Oh no!! Big boo boo :-(

So I made a HUGEEEEE mistake...

I finally got round to doing the permanent decoration in the new outworld. I took the red acetate off the test tube to make it light and help encourage them to move out and into the permanant nest.

The test tube is already going mouldy and mingin so I wondered how to encourage Betty to move out. I figured that if the water started to dry out they would look for a new nest (my nice new antkit nest being the plan). 

There's loads of water left so there's no way the test tube was drying out soon. I read you can use a pipette to suck water out through the cotton wool...great I thought. That'll help, along with shining a light into the test tube.

So in I go with my pipette, but I couldn't suck anything but air through the cotton wool. So I pressed harder in the cotton wool, but the end of the pipette collapsed and I've ended up killing 2 workers and injuring Betty :-(

They have abandoned ship and I've managed to get them to go into the tube that leads to the new nest, and at last check they'd taken 2 larvae into the tube with them. She has part of her bum sticking out. 

I hope she survives :-( but even if she does, I'm not sure whether there will be any more eggs laid. It certainly won't be for a long time :-(

They swallowed a fly!!!

So it's been about a week since my last post. And I gave Betty and her cronies some of the good stuff...

So I'm cooking dinner for the kids and this fly just keeps buzzing around all over the place. I was like right, I know what's happening to you, you great annoying buzzing blah!!!

So I spent a few minutes with a piece of kitchen roll and my eagle eyed 3 year old daughter and we finally get the fly wrapped in the kitchen roll, still buzzing. It'll obviously just fly away if I try and put it in with the ants, and I can't bug spray it to kill it...it'd kill the ants too! So I boil up a small pan of water, drop the kitchen roll in with the fly in it (instant kill) and leave it in there for about 20 seconds to kill any bugs or whatever the little bogger might be carrying. I figured there are only 8 workers so wanted to make it as easy as possible for them to eat, so I chopped little fly in half so Betty's mini mes could get straight to the gooey centre (yummy!!!), dropped it in the feeding bowl and waited...

WOW DID THEY LOVE IT!!!!

It took the little worker who is always out scavenging about 3 minutes to find it. Within a few more minutes the back up scavenger was there too. So I started filming. They were clearly trying to move it...my battery died before they managed it! So I put my phone on charge and figure they'd been at it for ages already and not even got it out the feeding bowl, never mind lifting it up into the nest. It couldn't hurt to leave them a little while and get the kids in bed and all that...WRONG! I come back, phone charged and ready to go...and the fly half is already in the nest. And the ants are going a little bit mental in the test tube. So I propped up the phone, zoomed in and pressed record.

I got about 2 hours of footage showing the ants moving the fly around, getting the larvae to feed, feeding the Queen,  carrying the larvae around (first time I have seen them do this so was very excited for that too). So I banged the footage in video editor and had it auto trim to 10 minutes to show you. The video was too large to upload in Blogger so I had to YouTube it to provide you with a link

I stayed up late watching and then went to bed. By morning they had put it in the end of the test tube. When I got back from taking the kiddies to school it had been dropped out the end 😂

This is a few days ago now, and since then the ants have been super quiet. They are obviously in a food coma lol! I've offered other foods in their bowl but have only once in the last few days even seen my scavenger out, and that was super briefly!

Until they're more obviously looking for something, I'm gonna keep some protein jelly in the food bowl just incase.

Before I go, quick colony update...still 8 workers with a few larvae and eggs. Got a nice picture of the brood...

First outworld

The accessories from ant world have arrived!!! I'll take you through them in another post because I'm only going to use a couple of bits from it for now.

So I've used an old plastic lunch box for the first outworld (almost used the new one but I want to customise it properly first and that'll be impossible if I start to use it now).

Started off with painting lots of PTFE around the top of the box. It's something that most species of ant find impossible to walk on without slipping so it stops them escaping. It's very important to let it dry fully before allowing any ants to come close as the wet fumes aren't good for them. I also added a couple of rocks, and some fake plants for a bit of scenery. I almost added a bit of sand to the floor to help it look a bit prettier but I'm worried that the workers will start to pile it up and end up nesting under one of the rocks where I won't be able to see them so decided against that.

There were 2 liquid water dispenser things that came with the kit along with a small feeding bowl too so I've set up a honey water feeder, plain water feeder, and I'm adding protein sources to the feeding bowl. So far I've added cooked chicken, protein jelly and a dead wasp to the bowl so far. The wasp is the only thing I've seen them interested in so far.

I've put the whole test tube into the box so as to not disturb the nest. It kept rolling around so I've put a bit of blutack on each side to hold it steady. I was a bit worried that the ants may get themselves stuck in it but it actually works really well as a ramp to the top of the test tube.

Quick picture for you...

I was really worried that the PTFE wouldn't work well. The lunchbox isn't tall enough for me to put the lid on because of the water feeders so it's just open. Was up about 6 times the first night to count the ants to make sure nobody was going anywhere they shouldn't! It's been set up this way for a couple of days now and I've not seen any workers get even close to the top so I'm confident that they're staying put. Although I do keep thinking about putting the lunch box in something larger filled with water to make it like an island so that escapees can't actually escape. But I think they're good.

As for the ants, things are still the same. 8 workers, growing larvae and some eggs. The protein from the wasp and whatever else I can find will be great for helping the larvae grow. Also hoping the Queen will lay some new eggs soon. I don't think there have been any new ones since she arrived.

The first feed

I said i was going to leave Queen Betty (yes...I'm a little bit odd) in her tube without bothering her for a while. But I'm impatient lol! Everyone seemed a little slow and sluggish all the time so I figured I'd give them a bit of a sugar rush for their first feeding.

In order for the colony to thrive the ants need a water source, sugar source and a protein source. I'll deal with the protein in a couple of days (I have some protein jelly as a back up, but I'm hoping to find some insects in the garden).

For the sugar source I mixed up some honey water (half and half honey and water). They're still in their sealed test tube so I made sure there was nothing trying to make a break for it, took the cotton ball plug out, and used the end of a straw to put a drop in. Then I re-sealed the test tube to stop any strays. 

THEY LOVED IT!!! 

I saw all the ants feeding from the drop at different times except for Betty,  but the workers should be tending to her so I hope they have fed her. They were zooming around the test tube like their arses were on fire!!

Another video showing that they became really active cleaning each other and tending the Queen and just generally being very ant like.

It also looks like the brood is doing well. Can see larvae and eggs in this picture :-). The larvae are definitely getting bigger.

Hopefully they will pupate fairly soon so that we can get excited for the arrival of some new workers :-)

So, I think that because their first feed has gone so well my next update will be about their first outworld. That'll make it much easier to feed them and make things a bit more interesting for them. Exciting!

Acetate arrived

The red acetate arrived this morning as expected :-)

I ordered off ebay because I wouldn't have been going to any shops that sell it. Just looked for something cheap, and they were actually advertised as for helping those with dyslexia, 5x A4 sheets so there will be more than enough for later down the line too. The acetate I ordered was 200 microns thick. That's a lot thicker than I expected it to be!!! So it was a bit tougher to wrap tightly around the tube than expected.

I cut a rectangle that had the long length from just past the cotton plug holding in the water to the opening of the test tube. This should mean that the ants perceive the whole tube as being dark which will be great for them. Short side was just long enough to go round the whole tube with a small overlap. I then put sticky tape on one of the long sides, stuck it in place on the test tube and the rolled the test tube (sorry ants...greater good and all that!!) To make sure the acetate was tight around it. I used another piece of tape to secure it.

They seem soooooooo much happier now. It's not a big shock to pull them out the dark when I want to check on them and there's no need to keep them in that little box anymore so that's gone now. Only problem I found was it meant the tube could roll around easily, obviously not good. So I grabbed a bit of blutack and stuck it to the sides to keep it still. The red makes it a bit harder to photograph them but I think you should be able to make out everything including the brood here.

So I'll leave them to settle in their uprated tube for now.

I have decided to feed them too but this update is already pretty long for something so simple (!!!!!). So will tell you about that next time :-)

P.S. had an update on my extra things I ordered with my ants and they're on their way!! Can't wait to show them off :-) 

My queen has arrived!!

Being the wrong time of year to catch a queen and really start from scratch I decided to order myself a Lasius niger queen with a few workers to get us going. My sons original ants were from Antkit, and we have been really pleased with them so I ordered from there again.

I chose a queen with 6-10 workers. Placed my order on Wednesday morning and the lovely post man brought them this morning (next day delivery). They arrived in a little box, well packed so that nothing would be damaged and all the ants would be safe.

The test tube has been filled about 1/3 with water and plugged with cotton wool. Then there's the Queen and her workers, along with a few eggs and larvae (sorry, I can't get a good picture of these because they are right by the cotton wool). And the end of the test tube is plugged with more cotton wool to stop the mini beasts from escaping.

So I am now the proud mummy of 1 Lasius niger queen and 8 workers so far! Exciting!

I am still waiting for the rest of the equipment to arrive from Antkit (I chose economy delivery so it's not expected for a few days yet), but they should be more than happy living in just the test tube for a little while yet. You can buy the ants like this with up to 20 workers so I'm in no rush to get them moved right now. Besides, I have plans for their new home!! (More on that later)

The ants like to be in the dark, so they aren't very happy when I open up the box. I have read that ants cannot see red so the plan is to get hold of some red acetate to wrap around the test tube. That way they will be happy in the 'dark' and I'll be happy I can watch them without worrying about stressing them. I'll show you how it looks when I get it probably tomorrow.

Welcome to the blog!

Hello everyone!

So, I'm new to ant keeping. My eldest son asked for Antworld for his birthday back in February which I was more than happy to go along with. I've always said I wanted my kids to have slightly different pets that not everyone else will have (last thing we tried was a little musk turtle...super cute!!). So they've been in the house for almost 3 months now which hes enjoying, along with my other 2 children (although maybe not as much as me hehe!). However, I know we made a lot of mistakes with those ants already, and to be quite honest I'm a big kid and wanted my own ant colony too!! So I have decided to help my boy with his ants in the Antworld, and that I will be using a different setup for a second colony. The idea being the we can see how the two colonies go in the two different setups. The scientist in me always has to put an investigation into things like this!

Since coming into the world of ant keeping, I've done lots of google searches on what to do with them and how best to care for them, and I've found loads of information to help. Its been great seeing all sorts of different ants in tiny, small, medium, large and huge colony sizes, and even watching the videos showing how they have grown and changed. But the one thing I've struggled with is knowing how long it actually takes for the colonies to grow. So, this is why I decided to start this blog. It'll be a great way for me to track whats going on, but it'll also (hopefully) be something that other new (or prospective) ant keepers can use.

I will be writing about the 2 set ups we have in the house. Both have Lasius Niger (common black ants) in them. I figured that was best just incase anything happens so that they can just be released in the back garden without any worries should we need to.

So, I hope you will all find my blog both interesting and useful. I'm so looking forward to this! :-)