Dump Chamber should be as dry as possible!

Ideas, techniques, problems and issues associated with keeping Leaf Cutting Ants in Captivity
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Acromyrmexbob
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Dump Chamber should be as dry as possible!

Post by Acromyrmexbob » Sun Apr 22, 2018 12:18 pm

Read this paper,

Ribeiro & Navas, 2006, The Leaf-Cutting ant, Atta sexdens rubropilosa Prefers Drier Chambers for Garbage Disposal

and it seems that, whilst Leaf Cutters try to keep the humidity in their fungal gardens as high as possible, they try to keep the dump chambers as dry as they can. In fact this paper states that when the dump chambers are too wet the ants start to tunnel through them in an effort to cause flow of air which dries the waste. The obvious reason for keeping the dump dry is to prevent pathogens and pests from multiplying there.
Obviously this has implications on the design of artificial housing insofar as we need to find a way to separate the high humidity of the fungal gardens from the desirable dryness of the waste chamber. It may be that we ensure there is plenty of ventilation in the dump chamber or perhaps have some mechanism for drying the waste.

The Leaf-Cutting ant Atta Sexdens rubropilosa,
FOREL, 1908 Prefers Drier Chambers
for Garbage Disposal
Pedro Leite Ribeiro1,2 and Carlos A. Navas1
Published online: December 16, 2006
Leave cutting ants rely on a fungus garden as their main food supply. This
garden produces debris that must be disposed by workers, as it may favor the
contamination of the fungus. We assumed that the growth of undesired microorganisms
on garbage would increase with humidity, therefore drier areas
should be more suitable for garbage disposal. Accordingly, we tested the
hypothesis that leave-cutting ants (Atta sexdens rubropilosa) choose drier
chambers for garbage disposal.We found that 30 out of 30 sub-colonies tested
for hygropreference chose drier chambers for garbage disposal when offered
a choice between dry (RH=25±5% SD) and humid (RH=95±5% SD)
chambers.

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Re: Dump Chamber should be as dry as possible!

Post by Andyj » Mon Apr 23, 2018 8:23 am

The dump chamber my acro's have was always wet when the plastic box they used had a lid on it, and they would tunnel through it. This also makes it difficult to clean out as there was always ant inside that needed taking out. Yes i have to rescue every single one :). The dump now has no lid and is always dry and only a few ants on the surface. The waste is very light so perhaps in the wild, if it's dry the wind can help disperse it..

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Re: Dump Chamber should be as dry as possible!

Post by Acromyrmexbob » Mon Apr 23, 2018 2:54 pm

Andy, Its interesting to see research which shows the same results empirically as we have seen day to day in our colonies. Makes a lot of sense though. Wet dump stinks and requires a lot of maintenance. It must pose a serious risk of mites and other unwanted pests which could grow to epidemic proportions. Having a chamber out of control so clise to their perfectly maintained fungus gardens is not ideal and our designs should find some way of preventing this, I think.

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Re: Dump Chamber should be as dry as possible!

Post by Andyj » Mon Apr 23, 2018 5:43 pm

There's always mites in the dump hopefully just scavengers as ive never seen any on the ants thank god..

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Re: Dump Chamber should be as dry as possible!

Post by Acromyrmexbob » Mon Apr 23, 2018 7:49 pm

Are you sure they arent springtails. I think they are always there. Actually help break things down.

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Re: Dump Chamber should be as dry as possible!

Post by Jackie62 » Wed Apr 25, 2018 11:03 am

Agree with you Andy, I was always finding mites (ID'd by our mite specialist at uni) in the dump tank, they didn't seem to bother our Acro colony though.

On the new dump tank Andrew, it seems to get wet when I tip tepid water into to the top of the nest, although I don't do this much now. Everything seems good.

Does anyone have any info on the white, fruiting bodies which I am finding in our new colony's nest please? The ants are cutting it, and it's appearing rapidly in the substrate, is it OK? I'm sure the ants would have discarded it by now if not!

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Re: Dump Chamber should be as dry as possible!

Post by Acromyrmexbob » Wed Apr 25, 2018 7:53 pm

You get that fungus commonly in areas the ants are not active in. They would not tolerate that if it was near the fungus garden. It always goes after a short time.

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Re: Dump Chamber should be as dry as possible!

Post by Jackie62 » Wed Apr 25, 2018 8:09 pm

Thanks Andrew, you will be amazed at the gardens they have created, they are huge! I can see 3/4 now.

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Re: Dump Chamber should be as dry as possible!

Post by Jackie62 » Fri May 11, 2018 11:06 am

Acromyrmexbob wrote:Andy, Its interesting to see research which shows the same results empirically as we have seen day to day in our colonies. Makes a lot of sense though. Wet dump stinks and requires a lot of maintenance. It must pose a serious risk of mites and other unwanted pests which could grow to epidemic proportions. Having a chamber out of control so clise to their perfectly maintained fungus gardens is not ideal and our designs should find some way of preventing this, I think.
This is our problem now and must be why the colony are dumping waste in the water. On Monday I'm going to take out the dump tank and thoroughly clean it and dry it....but the waste is dropping through from the nest area already wet. I'm not going to put anymore water in the nest area and see what happens...

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Re: Dump Chamber should be as dry as possible!

Post by Jackie62 » Thu May 17, 2018 1:53 pm

Does anyone know or have any info on what may be happening inside our Atta nest with regards to very wet dump material? They are disposing of wet fungus material and also general, wet dump material. They throw all of this into the water moats. The dump tank contains only dry material. I'm a bit concerned that they are finding wet fungus material, but should I be concerned? Will this throwing into the water stop when they have dismantled whatever wet fungus they need to get rid of? Thanks all.

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