Leaf Cutting Ant Forum

So fed the ant room today with Buddleia, the butterfly bush. Trouble was that one of the branches of leaves dislodged overnight and formed a bridge. The Acros in the nest decided to move so they started carrying fungus, brood, ants and Queen out through the rooms air vent, along the toble outside their room, past the fish tanks in the hallway of the greenhouses, through the Tomato greenhouse which is unheated and into the room that connects all three of my greenhouses. They then found a stack of plantpots lying on their side and decided to 'remodel' them to suit. So they spent the night carrying soil from the big greenhouse and made themselves a new home on the potting shelf og my prep room. Bizarre!!





















Just goes to illustrate how adaptable these ants are when given the choice. Thats why I always say with Acromyrmex, offer them an alternative to the nest they have. If they move then they are telling you everything is not perfect with your setup.

How cheeky!

Ha.. That is incredible.. it makes me admire them even more... industrious and self sufficient...

How cool is that! So unpredictable.

Seems like your ants lack discipline

If you had a like button I'd have been lazy and clicked it, now I'm forced to comment! Interesting thread btw!

Deansie26 wrote:How cool is that! So unpredictable.

I think thats really important about leaf cutters, something that should constantly influence the way we relate to them when planning stuff. The world does not look the same through the eyes of a Leaf Cutting Ant as it does through ours. In every way we try to set up ideal housing for them, we are invariably short of the mark. How far short is the depending factor on whether they thrive or perish. So in every setup I personally think we need to ensure that the ants can communicate to us what is going on. If they can move home to tell us we got it wrong then let them. If they build walls around vents and block up entrance ways then there is a reason for it. Whether we listen to these messages or not is the measure of how good we are at caring for them. When I get asked questions, either by clients around the world or on here, the first thing I try to understand is 'What are the ants trying to tell us about this problem'. Finding that out invariably solves the problem.

They leaving due to uncle bob put the rent up to high so fort right that's go were we don't pay rent LMAO !

I agree with you Andrew, I think the soil set ups you prefer are far closer to there natural conditions, I'd go as far as to say the clinical style set ups are quite a way of but the ants make do. Far more flexibility for the ants to change things up with soil.

Part of what I get out of the ants is to feel that I am providing them with the material to make their house a home!