Random Observations

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jwatson16202

Random Observations

Post: # 19196Post jwatson16202
Mon Apr 10, 2017 5:47 pm

Hi all, still pretty new to antkeeping so a lot of this stuff is still new to me

They're all still either founding or very small ( <40 workers) so I only feed them every 3ish days right now.

I gave my Lasius niger queen (still in test tube) a cricket leg today as she has 2 or 3 workers running around in there and rather than the workers approach the food, it was the queen that approached and started eating the leg, I would have thought the workers would be the "brave" ones. Oh well, at least they took the food which is a good sign.

My other Lasius niger colony (~25 workers) has had a bit of a refurbish and removal of unnecessary tubing and now have direct access to their outworld from the nest rather than through the test tube portal and have actually started exploring as previously they only bothered going as far as the portal. They will happily accept a frozen cricket (dipped in boiling water) which I've cut in half and squished but seem to completely ignore the mealworm section I gave them (although I hear that mealworms aren't all that good anyway?)

Moving on the Myrmica rubra colony (~20 workers), these ladies don't seem very active so it's difficult to catch them actually eating anything but they seem to have taken all insect offerings so far

My Lasius flavus queen is still founding although we did have a *slight* test tube malfunction/flood when I moved the tube out of my drawer. I managed to drain the water out before she drowned although there is no more water left in her tube. She's attached to a fresh tube but doesn't seem to want to move. I guess once her bit of cotton finally dries she'll move out?

One thing I have noticed is none of my ants ever go for the honey I give them. I mix it with a little water and soak small balls of cotton so they dont get stuck/drown but by and large it gets ignored, am I using the wrong type of honey (just supermarket organic honey)... is there even a wrong type of honey? :P

That's all for now and if you got this far thanks for putting up with my ramblings :)

jwatson16202

Re: Random Observations

Post: # 19197Post jwatson16202
Mon Apr 10, 2017 5:49 pm

In the 5 mins I turned away to type up this post, some of my M. rubra ants have come up into the outworld, grabbed the section of mealworm I gave them and dragged it back into the nest without me noticing.
Sneaky girls! :lol:

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