Hello and questions from Perthshire

[EmmaBobson]

Hi there,
My name's Emma and I work in the gift shop at Auchingarrich Wildlife Centre in Comrie, Perthshire where we have a colony of leafcutters!
As I've only been working with them for just over a year I'm definitely a beginner at this so apologies in advance if I end up asking a load of questions
Unfortunately we are already on our second colony of ants as our first ones died out this winter (from being too warm funnily enough, I definitely expected the opposite!)
We got our new colony at the end of March and I'm worried at the fact they aren't exploring their tubes yet. (We have a long tube connecting our nest to the feeding tank). This time I've put a rope in the tubes in the hope that it would be better for them to grip on but I'm not sure if they're taking a liking to it - its very "bitty" so I'm wondering if that is whats putting them off. Picture below.

Am I just being impatient waiting for them to go in their tubes or is my rope the problem?

[Jackie62]

Hello Emma, great that you are looking after your colony, what species are they? As an aside, I know Comrie well, as I went on holiday there a few years back, just a beautiful place, did lots of walking!!

Sorry that you lost your first colony from being too warm, it does sound strange doesn't it? I know that being too hot can stop the queen from laying (so I've read). My first colony here at my uni (Anglia Ruskin in Cambridge) used tubing and not ropes, but they were very established and very used to this kind of getting around. Our new colony of Atta took a while to explore their environment on ropes. They were installed at the end of this January by Andrew and did take a good month to finally get going. I do keep them warm, with an ambient temperature inside the case of around 27 degrees C and think the temperature is really important for their activity. How warm is your colony kept at? Also the humidity is obviously important too. It took a while to get going and has only just really got to an optimum point. I monitor the temp and humidity with a data logger to keep a check on what is going on inside. Our University atria where the colony display stands is also kept at a constant temperature, so the air around the display will never get too hot, but I check the parameters every day. It's easy for me to do this as the colony nest and forage areas are surrounded by water, although I do get the odd few falling out the door when I open them!The display case has the doors open for about an hour a day, to let the air through it, which I think is also important.

I'm not sure any of my information can help you, as I'm no expert, so hopefully you can gain more help from Andrew, Che and the others soon. Good luck, please let us know how things go.

[Occultus]

Hi Emma. great to have you here. It can take a few months for a colony to establish itself to a decent size to be able to effectively be able to use tubes to a feeding station. How large would you say the colony is? For now, I'd place their food directly into the nest section to help grow the colonies numbers. Eventually, they will have no trouble tackling the tubes to the feeding area. I can understand your concern with losing a colony previously. The fibrous rope could slow down the foraging but I doubt it would prevent the ants from using it. Feel free to ask any questions you need to ask, even if it sounds silly. We have all been in the same situation.

[EmmaBobson]

Yeah, at least we know a bit more about them this time around than we did before, I wish I had found this forum before now!

Here's our setup. The old colony were fine with just the tubes and some sticks for the vertical climbs but I figured this time rope would look nicer
The room their nest is in is heated and I try to keep the tank temp around 25 degrees - I'd be terrified to go any higher than that in case they get too hot again I work next to them all day so it's pretty easy to keep track of their temp/humidity.
Outside where the tubes are isn't heated but if it's a really cold day we'll pop some heaters underneath the tubes - this worked well before and the ants didn't seem to mind.
I can't remember how long it took for our old colony to explore their tubes the last time which is probably why I'm being so impatient this time around! Though a new update - I've burned a part of the rope in the tank to get rid of the "bits" and they seem to be walking up and down that fine now. I might try and do this with the whole thing today but it's going to be a struggle since I've taped up the tubes quite an excessive amount (we had many escapees last year so I didn't want a repeat of that )

[Acromyrmexbob]

Hi Emma, great to hear from you. The colony was reasonably large when installed, possibly still some growing to do before getting to the stage of having a constant line in the pipes. I would expect the second half of your season to be better than the first in terms of foraging numbers. The rope is definitely a problem. What you need to do is take the rope and pass it through a flame on the cooker in Andrew's kitchen! A few seconds as it passes does not burn it but it removes all of the 'hairs' sticking out and makes the rope suitable for the ants to walk on.
Have you tried placing food in the pipe at various distances from the nest. They will recruit workers to the first station, perhaps just at the start of the pipe, and then some will naturally go a little further to the next one. In this way you can get them all the way to the feeding station.
But the main thing is that your colony will spend the first few months consolidating and expanding, until a threshhold is reached when they will require a steady supply of leaves. At that stage you can rest assured they will find the feeding station and put on a display.

[EmmaBobson]

Hi Emma, great to hear from you. The colony was reasonably large when installed, possibly still some growing to do before getting to the stage of having a constant line in the pipes. I would expect the second half of your season to be better than the first in terms of foraging numbers. The rope is definitely a problem. What you need to do is take the rope and pass it through a flame on the cooker in Andrew's kitchen! A few seconds as it passes does not burn it but it removes all of the 'hairs' sticking out and makes the rope suitable for the ants to walk on.
Have you tried placing food in the pipe at various distances from the nest. They will recruit workers to the first station, perhaps just at the start of the pipe, and then some will naturally go a little further to the next one. In this way you can get them all the way to the feeding station.
But the main thing is that your colony will spend the first few months consolidating and expanding, until a threshhold is reached when they will require a steady supply of leaves. At that stage you can rest assured they will find the feeding station and put on a display.

Ah, I wish I had thought of using Andrews cooker, I've been sat with a very small lighter for the past hour!
I will try the food trail. Thanks Andrew! (I'm assuming this is Andrew yes? )

[Andyj]

Welcome Emma..