Raspberry leaves as substrate?

Advice and help for new keepers and those starting to keep Leaf Cutting Ants for the first time.
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Vendayn
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Raspberry leaves as substrate?

Post by Vendayn » Wed Jun 29, 2016 7:59 am

So reason I'm asking if its okay to "try" using Raspberry leaves as substrate, is because my Acromyrmex versicolor loves to tunnel and make chambers in it. I bought a pound of dried raspberry leaves on Amazon, and it sure is dry. It feels like soil...maybe dried peat moss or getting a bag of soil from Home Depot (hardware store in US for those unaware, that also has a large plant area). It crumbles apart super easily.

Is it worth trying and see if they like it as substrate? They barely use it on the actual fungus (just a little), but the small quarter of an inch pile I put in their foraging area has ants tunneling and digging through it.

Mostly worried if it molds really easily, otherwise I don't see why it would do any harm. But want to make sure.

The colony has about 100 workers, and has a very fast growing fungus. I don't have any recent pictures, but they are in a formicarium I bought from someone locally that has a foraging area on top and three containers on the bottom that absorb water (though only two containers are currently set to absorb water, the third is their storage area) through hydrostone and make it humid. It works really well, though later this year I plan to build them an aquarium setup that I'll be copying from someone on here. I really like how it looks, and I don't want to risk trying to do something creative.

If there isn't much harm in trying Raspberry leaf substrate, I'd probably try it in the 2nd container that is humid/wet that they aren't actually using at all right now. But I dunno how well it would work, and don't want mold growing everywhere.

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Acromyrmexbob
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Re: Raspberry leaves as substrate?

Post by Acromyrmexbob » Sun Jul 03, 2016 7:29 pm

Okay, I dont think anyone on here has experience with this. Possibly when it is really wet it will be prone to mould and rot but who knows. Only think is, with 100 workers, you dont really get much of a chance to experiment and fail without affecting your colony. My advice would be to wait and let the colony grow a little before trying. Nice species to keep. Can you try to organise some pictures, would be great!

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