Leaf Cutting Ant Forum

Hello - Here are my photos !!!(finally)

So - I inherited a thriving ant colony which lived for 3-4 year before petering out, in the setup in the pictures. I then got a new starter last week. I basically tipped them onto the surface of the peat and inverted the little container over them to preserve humidity. They have almost immediately taken leaf, and after forming a 'garden' out of the crumb that came with them, have added to the structure. The Queen is present and she has moved location since arrival which I take as a good sign and is currently sitting on top of the garden. Other than feeding them and observing them I am not a expert at all with ants so would be very grateful for feedback either positive or otherwise on how best to proceed from here!

Mant thanks

Sam

Hi Sam, I've moved this to the members journals section for you. If you want it renamed let me know.
Nice to see a soil set up, I'm sure the ants prefer this and it looks a great size tank. How are you heatng the set up? Where are you taking the temperature from? Is it Atta or Acromyrmex you have?
Is it in your house as it looks like the tank is in an enclosure? How are you going to stop the ants coming out of the tank?
So did you keep the old colony going for 3-4 Years? Lots of questions!
Jamie

There is a solid radiator under the floor which is topped up by a infra red light thermostatically controlled and the temp is read near the ceiling of the cabinet. as for the type of ant it is Atta (the escape artists!) They are free to come out of the tanks as they are in a glass cabinet. The previous colony was there for approx nine year in total, I was only here for the last five. It is located in my exhibition. I run a bee farm and we have live 'bees behing glass' exhibits that visitors view. we keep the ants because amongst other reasons their social structure and organisation is similar to that of the bees.

So the radiator heats inside the entire cabinet to the correct temp? Be nice to see a photo of the entire cabinet if you have one, are the tanks on a moat? Where will the feeding area be eventually?

Looks great from the photos, bees are something I'd really like to get into, very interesting.
Can I ask where abouts your bee farm is Sam?

Sam, great to see your setup here. A few things immediately apparent. You need to absolutely soak that compost. It is way too dry. That dryness will kill the colony. Make sure you soak it until there is some water sitting permanently in the bottom and the whole of the peat is almost black in colour. You should almost be able to take a handful and squeeze the water out. You need to do this quickly of the fungus will die. Also I am worried about the heat lamp. Can you direct it away from the colony, preferably onto a wall. Infrared heat heats the target and not the air so the surface of the compost and the ants themselves will get very hot wen it is on. It is always better to provide your colony with wet heat, that is a heat source with some wet substrate that it has to pass through before getting to the colony. If I was you I would get rid of that. Get a 2 litre cola bottle and cut the top off. Bury it into the compost very close to the fungus, right up to its neck and fill it with water. Place an aquarium heater in this and set it to around 28-30C. Now there will be a gentle, constant heat radiating towards the ants. They can also now choose whether to move closer to this heat source or further away. So in this way the ants can make decisions regarding whats best for them, always the best situation.

Thanks for the input, the surface of the peat is dry but it is wet about an inch under, and a lot damper under the plastic cover, however I didn't realise it needed to be as wet as described. I did buy a mister today But would a watering can with sprinkler rose be suitable? And should I do it all in one go or over a few applications? Will it cause issues in cooling the place down?

In answer to a earlier question, the exhibition is just outside new quay in west wales


Many thanks

Sam

Watering can in the first instance for a day or so and then keep the surface moist. In a soil setup, once you get the whole thing dark coloured its only a case of keeping it that way. If your heat source is coming from above, thats the reason the surface is drying so quick, I think.

Hi Sam, how is the colony doing? If I remember right BritishAnts sent you some emergency fungus a while back, did they pull through?

Sam, get in touch and let me know if all is ok with the ants. If not we can try something different.