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Post by 1moldavite on Jan 12, 2020 12:10:29 GMT
I am not sure of the total amount of workers The queen has now as they have made quite a few tunnels but I have witnessed about twenty emerge from the nest entrance to tackle mealworm and carry it into the nest,they didn't seem to want to hibernate over the christmas period,since this is the only species I have left right now,I will probably wait for the warmer weather before thinking of getting another species of ants.
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Post by 1moldavite on Mar 26, 2020 16:12:24 GMT
At the moment I am waiting to see if my colony has survived us moving to a new house. Some of the workers have been to see out of the nest and they have made a new nest entrance,but of course being in a soil nest I can not check on the queen or larvae, so I hope they survived.
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Post by 1moldavite on Apr 11, 2020 0:33:20 GMT
Not only have they survived,also I managed to check on them just now to see at least twenty workers on mass on the soil surface,not sure why there were so many unless they are moving nest in their enclosure,just recently instead of feeding them the usual skinny sized mealworm,I've been feeding them the biggest mealworms I have ever seen,plus they have a choice of either Banana flavour protein jelly or the grape flavoured protein jelly,they seem to prefer the grape flavour or so it seems.
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Post by 1moldavite on Apr 12, 2020 17:20:45 GMT
After all the activity yesterday there is no sign of the ants apart from one popped it's head out of the nest entrance,but that has been all,apart from that I noticed the springtails have taken full advantage of the large mealworms by laying eggs on what was left of them
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Post by 1moldavite on Apr 13, 2020 22:37:38 GMT
moved the ant enclosure into a quieter room just now,as I looked in on them some were trying their best to try to clime up the side to reach me,obviously to attack me,luckily for me they could not climb high enough to get to me,they are definitely feisty girls.
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Post by 1moldavite on Apr 18, 2020 22:24:29 GMT
My colony is going through 1 very large mealworm a day now and on top of that they are going through the protein jelly,plus the number of springtails are suspiciously reducing.
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Post by 1moldavite on Apr 23, 2020 5:14:52 GMT
I have just ordered a separate nest to try and give this colony more space,I do not know for sure whether they need it,but the ants for the first time have been trying to climb out of the enclosure,usually when they do this I have learned that either they are not getting enough food or they need more space and since they always have access to protein jelly and are often offered large mealworm it's probably not a food issue.
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Post by 1moldavite on May 3, 2020 9:19:28 GMT
I attached the new nest three days ago,today I checked and was pleased to see some of the ants in there,they had also brought in a bit of soil,so it's looking likely they will nest in it all being well,I will not check on the nest for a few days so they are left alone to move in to it in peace,also after finding out that woodlice are okay to be kept with ants I've ordered some dwarf white woodlice,they are a soft bodied species of woodlice,but hopefully the ants won't kill them.
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Post by 1moldavite on May 5, 2020 12:59:22 GMT
I watched one of the workers carry in the first of the brood into the new nest today,I am pleasantly surprised as I thought they would take a lot more convincing to change from a soil nest to a acrylic nest.
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Post by 1moldavite on May 12, 2020 23:30:29 GMT
My colony is in trouble,some are covered in mites,if anyone can identify if they are blood sucking mites or just the ones that hitch a ride on ants please let me know,in the meantime I will be putting lemon slices in there enclosure as I have heard that lemon repels hitchhiker mites,I have noticed the ants who are going into the new nest are mite free at least I think they are I know the queen is mite free as I caught her once in the nest,it still may be possible to save some if I can corden off the queen with some mite free workers.
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Post by TenebrousNova on May 13, 2020 1:18:19 GMT
It's hard to tell, but I would assume all mites found on ants are harmful until proven otherwise. If the lemon slices don't work, considering ordering a culture of Hypoaspis miles from a site like Ebay. H. miles are predatory mites that feed on other mites, parasitic or otherwise. I used them to get rid of parasitic mites in a Carebara diversa colony once.
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Post by 1moldavite on May 13, 2020 3:17:54 GMT
Thanks for the advice,I am going to get some Hypoaspis Miles to be safe I don't want to lose them if I can help it.
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Post by 1moldavite on May 15, 2020 18:16:26 GMT
Despite some ants having mites,the ants that go into the new nest seems mite free,funnily enough the ants with mites never try to go into the nest,neither do I see the mite free ants having to chase the ants with mites away,it now seems that they have separated into two groups from the same colony,I only hope that once the mites are gone the two groups will come together again,I have a video which shows some of the brood,but I don't think I'll be filming the nest again for a long time as whenever I look in the nest even with the red covering they start panicking and moving the brood but I want them to be in the nest in case I have to get them out of that enclosure.
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Post by 1moldavite on Nov 25, 2020 5:37:08 GMT
My whole colony has died including the Queen so now I don't have any ants so I am very upset at the moment
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