My Messor Barbarus Colony (Discussion and Info)

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antnest8
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Re: My Messor Barbarus Colony (Discussion and Info)

Post: # 73729Post antnest8
Fri Sep 11, 2020 11:29 am

It seems that you have a lot of experience with this species, you wouldn't mind making a Care Sheet for them at https://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5675&start=40 I want to expand what we have there but I can only keep so many colonies and I prefer the care sheets to be made from people that own the species and actually have experience!
Some of My Informative Sheets
https://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=19099
Includes :
  • Ant Care Sheets
    Queen Hunting
    How To Identify Ants
Goal is to become #2 poster on the forum

AntsLuxembourg
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Re: My Messor Barbarus Colony (Discussion and Info)

Post: # 73731Post AntsLuxembourg
Fri Sep 11, 2020 12:31 pm

antnest8 wrote:
Fri Sep 11, 2020 11:29 am
It seems that you have a lot of experience with this species, you wouldn't mind making a Care Sheet for them at https://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5675&start=40 I want to expand what we have there but I can only keep so many colonies and I prefer the care sheets to be made from people that own the species and actually have experience!
I must say that is basically what I try to do with this thread. I also will try to arrange with mad vampi to let me edit the previous posts so I can include all the information in one post.
Doing some proper research is the best way to start an antcolony.

Need help or want to help? https://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=18153#p70566

Currently not keeping any ants anymore.

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antnest8
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Re: My Messor Barbarus Colony (Discussion and Info)

Post: # 73733Post antnest8
Fri Sep 11, 2020 1:00 pm

That would be awesome, you know what, I was dumb. I will just put a link in the care sheets to here
Some of My Informative Sheets
https://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=19099
Includes :
  • Ant Care Sheets
    Queen Hunting
    How To Identify Ants
Goal is to become #2 poster on the forum

AntsLuxembourg
Posts: 1578
Joined: Sun Jun 24, 2018 7:17 am
Location: Luxembourg
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Re: My Messor Barbarus Colony (Discussion and Info)

Post: # 74139Post AntsLuxembourg
Wed Oct 07, 2020 4:12 am

Hello everyone,

After a good while I have brought back my streams which are up for everyone to watch and use.

Now for the new notes I would like to add. Not sure if I mentioned it in a previous post but the ants eat Physalis Seeds. And YES it was a pain in the ass to get a small amount of seeds for them to try. They did as they do so very often and just brought them in for storing and consumption.
Furthermore I tried some of the fish flakes I still have from my attempt to keep shrimps and I think I forgot to have something that would add O2 or fresh air into the water so they may have suffocated by accident. Anyway. I tried fish flakes and they were bringing them in as well.
Next I have Pollen or more precise Pollen beans which they seem like and enjoy as well. On a trip to the Netherlands in late August I passed a shop that was selling all sorts of animal products and foods but also bags with many different seeds that my ants did enjoy already and they were not very expensive compared to most ant stores. They also sold different kinds of honey related products provided by local bee keepers so naturally I had to buy different types of honey for my ants (currently only Lasius Niger) but also pollen which look like small yellow bits / beans that come from the bees and flowers.
I dropped some in and it was funny to see them bring some in immediately. If I'm not mistaken they also can be stored for a very long time and will be consumed with water by the ants.

I must also say that just because my colony eats them, that it is no proof that all colonies of Messor Barbarus will eat them. I would need at least 2 more colonies to proof or disproof that the do in fact eat all the things I listed.
Doing some proper research is the best way to start an antcolony.

Need help or want to help? https://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=18153#p70566

Currently not keeping any ants anymore.

AntsLuxembourg
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Re: My Messor Barbarus Colony (Discussion and Info)

Post: # 74183Post AntsLuxembourg
Mon Oct 12, 2020 6:27 am

I have to make a small correction. It seems the ants are actually not interested in the fish food or the pollen. I will have to try a rerun on this as they haven't picked up all the pollen but the fish flakes seem to have ended on their garbage site. I will have to check this again as I might have been a bit too hasty with this.

But as mentioned it might not apply to all Messor Barbarus Colonies but only some.
Doing some proper research is the best way to start an antcolony.

Need help or want to help? https://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=18153#p70566

Currently not keeping any ants anymore.

AntsLuxembourg
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Re: My Messor Barbarus Colony (Discussion and Info)

Post: # 75991Post AntsLuxembourg
Fri Mar 19, 2021 2:59 am

I felt like it was time to leave a general update here. I am not exactly sure what and why but my queen has decided to roam the land of the setup despite having enough space for nesting and a new outworld. It could be that she is looking for something which is not a dark spot as there are more than enough good, dark and wet spots for the queen to hide in.

The workers are busy digging and with a little bit of help from my side they dug out some magnificent caves. All recorded on my channel. Here is one link to a video of those many streams that are happening right now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_LSQmz7gyY
Even if it may seem that I try to drown the ants, I am only trying to make the ground easy to dig in as clay soil is a bit difficult to dig in if dried. So I dropped some water every now and then to make the area around the end of the tunnels wet enough.

I also dropped in some mealworms during one session as my colony seems to love them. At least when they killed the insects themself. Soon I will try some bee larvae and maybe even super worms just to see how they like those.

In a few months I will also try to get some springtails as it whould be a better to have some cleaners in the setup. I will also try to find some more seeds to feed to the colony but the ants seem to really like the honey melon seeds that I have been throwing in before their move. The seeds were always gone by the end of the day.

I'm also currently trying to shrink the nest step by step as there is too much tubing and I also would like to clean and replace some parts. So for now their old outworld is detached and I will try to catch all the remaining ants and drop them into the new outworld.
The wierdest thing for me with this whole situation is still that the queen is not hiding away anymore. I do not know if that is normal Messor Barbarus behaviour or not but it feels very odd for sure.

Before I forget it, my testworkers from my very first colony are still alive. There were 2 workers remaining if I did see correctly. They seem to have quite the nice age by now.
Doing some proper research is the best way to start an antcolony.

Need help or want to help? https://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=18153#p70566

Currently not keeping any ants anymore.

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AM1C39
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Re: My Messor Barbarus Colony (Discussion and Info)

Post: # 75996Post AM1C39
Fri Mar 19, 2021 6:18 am

Apparently ants love grass seed (if you want to give that a go).
My current colonies:
-Miniature Military(formica neogagates)
-Black Hearts(crematogaster cerasi)
In search of new camponotus colony
[Have a look at antmaps.org]

AntsLuxembourg
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Re: My Messor Barbarus Colony (Discussion and Info)

Post: # 75997Post AntsLuxembourg
Fri Mar 19, 2021 6:25 am

AM1C39 wrote:
Fri Mar 19, 2021 6:18 am
Apparently ants love grass seed (if you want to give that a go).
I thought I did. Not sure if I mentioned the names of them but I thought I did. I give them some wild grass seeds that I find and I still got some normal grass seeds so yeah they would eat grass seeds of course too. ;)
Doing some proper research is the best way to start an antcolony.

Need help or want to help? https://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=18153#p70566

Currently not keeping any ants anymore.

AntsLuxembourg
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Re: My Messor Barbarus Colony (Discussion and Info)

Post: # 79232Post AntsLuxembourg
Sat Jul 03, 2021 11:16 am

AntsLuxembourg wrote:
Fri Mar 19, 2021 2:59 am
Before I forget it, my testworkers from my very first colony are still alive. There were 2 workers remaining if I did see correctly. They seem to have quite the nice age by now.
So today the last worker / nanitic has died or at least I noticed it only today. It looks like she died about a week ago tho.

The conditions for them were the following. Always in a spot at the window. No direct sunlight but bright enough to have the ants consider it as being outside. The setup always had some seeds that could be collected and eaten.Some parts of the tubing are green tainted however with not enough space to keep the untainted light completely out.
I didn't disturb the workers much, but never bothered to be super gentle when handling them. The last seeds I added were some fresh dandilion seeds.
Doing some proper research is the best way to start an antcolony.

Need help or want to help? https://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=18153#p70566

Currently not keeping any ants anymore.

AntsLuxembourg
Posts: 1578
Joined: Sun Jun 24, 2018 7:17 am
Location: Luxembourg
Contact:

Re: My Messor Barbarus Colony (Discussion and Info)

Post: # 88637Post AntsLuxembourg
Tue Mar 01, 2022 3:34 am

Hey,

I thought I should give you guys a small update on my colony. Mainly because I tried something new and thought it was worth mentioning.

So after a diet of a lot of seeds and meal worms I decided to try and offer them a piece of egg white. The Ants immediately went for it and started cutting down little bits and pieces. The piece wasn't massive but also not super small. I noticed however that they managed to consume / remove the whole piece by the end of the day / within a few hours.

I didn't setup a whole stream for them, however I will consider it as it would be interesting to see if they eat the egg white straight away or if they break of pieces to carry back to their nest. Sadly I have removed my streaming setup to clean up and unclutter my apartment but I will figure something out or do a stream in the future.

Here is the link to a video on my channel to show you guys some of the action and the brute pile they put out on display.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqpH9aN3oaM
Doing some proper research is the best way to start an antcolony.

Need help or want to help? https://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=18153#p70566

Currently not keeping any ants anymore.

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