Best way to sort fresh good living fungus from dead fungus.

[Acromyrmexbob]

When there is a tub with loads of rubbish, smelly waste and all sorts and the ants are not doing very well, the best way to fix this is to give them an alternative home to move in to. They will then sort through the fungus themselves and leave the bad stuff behind. This is a technique which saves loads of time when caring for a load of colonies.



The ants in the tub at the bottom are carrying fungus and brood up to the small plantpot. When they have finished this I will use a clean plant pot and transfer the pure fungus into it. This way only the good stuff gets moved. Working with the ants is always better because they do whats best for them.

[Acromyrmexbob]

If Acromyrmex have a good established nest and you are looking to rehome them the best way to do this is to place the entire nest in a different area and break it up a little. Providing they have good access to their new nest they will start carrying the fungus and brood and queen to the new nest. The beauty of this technique is that the nest, once it is reassembled by the ants, is missing all of the old, exhausted fungus, it is very much more healthy than it was before and it grows very much faster than it would have done if you had not carried out this intervention. A useful technique for Acromyrmex, probably not recommended for Atta.