Leaf Cutting Ant Forum

Hi all, hoping for some advice. Last year I received a small colony from Andrew, it hasn't grown in approx 9 months. The fungus stays about the size of a 10pence piece and constant at about 40 workers. They'll take food for a few days and then pretty much stop for a while, they dont like orange white, which is also unusual. Tried moving them, giving them soil to build in/around. They have perfect temp of 23-25, they sit on absorbent tile so no excess water but keeps humid, with a tub over the top of them, with only small entrance to trap himidity inside. I have had an atta and acro colony in the past and have never known anything like this. I see Andrew said about disrupting the colony and breaking it up and moving queen snd fungus etc into foraging area so they'll re-gather and kick start things but not sure this is the answer? Tried dropping bits of leaf on their fungus initially with no real success. I have managed to provide them with good green food through winter so they have had opportunity to grow. Any ideas? Thanks

Martin, sounds like a real incipid problem you have.
Have you measured humidity actually where the fungus is sitting? Maybe more fungus from a fresh colony would be the answer but we should explore other causes first since if there is a problem any new fungus might go the same way. It cant be the queen because there has obviously been some replacement of workers. Sounds like it has to be either temperature or humidity. How are you heating them. And the soil, is it peat, compost, garden soil?

Hi, try manderine or satsuma mine love those but wont even look at the large oranges! Atta can be odd things, mine refuse the holy grail of leaves (Ligustrum Ovalifolium, Privet) and prefer Aucuba Japoinica Variegate! Tonights menu of mine was Cabbage leaves, apple, broccoli, aucuba and tangerine peel... guess what's already gone! Aucuba for the 40th day!
The only thing I can suggest would be to move them to a darker place, ants perform better in a dimmer environment!

Hello Martin, it does sound like a fundamental problem with a condition, I'm leaning towards humidity initially if your saying temperature is right as its harder to measure humidity unless using a gauge. Do you have any photos of your set up?

Hi. Thanks for the replies. I will try and post picture tonight. I apply water drops to surrounding soil every morning and night - really should be humid enough tbh imo in their tub. I tried mandarin and satsuma pith,and lemon pith maybe i'll try actual orange pith. Need to try some of that other plant you suggest. Might try making the setup darker, but it is shaded during day and obviously dark at night. Yes queen replaces ants, can always see few eggs and pupae in there but not enough to make it grow! It's a very annoying problem!

forgot to mention in last update, but fungus does look very healthy! and soil used is peat, which I sterilised with boiling water, before adding to my ant box. So i'm puzzled.

The good news is I think this is a very solvable problem. Dont think its going to take anything other than a tweek. I would say I am focussing on humidity. If I had a pound for the number of times humidity has caused this exact problem, I wouldnt be much better off than I am now but there have been a few cases! Can you try absolutely soaking the substrate, so its that wet you could pick it up and squeeze the water out. Also use warm water. Much will become clear with a picture so maybe hold off until we can see this.

Hi, how do I post picture? Ideally from an iphone? Ta

MartinD wrote:Hi, how do I post picture? Ideally from an iphone? Ta

Photobucket app or just the mobile site,if you google how to load to a forum there are loads of how to's

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