Leaf Cutting Ant Forum

Today my wife visited this place with our kids, unfortunately I was working but she took some pics and a short video for me, yes she's good to me! You will hear her at the start ha ha. She said out of all the places we have visited this was the most impressive colony she has seen so I'll be going soon for sure to visit!

This is a great setup, the iguana really completes it.

Shamual wrote:This is a great setup, the iguana really completes it.

It does look great, loads of ants!

So what is used to suspend the rope, it looks like fishing line. If it is, is it so thin that the ants can't or can't be bothered to climb up it ?

Andyj wrote:So what is used to suspend the rope, it looks like fishing line. If it is, is it so thin that the ants can't or can't be bothered to climb up it ?

Yeh probably really thick gauge fishing line, Andrew uses it in set ups, they can't climb it. Could probably use thin gauge wire for a really heave rope.

This colony is only a year on from being set up!! Its absolutely colossal. Shows how fast they can grow if given space. However it was very big when it went in. The ropes are suspended with 30 pound break strain fishing line. The ants rarely try to cut it and never climb it. However you get some colonies who work at it all the time and keep cutting it. They can happily climb most metal wires however so you need to apply Fluon or similar if using metal.
The colony is housed in a room which we basically filled with soil. The brief we had here was to build an enclosure which would create the largest colony in Europe in captivity. This colony will easily achieve that status within next couple of years at the rate it is going. Also humidity ceases to become an issue because the ants can carry enough leaves into the chambers where the fungus is to keep the humidity up, same as in nature.

Can't wait to go see it myself. Wife wants to buy a year pass for the zoo so I'm sorted ha ha. Can't believe it's only been established a year!

How is the set up heated Andrew?

Deansie26 wrote:How is the set up heated Andrew?

The floor of the enclosure has undersoil heating cables laid and then 6" of concrete poured over them. This way the concrete heats up gently and the whole unit is warmed through the soil.

Managed to visit again today and was taken aback by this colony, it's a real beast! Also made me feel that I'm way way off in my thinking on keeping Atta at home. Really need to think how I'm going to move forward, if it's even possible if I'm honest.