Questions about Messor Barbarus
Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2018 8:14 am
Hello there,
I stumbled up a tread before with a Messor Barbarus Antcolony and I still got some questions about that antspecis. This is the topic I found btw. (http://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?t=1186)
So I currently have a Messor Barbarus Colony and I am happy that the queen survived all the stress she was put into. So the story is this. I had a colony of Lasius Niger bought from a very nice GAN Farmer in Belgium and it was my first real attempt to keep ants (As I child I though trapping ants in small plastic boxes was cool but those days lay very far in the past. R.I.P. dear ants (T_T)) and I managed to keep her for a few months until I noticed she didn't move no more which was more or less a week after I placed the testtube inside an empty box so they could have some more space. Probably a starter mistake. So I waited arround 4-6 months when I decided to get me a new colony and with a much better setup. So I decided to buy me a nest on Amazon which had a queenant included already. Type Messor Barbarus. I was really happy to have a new colony and I was provided with some informations beforehand already by the seller.
Sadly the queen passed away too a few days after I connected the tubes to the new setup. Funny thing was I though she was alive but something like resting cause the ants kept moving the queen arround quite a lot so I though if she moves she's still alive. But yeah she had past away over night after a friend of mine visited me. So I managed to catch most of the workers and put them back into the testtube. I also of course checked that the ants are somewhat native to Luxembourg before I ordered the nest cause in the description it told me what queen was included. So after a few days I decided to get me a new queen ant which is happily laying eggs and the workers seem quite busy.
I'm currently trying all sorts of seeds to see which fruits and seeds I can offer them to give them a bigger choice. So far I saw that they take peeled apple and cherry seeds. They brought the apple seeds straight to the queen and started breaking them down.
I will try some other seeds too like lemon and orange of I can get hold of some.
So here are some of the questions I still have in my mind.
1. What can I do with the left workers from the old colony. Like can I perhaps merge the workers with the new colony without both of them getting into a fight?
Their eggs have all hatched but I can't bring myself to just kill them. I had to kill some of the workers which wouldn't move back to their testtube but that was really hard for me. :C
2. Can they chew through the glue of a glue gun? Hopefully not or else I will have to replace some pieces of the setup.
3. What insects to they eat? I haven't given them any insects yet but a protein mixture of the antstore I got the colony from.
4. Should I offer them fruits? Like bits of raspberries or oranges to give them some sugary stuff beside from honey? I have placed a nice chunk of rockcandy in their arena.
I hope someone here can help me with some of those questions.
Now that those questions are asked about the species directly I would like to ask something else which is much more streamer/photographer related. That's because I'm streaming the colony every single day on Twitch so others can enjoy the colony as well. the first thing I do when I get home or wake up is to start my computer to start the stream. haha
So my question would be does anyone know any good webcam or camera I could use to stream the colony in a good quality? Currently I have two webcams, the Logitech C920 and the Logitech Business Brio, which are quite alright but I would like to have a good camera for a much better view. I though about getting a GoPro Hero 6 with a macrolense for the queen or specific areas but I am not sure if there are other cameras I could use for the streaming. It would be best if I can add the cameras with OBS.
Well that should be all for now.
Kind regards,
AntsLuxembourg aka. Nico
I stumbled up a tread before with a Messor Barbarus Antcolony and I still got some questions about that antspecis. This is the topic I found btw. (http://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?t=1186)
So I currently have a Messor Barbarus Colony and I am happy that the queen survived all the stress she was put into. So the story is this. I had a colony of Lasius Niger bought from a very nice GAN Farmer in Belgium and it was my first real attempt to keep ants (As I child I though trapping ants in small plastic boxes was cool but those days lay very far in the past. R.I.P. dear ants (T_T)) and I managed to keep her for a few months until I noticed she didn't move no more which was more or less a week after I placed the testtube inside an empty box so they could have some more space. Probably a starter mistake. So I waited arround 4-6 months when I decided to get me a new colony and with a much better setup. So I decided to buy me a nest on Amazon which had a queenant included already. Type Messor Barbarus. I was really happy to have a new colony and I was provided with some informations beforehand already by the seller.
Sadly the queen passed away too a few days after I connected the tubes to the new setup. Funny thing was I though she was alive but something like resting cause the ants kept moving the queen arround quite a lot so I though if she moves she's still alive. But yeah she had past away over night after a friend of mine visited me. So I managed to catch most of the workers and put them back into the testtube. I also of course checked that the ants are somewhat native to Luxembourg before I ordered the nest cause in the description it told me what queen was included. So after a few days I decided to get me a new queen ant which is happily laying eggs and the workers seem quite busy.
I'm currently trying all sorts of seeds to see which fruits and seeds I can offer them to give them a bigger choice. So far I saw that they take peeled apple and cherry seeds. They brought the apple seeds straight to the queen and started breaking them down.
I will try some other seeds too like lemon and orange of I can get hold of some.
So here are some of the questions I still have in my mind.
1. What can I do with the left workers from the old colony. Like can I perhaps merge the workers with the new colony without both of them getting into a fight?
Their eggs have all hatched but I can't bring myself to just kill them. I had to kill some of the workers which wouldn't move back to their testtube but that was really hard for me. :C
2. Can they chew through the glue of a glue gun? Hopefully not or else I will have to replace some pieces of the setup.
3. What insects to they eat? I haven't given them any insects yet but a protein mixture of the antstore I got the colony from.
4. Should I offer them fruits? Like bits of raspberries or oranges to give them some sugary stuff beside from honey? I have placed a nice chunk of rockcandy in their arena.
I hope someone here can help me with some of those questions.
Now that those questions are asked about the species directly I would like to ask something else which is much more streamer/photographer related. That's because I'm streaming the colony every single day on Twitch so others can enjoy the colony as well. the first thing I do when I get home or wake up is to start my computer to start the stream. haha
So my question would be does anyone know any good webcam or camera I could use to stream the colony in a good quality? Currently I have two webcams, the Logitech C920 and the Logitech Business Brio, which are quite alright but I would like to have a good camera for a much better view. I though about getting a GoPro Hero 6 with a macrolense for the queen or specific areas but I am not sure if there are other cameras I could use for the streaming. It would be best if I can add the cameras with OBS.
Well that should be all for now.
Kind regards,
AntsLuxembourg aka. Nico