... they have got it all wrong!

I’m wondering how long they must have been in the test tube to be afraid of leaving it, plus the cotton wool that was in it was dark brown / yellow with what looks like cobweb mold at the very bottom were the ants can’t get to.

I hope they quit taking the soil in there and get into the ant world soon.

[Wood~Ant]

It is frustrating to find the ants prefer living in the test tube, and some ant keepers would say leave them in there as the ants know best what is good for them; but I have found that you sometimes have to change their minds for them.

You can either place the colony into a fridge for about 30 minutes until they become almost asleep (torpid), and then gently tip them out into the set up foraging pot; or even directly into the Ant World by removing the top part. I find a small plastic or metal funnel works well for this operation, giving the test tube a few taps to make the ants slide out. The ants wake up within a very short time, so you do need to be fast at putting the lid back on; and any ants left in the test tube can be added later via the foraging pot.
 
The second option is to keep the test tube well lit and cover the Ant World with a black bin bag or dark towel, as then you hope the ants will leave the test tube and move out into where you want them to be. 

Your final option is just leave them and wait until the workers drag the queen into the main set up, as once she has moved and all the brood and workers are out of the test tube, you can then remove it.
Personally speaking I have always found the fridge and the tipping method works fine for me. 

[kimberley]

I have covered the ant world with paper at the moment, but it’s not completely dark so yeah a towel will work better, and I looked at them this morning and they have completely covered the exit leaving only room for the tiny ants to get though. There is about 5 in ant world digging tunnels and they are doing it really fast compared to the other ants we have in a jar without a queen and another 5 staying with the queen and eggs they must be protecting her . 

We were first thinking they didn't want the queen ant to run off in to the open world (ant world) without them, so they trapped her in and now we are thinking they have trapped her in until they have built an underground tunnel for her to keep her in that.

I don't know what they are doing but I might try the fridge thing later on today and place them directly in the ant world. I can just imagine them doing the same thing in the foraging pot,  I didn't know ants could be so stubborn.  

[Jonzii]

You just need to be patient, they will go eventually. My L. niger colony took about 3 weeks to move out of their test tube, which was blocked up with sand like yours are doing. I think this makes them feel safe, not having a huge entrance to the nest. This didn't bother me, I was able to observe them well in there so just let them do what they wanted. Just keep the Ant world dark and leave the tube in the light and they will soon go. Once mine found the nest area and started digging, they were moved within a day so I don't think yours will be long. 

[kimberley]

Thanks Jonzii it made sense what you said, but I had already done the fridge thing before I saw your comment 

After putting them in the fridge for 25 mins I gentle put the queen in the ant world, the others were having none of it, so I managed to get half of the ants and eggs out in the foraging pot and had to attach the test tube back on the side.

So I had a test tube on one side, the foraging pot on the other and the queen in the middle, nothing happened for 5 mins while I was watching. I went away for 1-2 hours, came back and they had already got all the eggs and got the queen back and made a little space for her in the ant world and covered it so she couldn't get out. So I missed all the action  I did see them carrying the last egg to the queen but that was it.

Anyway I've been adding water to the soil and I've put some jam in the forage pot, but no ants are digging or wandering about so they are not going to it and that is where I keep the cotton wool with water. I have meal worms for them as well, but I haven’t added any dead ones yet as they are not using the pot.
 

[Jonzii]

Don't worry about them not foraging too much. A small colony will need very little food and water. Since mine moved into the nest I have never seen one drink from the water trough that they have, and that is a couple of months now. 

[Zarbi]

If you've got the queen into the main nest, then it's half the battle and the workers will soon follow her and bring the brood. 

[Wood~Ant]

Moving a colony of ants is 25% ingenuity and skill, and 75% patience Kimberley. Cooling the ants down is good, but you have to be quick moving them while they are torpid as they soon come round, in which case they run around very fast.
Luckily you got the queen to move into the Ant World and her scent would attract the rest of her worker daughters to follow her.

Now the colony is where you want it to be all should be fine. 

[kimberley]

I can see them all perfectly in the little nest they are in I could watch them for hours if the kids let me. 
I’ve been putting a few drops of water on the soil from the top every 2-3 days but they still haven’t came out to the foraging pot, but I'm guessing that will all change when the eggs hatch, there are a lot of eggs. How long do they take to hatch anyway?

And the ants we got from the garden are bigger than the new ants we have, and one of them is a little bit bigger than the rest and the back is see though just like the big queen ant we have in the ant world. I'm wondering if we could have a queen in there to now. They have built so many tunnels all over in that jar I'm amazed. They have pretty much done one all the way around the base I hope it doesn't collapse on them.

Thanks for the help