Jack's final gambit Atta colony.

[Shamual]

Right. Day 4. Pretty good already im seeing the fungus get added to. Im offering organic orange peel and apple chunks tonight.

[Shamual]

the picture was from earlier

[Formica123]

Lovely fungus growth

[MartinD]

Looks good. Wish I had that much fungus

[Shamual]

Thanks guys they're eating the apple. And yes uncle bob was very generous.

[Acromyrmexbob]

Are you keeping them in the original tub they arrived in?

[Shamual]

Yeah, I didn't want to at first, but they didn't move out, and well if their happy I'm happy.

[Shamual]

Got a picture of lil' Rek'sai in all her uni-antenna glory today

They really liked apple, not even a little bit. I mean REALLY like apple. But funnily enough didn't touch the orange skin.

[Acromyrmexbob]

I hesitate to say this because I know you are a worrier, Jack but heres some info about that. When I am trying to diagnose a problem with Leaf Cutters from a distance and I am asking them to try a few things, one of the things I get the customer to try is this..... Offer them a food that is very high in water content (ie Apple) and a food that is very low in water content (ie orange skin). If they take the orange skin and the apple then everything is perfect. If the favour the orange peel and leave the apple then your setup is wet, there is too much water. If the take the apple and leave the orange then your setup is too dry and they are trying to add humidity to the fungus. You said your humidity was 86%. We need that up. They should always take orange peel. Also I am a little unsure about keeping them in the tub. Is this because you have nowhere else set up for them. You basically need an area with around 95% humidity and 24C ish. I would start by removing the lid from the nest. But your humidity right at the fungus must be well over 90% of it will dry up.

[Shamual]

Right I know you said not to get involved, but I've just read your post and I think I have to or things could go wrong. The photos below show the fungus and how they just dump the waste over the side.

What I'm thinking of doing is taking the tub out, replacing the clay granules on the bottom with fresh ones.

Then taking a spoon gently transport the queen onto the clay granules and then tip the rest of the fungus out directly on to the clay granules.

The clay granules are wet which means the fungus will be on a nice wet substance rather than dry plastic, and I'm hoping that this will encourage them to not dum their waste nest to the fungus.