Messor Barbarus

[Starryder]

Hello,

I have today received a queen and a few workers but the nanitics do not work anymore a few did work after i connected the tube to my set up but now they are idling and the queen is exploring around for housing, food and water.

First time taking care of ants any advice?

[SYUTEO]

Young colonies are very shy and usually wouldn't forage in the outworld. It's best to place food very close to the entrance of the test tube so the nanitics won't have to go very far for food.

[AntsLuxembourg]

Hello there,

It definetly is a bit odd. Do they have any seeds in their colony? What seeds did you offer them? What is the usual temperatur around the testtube?

Here is an info thread I wrote with informations I got from observing my colony but please read until the end due to updated information that is included in later posts.
https://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=18552

[Starryder]

Thanks for a quick answers!

I had it connected to a outworld before but have disconnected it now and placed test tubes to their formikarium directly seen in the attached picture. And after doing that they were quick to notice the new food source and became a bit more active.

Thank you AntsLuxemburg for the post about their eating habits and preference for seeds!

[Starryder]

Here is a link for the picture instead for my formikarium.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NmNFy2K50_xHkgMevRu6apVW1KvWLLL4/view?usp=sharing

[AntsLuxembourg]

Here is a link for the picture instead for my formikarium.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NmNFy2K50_xHkgMevRu6apVW1KvWLLL4/view?usp=sharing

Did the ants put the seeds there or was that your iniciative? Also as Syuteo mentioned, they are probably not adventuring out to find those seeds. It's usually best to keep them in a testtube until they are bigger. Luckily Messor Barbarus does not need much attention if they have seeds and some water.

[Starryder]

I put the seeds there first but i have changed the setup now to a smaller one where as i am only connecting water and have put in some seeds. I also gave them a mealworm(decapitated) and they are going ham on that thing. They have become a lot calmer now after a week and i think that the queen have laid a few more eggs then the initial ones.


Picture of the setup and after i gave them a mealworm that they are munching on.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FMlWSijiFedPoqQ6r9m57ON9YinGHO9G/view?usp=sharing

[AntsLuxembourg]

Looks nice. Also I found funny that they seem to love mealworm at least from time to time. I have never tried fruit flies because I didn't want to mess too much with those.

So far I have observed that they try to drag the mealworm into an area that helps them limit their wiggling and once they are exhausted they just try and open the shell to get to the meat. However if the mealworm is too strong / has too much stamina, then it will start to decompose and mold before the ants can get much use out of them.

Yes I did live feeding to observe their behavior and it was interesting to see how they fight them. Wanted to try superworms but those just died before I could put any of them to any use. :/

Anyway, keep me updated if you like

[Starryder]

So how long does it usually take for the brood second to hatch?

And how long should it take between each brood?

[AntsLuxembourg]

I never paid attention to it. But I would say about a month. It is hard for me to know the exact amount since I was never able to start a Messor Barbarus Colony from scratch.