18 replies to this topic

[Dino]

I'm going to start a journal about my Lasius niger colony of about 15 workers I will be frequently updating everyone and sending pictures. Since these ants are my first colony I'm going to be asking a lot of advice.

 

Habitat: small sand ant farm.

 

Diet: currently honey and occasional fruits i might start feeding them mealworms soon.

 

 

[Manitobant]

Feed mealworms or fruit flies now. The larvae need protein.

[Scherme]

protein builds bodies, sugar powers them - incredibly oversimplified, but this is how I think of it.

 

A good and constant source of protein should increase your future workers size as well as numbers. 

 

As for photos, I upload everything into my gallery and then link it in my posts via the  "My Media" button. This has a few steps, I am sure there might be other ways to embed images, but this is just how I do it. 

 

Welcome, good luck, I will be following. May you make less mistakes than I did/do. 

[Dino]

Yesterday my queen continued further down the tunnels of the ant farm and has entered a darker area where I can no longer see her, workers continue to come in and out of the tunnels but don't go near the honey from a few days ago I think they might be full but I'm not sure. I might feed them a house fly today, this will be their first taste of protein. It was wild so I'm going to boil it before I feed it to them to make sure I kill off any possible parasites. However I'm not 100% sure if I should feed a wild caught insect, what do you guys think? I will try send some pictures.

[Dino]

Ants seem a bit more hungry today I have seen workers walking around the farm and returning to the feeding site. Since I have decided not to feed them the fly as someone said they were pesticide resistant and could be carrying pesticides, I will try feeding them an earthworm piece again and if they don't accept that I will try feeding them some fruit flies.

[KitsAntVa]

Ok listen, your ants are probably tired of eating honey that's why they won't drink or eat it anymore also earthworms are like the worst feeder because ants don't like them a lot. You should take advice from your ant food thread and look around on the forum for lasius neo/niger journals and see what people feed them.

[ANTdrew]

Be sure to mix the honey with water. Pure honey is too viscous for small ants. Any ants, really.

[antsandmore]

Be sure to mix the honey with water. Pure honey is too viscous for small ants. Any ants, really.

this is true for some species. I think that larger species can accept it better. that being said, lasius niger aren't the biggest ants, so you should definitely mix honey with water with a 1:2 or 1:3 ratio, or do sugar to water in a 1:1 ratio. also, feeders are good to get if you are willing to get them, and byformica are the best.

[Dino]

thanks i will now mix their honey with water i've also ordered some mealworms so they should arrive some time soon.

[Dino]

I finally fed my ants their first bits of protein yesterday they haven't seemed to notice it yet they just continue to expand the queens chamber i think the ants are full. However i'm still going to replace their current honey with some sugar water to see how they like it.

Edited by Dino, February 22 2021 - 12:57 AM.

[Dino]

On second glance it actually seems my ants have touched a bit of the protein i fed them and ripped off a chunk.

[DIACAMMAWORLDCOOL]

I finally fed my ants their first bits of protein yesterday they haven't seemed to notice it yet they just continue to expand the queens chamber i think the ants are full. However i'm still going to replace their current honey with some sugar water to see how they like it.

Yeah developing colonies are hesitant towards new food items.

[Dino]

Sorry i haven't written an update in a while but my ants are all fine they seem to love the protein and their brood piles are slowly growing i can see a few cocoons which means their should be some new workers any time soon!

[Dino]

Also I was wondering since spring is fast approaching here in the UK if their were any ants in England which would be having their nuptial flights soon?

[Dino]

My ants are doing ok one worker occasionally goes to check on the food but doesn't go to eat it but I suppose she is just full. They are also slightly less active and I'm not sure why that is since it is becoming spring and they should be slightly more active, however it isn't that warm in my room so I'm not sure if they are just a bit sluggish due to the temperature.

[Dino]

Update 01/04/2021

 

so my ants have decided to leave their tunnel system in their sand ant farm and move to their small feeding chamber which means feeding small honey water droplets is a pain. The thing I'm wondering is why they have moved in their. The only thing that changed was that i had fed them a large chunk of meat aside from their usual insect body parts and mealworms. I also need some tips on how to get them out of the feeding area i can't flood it with water though as that wouldn't work.

 

The one good thing about them being in the feeding tube is that their are better pictures.

The queen and her escort of workers not all of them though as quite a few are back in the sand ant farm foraging for food. Also if you look carefully you can see a worker which is slightly lighter than all the others as she came out of her cocoon yesterday and a pile of larvae.

A worker cleaning herself

Edited by Dino, April 1 2021 - 8:13 AM.

[Dino]

I've figured out how to add images now.

[ANTdrew]

Ants hate airflow, so try gently blowing on them. I bet they’ll leave that area right quick.

[Dino]

Update 8/04/2021

 

The ants have moved back! they left the feeding area and they definitely didn't like the airflow the sad thing is that now it is harder to take pictures of the queen as whenever I try she goes out of focus ill still try to send some pics of the workers. All seems good the ants are carrying on with their life the brood pile continues to grow and i think the larvae should be spinning their cocoons any time soon. The ants love digging tunnels as their continuing to dig vast underground systems even if they don't need the space. they have definitely increased in activity as their are at least 4 or five workers travelling outside of the nest and around 7-8 workers digging. hopefully the worker count will increase soon as their growth rate is not very high. Also another mystery I'm sure by now a few of the workers must be dead but I don't seem to see any of their bodies aren't ants supposed to have graveyards?

 

I will try to send some pictures of the colony.

Edited by Dino, April 8 2021 - 2:26 AM.