Leaf Cutting Ant Forum

That should read 'closely followed'.

They look like beech or hornbeam leaves in your tanks...it would be good to know how the ants responded to them, thanks.

Seems to me that colonies are very individual. Iv'e seen videos of acros devouring Beech and pics of them taking Horn beam but mine won' touch either., but like yours Jackie, my Acros favour Bramble and Apple. I know i have already said this in my post but whole almonds straight from the shell and dried rose petals. 2x 60 seconds in the microwave then store them away in a dry container, will hopefully help over the winter as mine are not to keen on Privet. I have tried drying Ash but it doesn't have the same effect. Oh another one is Quakers porridge oats, you know the 2 minute microwave jobby, they love it dry.

Thanks Andy, I'll give those things a go. I can normally find enough bramble throughout the year here, but it will be good to have some backup resources.

Jackie62 wrote:They look like beech or hornbeam leaves in your tanks...it would be good to know how the ants responded to them, thanks.

Hi Jackie, I put raspberry leaves in my tank/setup. They do prefer rose leaves but they are also happy to take raspberry leaves, I also tried buddleia leaves which they enthusiastically cut!

Hello, yes, our colony like Buddleia leaves too and the flowers, but they didn't like the raspberry leaves...and I've yet to try rose leaves....thanks!

Andyj wrote:Seems to me that colonies are very individual. Iv'e seen videos of acros devouring Beech and pics of them taking Horn beam but mine won' touch either., but like yours Jackie, my Acros favour Bramble and Apple. I know i have already said this in my post but whole almonds straight from the shell and dried rose petals. 2x 60 seconds in the microwave then store them away in a dry container, will hopefully help over the winter as mine are not to keen on Privet. I have tried drying Ash but it doesn't have the same effect. Oh another one is Quakers porridge oats, you know the 2 minute microwave jobby, they love it dry.

The colony came over to the oats, jumped about on them for a bit, took some away and then took the rest to the dump tank! So funny to watch!

I think, rather than each colony having personal preferences, which is unlikely, that what is likely happening is that each colony is tailoring their foraging preferences to the prevailing environmental conditions they are subjected to in combination with the profile of their foraging force. They are trying to cater for the precise requirements of the fungus. So colonies with different humidity and temperature conditions, or colonies with different sizes of fungus, or even colonies with more of one size of forager, will display a preference to certain types of potential forage that other colonies may reject. What do you think?

I agree Andrew, I think the ants are definitely using resources that suit their environmental conditions and their fungus requirements. The structure of the workforce here now contains many, new large workers and the working, young queens have really diminished, although I still find a few working in the dump tank. Humidity is quite good all round too and I think this plays a very important role in the growth and maintenance of the fungus. I am though, very surprised that the colony has built the other fungus gardens in unheated conditions, or is it that the ambient temperature and good humidity is adequate? Does the variation in temperature across the set-up actually help maintain a healthy colony somehow?

Acromyrmexbob wrote:I think, rather than each colony having personal preferences, which is unlikely, that what is likely happening is that each colony is tailoring their foraging preferences to the prevailing environmental conditions they are subjected to in combination with the profile of their foraging force. They are trying to cater for the precise requirements of the fungus. So colonies with different humidity and temperature conditions, or colonies with different sizes of fungus, or even colonies with more of one size of forager, will display a preference to certain types of potential forage that other colonies may reject. What do you think?

Now why didn't i think of that Good theory...