So an ongoing problem I have had in my ants room is that often a bridge will form across the moat and ants will stream across and sometimes start to carry fungus and brood to try and move nests before I catch them and stop them. When I destroy the bridge the ants and brood etc are trapped away from the colony and lost. So what I have started to do recently is place a box on a shelf and put a small amount of fungus in their. What happens now is astonishing! Any stray ants, and there are dozens each day when I remove food with ants on it or clean the lids, find their way to this 'colony' and join it. Over the past 3 weeks this 'colony' has exploded. The ants from lots of different colonies are working really hard to build the fungus up and now it is bigger than a tennis ball. Any time ants escape, sometimes with brood, they eventually end up there. I have taken some pictures .....
In a week or two I will use a small Atta and add this plus the queen to this 'colony' and out of nothing I will have a new, large colony with unrelated ants and a very young queen. Then I will start again with another empty tub. Prior to this these stray ants just died.
