Shy ants

[kimberley]

My son has had his ants since the 31st of May. They came in a test tube and were from last summer’s flight, I got them off eBay and am not sure if they had been kept in the test tube all that time, because the cotton wool in there was growing mold at the very bottom and was dark yellow when we got them but the ants looked healthy.

Since we managed to move them in the ant world the day after we got them they haven’t budged. Sometimes we see one running about on the top but other than that they stay in their little nest that was already made for them as well.

My son waters the sand ever few days and we have honey water on cotton wool in the feeding chamber and we put some food like fruit, veg or dead meal worms there but they never touch them, I'm surprised they're still alive.

Also it doesn't help that my sons friend accidentally dropped a book of the self last week and my son didn't put the ant world far back enough on the shelf below because he was showing it to his friend and it fell on the floor 

I quickly ran upstairs and thought someone was hurt the way they were shouting me, then I saw that it was on the floor with the top of so I quickly turned it the right way around while putting the lid back on and the tube for the feeding chamber. The soil inside didn’t move much they were still in the little nest running around moving the eggs.

We did get 2 cracks down each side of the plastic though but there are no gaps so it should be alright???
So that’s probably not helped them from starting

After that trauma when do you guys think they will start to eat we were worried about them in the first place before they fell. 

[Wood~Ant]

Does this colony have a queen and brood as well as worker ants? Ants are usually very resilient and the fall won't have done any harm apart from getting them agitated for a few minutes, as putting the set up back quickly in its right position they would settle down again.

Feeding can be a problem, as at this time of year most of my ants are eating freshly killed flies, although honey or sugar water usually goes down well. 
It is frustrating when ants don't seem to eat anything, as this is happening with my velox colony; and as the old saying of "you can take a horse to water but cannot make it drink" applies here, you just have to hope that the ants will find something they like to eat.
Having hungry larvae always helps, as they eat a lot of dead insect prey, while most adult ants prefer sweet energy giving foods like sugar or fruit.

Which ant species did you get for your son Kimberley? 

[kimberley]

yes we have a Queen and workers, eggs and new fresh white ants being born, they are Lasius niger ants.

should I be putting food directly in the ant world for the  larvae then? I've just been putting food in the feeding chamber? since the ants are not taking any back to the nest? 

How do you feed them freshly killed flies?? house flies?? I hate them things!!! we have freshly dead mealworms and roaches from time to time, we breed then for our reptiles :S 

[Wood~Ant]

You could drop a small fly in through the top, though keep putting food into the foraging pot to encourage the workers to search for it. They might even be foraging after dark as some of my ants do, as if the brood is developing okay then it is getting fed by their older sisters who are the nursing workers.

[crockatt]

Hi kimberely, I also keep nigers and got my first colony last year. I find my girls prefer fresh killed prey, especially spiders, they do not have to be huge spiders if you can get enough little ones they will carry them happily to the nest. Also I found with mine, there was a gap between eggs and cocoons and for a while no larvae needing fed, hence no food needed. I have always put the food in the foraging pot and they found it no problem, also with a small colony there will probably only be one forager going to the pot, you may just be missing it.

[krautman]

If it is a new colony with only a few workers, be patient feed them small flies or spiders but make sure you remove these if untouched the next day as mould will develop on them. A newly started colony is a slow progress as self preservation is the name of the game. As the worker numbers are low, they have to be quite timid in their nature until their numbers become bigger. Hope this helps.

[kimberley]

Yes thank you, I will tell my son we have to be patient and we can feed them fresh dead small flies or spiders and see what he thinks of that I do not think my 5 year old little girl will be happy, she loves spiders. So do you catch house spiders and kill them ?? she will definitely not be happy!
I've just been looking on line and it looks like people breed meal worms just to feed the dead beetles to the ants. They must have a lot of meal worms I have plenty of them for our reptiles so I am going to give it a go now and just keep it in there for 24 hours

[Wood~Ant]

Spiders, or indeed any insects that are intended for ant food, are best freshly killed. Spiders and some insects will fight back if alive, which may result in injured or dead ants, so either crush them quickly with tweezers or a swatter, or you can pop them into boiling water; but as I wouldn't like to die being boiled alive I think the swift crush to the head is more humane.