Leaf Cutting Ant Forum

Yeh best to not have the mat flat on the tile,
Keep us updated

http://i1036.photobucket.com/albums/a44 ... efmzwo.jpg

http://i1036.photobucket.com/albums/a44 ... ggmaji.jpg

Changed set up around again. Tile and soil under ants was drying out too quickly, with heat mat underneath, so added extra tile to lower temp of top tile a little. Also changed whole cupboard setup around. Have three shelves under this one so plenty of scope for expansion if they ever do grow!

That setup looks a lot better. If you look at the tub, thiugh, there is mould on the outside. Probably best you get rid of it

Martin, those are very clear pictures of your setup. Gives a much better impression of whats going on. If I was taking that over I would be filling the tub where the nest is located with water to around 75mm and making the nest container an island. Then I would put an aquarium heater in there set at 30C and switching off the heat mats. That way all of the heat in the cupboard is wet heat. For a minimum of effort you would transform the environmental conditions in there. Even if you did this and heated the water with the heat mat, I think it would still work. But the changes you have made might work. We should hold for a couple of days and see what happens before trying anything different.

Andrew if he does that he will need an aquarium, water heated to 30 degrees in that cupboard will condense on the cupboard, swell the wood and possibly be coming out the door.
The aquarium set up is bullet proof but it does have some issues to.

deansie26 wrote:Andrew if he does that he will need an aquarium, water heated to 30 degrees in that cupboard will condense on the cupboard, swell the wood and possibly be coming out the door.
The aquarium set up is bullet proof but it does have some issues to.

True.

Id feed them as close to the jar as possible, no point making them walk over the bridge the minute being so small.

Hi, I write with an update. I have started giving them food in the main box becasue they were not using the green rope walk to the other box. They hadn't eaten for a couple of days, but I noticed that since making the change last night they have found the food this morning and had taken some back to their nest before I left for work this morning.
I have made another change in the setup. I have included another container that they could use as a nest if they wanted. I have only elevated/placed this on 1 tile, so it is effectively nearer heat mat and should be warmer inside. This gives them the option to choose this warmer one if they want. Must say the fungus is lookign very healthy atm, very 'fluffy'. Inside this new box I have put some soil for them to use as they wish if they do decide to colonise this box (soil was sanitized with boiling water before adding). I have also set up a cone/funnel on the new tile, so I can fill it up with water and it will slowly absorb into the tile and keep it moist. The tile was drying out too quickly. Seems to work well. I'll take pictures tonight. Not keen with having a lot of water in the setup, been down that route years ago and didn't like the maintenance of it. e.g. when they dump rubbish in there etc.

Sounds like you may have turned a corner Martin, that's great news! Hopefully start kicking on now.

Fingers crossed deansie.