chicken2012's three Lasius Niger colony journals.

[Deleted]

Jun 3, 2015 17:10:11 GMT chicken2012 said:

Update #9

For some reason the cotton that is meant to stop the water from drowning the ants, is letting water seep through into the test tube. I have cleared the spillage, but I still want this colony to move into a new tube. But... Sure enough they won't move.. I have exposed the tube to a bright light. Which is supposedly emoting 140,000 Lux of light, whatever that means. To put it into perspective, the light on my fish tank is emitting 125,000 Lux. So yeah, it's bright.
However it appears that the ants are not bright, because they are refusing to move still, even though their little colony is in jeopardy. So right now, I don't know what to do.

My M.sabuleti were reluctant to move also with the above approach alone, so I gently tapped the tube up and down (to simulate the 'destruction' of their nest site) and that got them motivated alright. They moved straight into the new nest after doing this.

[chicken2012]

I have tried that a couple of times already, but still nothing sadly.

[chicken2012]

Update #10.

Well there has since been no more flooding, so I am not in as much of a rush not to get this colony to move. They took the Blackfly today, so I have offered them a fairly large piece of chicken, so we'll see what they make of that. A couple of workers came rushing out of the test tube when I opened their tub, so that's good to see that they are becoming more active.

[chicken2012]

Update #11

These lot have been eating on the piece of chicken for the last few days now which evidently has done them some good as there were at least two new callows visible in the tube. The ants have also taken some sand into the tube and made use of the dampness left by the flood by building a couple of walls in the tube.

[chicken2012]

Sadly I think that this queen is dying, I have placed food in the tube right by her and hoping that she perks up. Also the worker count is just 7 with one larvae and one pupa, so regretfully I don't think that this colony will survive...