Leaf Cutting Ant Forum

Hi could you give comments on this please if you think its ok or in need of some changes any help please its for leaf cutters
there is earth heat wire for heating at the back from top to bottom. was going to use the big top tub for feeding

Welcome to the forum reevey! Quite the way to introduce yourself. I seem to recognise this setup. Is this your setup? Are you planning to get a colony? There are several sellers on this forum. You should post on the Members Introduction area and tell us about yourself. Like the pictures!

hi yeh this is my setup I have used it before but my queen died about 2 months after getting them.just want to make sure it looks ok to other people.
don't know if to keep it or sell all info would help

Hello and welcome Reevey, Could you possibly load the photos via photobucket? Once you load them on there click share then copy and paste the IMG code on to a post. Just makes the images larger.
It's an interesting set up, similar to that of a forum user called Phasmid made a while back, not seen anything posted to his journals for a long time, are you Phasmid by any chance?

Are you going to add soil to the tubs? Have you checked the temperature gradient from bottom to top shelf?
Was it Atta or Acromyrmex you had before?

hi thanks for getting back to me I will sort picture out
no I'm not Phasmid but cant seem to find his jeanals
had soil last time might try without queen my have died not long after I got her but had lots of workers

He was on other forums a few years back.
You may need something in them as they are quite large tubs so will need something to aid humidity even if not alot. Your heat cable position maybe an issue, best results seem to come when a heat source comes from below.
You should have a read through members journals on here as this has been talked about recently.

Here you go bit bigger but not so clear

Hi, Strange how there blurry but we get the idea. Could we have some info like the temp on the bottom shelf and on the top shelf? Also it would be helpful to learn what happened with the first colony, where did you put them, how much soil, could they get up to the foraging area etc.
Jamie

Hi Reevey, I'm no expert but I have recently been struggling with my setup, and with some help from the others now seem to be on the right track.

With my old non successful setup I had heat mat heating the surrounding air within my cupbaord setup.

With the new and much improved setup I now have a heat mat below my nest box, it must not be touching as the box will get too hot, also for safety heat mat needs to have a little air circulation for heat to escape. Find a way to elevate the nest box a little off the heat mat so it is a gentle heat. Also add some substrate to the nest box (sterilized soil or other material) whch you can keep moist,e.g. - by spraying or adding water, this should provide humidity, you should probably instantly see some condensation on the inside of the nest box when you do this (I did). Also when colony is small ensure food is located close to their nest to make it easy for them to collect. You can follow my setup and progress/changes on the general discussion board, topic called problem with atta not growing (or similar wording to this). I still use another heat mat to provide an ambient warm temperature in the cupboard I house them in, but the main thing that helped is having the heat source underneath them. Hope that helps.

hi I will turn it back on and see what the temp is on all levels
the first colony had half tub of peat and they kept fungus on the top. Andrew had to send me some more fungus to get them going and they seemed ok for a while cutting leafs,the queen disappeared into the peat and never saw her again the peat was damp as was told to do it that way then the ants started to thin out until they all died.i was feeding them in the next tube, as far as I know everything was ok. But it was not as they all died. so am going to put temp gauge on each shelf to see what temp is now I might also put heat reflector around the inside and have a stat.