11 replies to this topic

[Antz]

My first colony ever is a pheidole megacephala colony, I bought it from a local through the gan project. My first night with them didn't so good around 5 of them were dead in the morning I am sure this was my fault for not offering something for them to eat when I got home with them. My first attempt at feeding them didn't go so well either, that is why I currently have them in a cheap food container that I turned into a formicarium. After that I wanted my first attempt at ant keeping to be a successful one so I bought some ant food and fluon from tarheelants, a digital humidity with temp monitor from eBay and a set of byformica feeder on eBay too. I also have an acrylic formicarium on the way. So far I learned that these ants love humidity it's their best friend, my queen does not leave the moist cotton ball in the test tube at all. They don't like jelly so much but seem to have a taste for superworms and honey. I also noticed that these ants are extremely calm and tame when I open their formicarium for cleaning they don't panic at all they just continue with what they are doing which is normally chilling by the cotton ball.

I bought some red transparent foil to cover their current setup but I felt it let to much light in so I am just covering it up with a towel and have a little dollar store light to make clean up time easier.

Edited by Antz, November 10 2018 - 7:15 PM.

[CoolColJ]

Pheidole don't care about being exposed to light in my experience, so you can just leave them open all the time, and enjoy the view

[Antz]

 They don't mind it? Well shoot been playing with my 3d printer setting on making a box to cover the formicarium from red transparent pla

Edited by Antz, November 10 2018 - 8:58 PM.

[Antking117]

I don't believe ants are bothered by lights at all, I keep all my ants on my desk year round through the sunlight and lamp lights they do not care at all. They go about their business. Only time they ever go crazy is if i remove the lids to any of the containers.

[Antz]

Interesting so far everyone I talked to has told me that some type of red film or covering is a recommended thing when keeping ants.

[CoolColJ]

Only needed with new founding queens, once they have workers, I expose them all to light

 

some queens will lay eggs even exposed to light

Edited by CoolColJ, November 10 2018 - 11:39 PM.

[Antz]

I see I wish more people would add that detail in the forums I seen on ant keeping. They just mention that they need darkness and that is it. After adding a 2nd moist cotton ball which raised the humidity up some more I see all my workers are a lot more active now, never seen them this active. I guess it shows how sensitive this species is to humidity.

Also, the little light I bought for them is working out great as an observation light. 

Edited by Antz, November 11 2018 - 9:32 AM.

[Antz]

Went to see if she lay any new brood.

My apologies for the bad quality my camera did not want to focus at all with that photo.

I think they like the extra humidity from the cotton ball I see them out of the test tube more often now.

Edited by Antz, November 11 2018 - 9:01 PM.

[Antz]

Today arrive the formicarium I ordered. Now to modify it to accept the humidity and temp probes I bought for it.

Edited by Antz, November 17 2018 - 3:46 PM.

[Antz]

Every time I give them a cut worm they seems to want to cover the cut opening with rocks quite funny to see them do this

Edited by Antz, December 6 2018 - 1:01 AM.

[DaveJay]

In my experience keeping small animals it's better to just monitor the ambient temperature and humidity in the area you keep them rather than inside the enclosure itself. Over time you develop a routine and you just need to monitor the ambient conditions so you can make adjustments for extreme conditions if needed. Trying to have the perfect temp and humidity at the same time is futility, adjust one and the other changes, you'll just end up at extremes. 

Edited by DaveJay, December 7 2018 - 3:07 AM.

[AntsCalifornia]

I don't know if you want that cotton ball in the outworld. Generally you want the foraging area dry. They might just be out because it feels like an extension of the nest. I'm not totally sure if I'm right, though, because I'm still pretty new to antkeeping.