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Post by night on Jul 4, 2015 20:47:02 GMT
I'm sure these girls live on dust and water most food is removed looking untouched
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Post by Jenny on Jul 4, 2015 20:54:00 GMT
It looks untouched, but have they sucked it dry from the inside?
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Post by night on Jul 6, 2015 11:56:36 GMT
I took a peek in to the nest pot and saw the biggest cutest callow I have ever seen and a large clump of larvae so they must be eating something maybe they are ordering takeaways at night lol
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Post by night on Jul 23, 2015 20:19:12 GMT
I was going to make a post last night but I was to tired, I was going to say that when I looked in to the nest I saw a great big white larvae and I was excited to see some progress feeling chuffed I went to bed, this morning I looked in and noticed the food I left was gone witch was strange as they never move it so I peeked in to the nest to see if it was in there, as I lifted the lid to my horror about 50 of dayshaddows Lasius niger came swarming out, my queen was decapitated only 4 of her girls were alive and they dashed away and are now loose in our lounge, I am absolutely heart broken my poor babies.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 23, 2015 21:17:25 GMT
Very sad news I have just finished rounding up the raiding party and plugging the escape route..They broke out then broke into this colony's home
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Post by Phasenp on Jul 23, 2015 21:25:29 GMT
Very sad! :-(
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Post by occultus on Jul 23, 2015 21:42:17 GMT
I'm gutted for you both. Lasius niger can be a very aggressive ant when their numbers start to swell.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Jul 23, 2015 23:16:45 GMT
A similar thing happened to a colony of Messor barbs I had a few years back, the queen and most of the colony were killed by niger workers which came in from our garden. They are killers of other ants. Sad about the loss of your Camps.
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Post by Thebugman on Jul 24, 2015 1:08:33 GMT
Sorry to hear about this, try putting PTFE on your tanks, while it may not stop all ants escaping, when foreign workers do come along they fall and so cannot lay down pheromone trails, I regularly see Pheidole workers in my Messor tank, but they can't form trails and so do not attack.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Jul 24, 2015 7:40:13 GMT
I was going to make a post last night but I was to tired, I was going to say that when I looked in to the nest I saw a great big white larvae and I was excited to see some progress feeling chuffed I went to bed, this morning I looked in and noticed the food I left was gone witch was strange as they never move it so I peeked in to the nest to see if it was in there, as I lifted the lid to my horror about 50 of dayshaddows Lasius niger came swarming out, my queen was decapitated only 4 of her girls were alive and they dashed away and are now loose in our lounge, I am absolutely heart broken my poor babies. I know small ants like Lasius niger are notorious for breaking out and attacking other ants, but how did they get into the this colony's home as you haven't explained how they did it? Did it not have a lid which was tight enough to be escape proof? I keep several ant species very close together, but make sure all are unable to get into other set ups if they get out. In our home it is Messor barbarus which are are always getting out of their tanks and going walkabout, but they never enter another nest of another species. I make sure that my Lasius niger colony is kept well away from any of the other ant set ups.
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Post by night on Jul 24, 2015 12:14:20 GMT
They were kept in a container/lunchbox with a lock down lid both of my colony's are(the nosy cats would become ant taxis) it looks like the nigers chewed through the blu tac bung that was blocking the tube I was going to use to expand their home when the colony got bigger, the nigers have always been escape artists but only a few and never seemed to wander far, I would like them to have a moat round them as the colony is growing at a phenomenal rate.
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Post by Black Ant on Jul 24, 2015 13:11:48 GMT
Blu-tac dries up and ants can dig through it like soft plaster. Try a film of lemon washing up liquid or some other oily barrier to prevent escapes, and use damp cotton wool to bung up any holes.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 24, 2015 20:21:26 GMT
Sorry to hear about this, try putting PTFE on your tanks, while it may not stop all ants escaping, when foreign workers do come along they fall and so cannot lay down pheromone trails, I regularly see Pheidole workers in my Messor tank, but they can't form trails and so do not attack. Can anyone recommend a PTFE to buy and or a place to get it in the uk
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Post by Thebugman on Jul 24, 2015 22:18:32 GMT
The PTFE from queen ant shop was great, but that store is closing sadly, so no longer stocks it. I have used this PTFE before: www.livefoods.co.uk/product_info.php/habistat-bug-barrier-anti-climb-spray-100ml-p-2465The spray bottle broke and it takes a while to dry as it is more runny than the queen ant shop PTFE, but it keeps my Messors in, never seen any escaped workers. I've used it for nigers before aswell, it is not 100% effective but still kept a lot of them in. Bear in mind it works best on glass.
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Post by occultus on Jul 25, 2015 1:20:50 GMT
The PTFE from queen ant shop was great, but that store is closing sadly, so no longer stocks it. I have used this PTFE before: www.livefoods.co.uk/product_info.php/habistat-bug-barrier-anti-climb-spray-100ml-p-2465The spray bottle broke and it takes a while to dry as it is more runny than the queen ant shop PTFE, but it keeps my Messors in, never seen any escaped workers. I've used it for nigers before aswell, it is not 100% effective but still kept a lot of them in. Bear in mind it works best on glass. I also use this product. I simply unscrew the spray nozzle and apply the PTFE with a paint brush.
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