278 replies to this topic

[Ernteameise]

Antstore also sells food.

I thought I try it out.

For Messor species, they sell a mix of tubes containing different size seed as well as different powders.

One powder is a sugar which you can mix with water for creating sugar water.

Another powder is "frugivore"- I tried it myself and it appears to be powdered dried banana. This you also mix with water to create a paste.

And then they have "protein" food- which I assume is just ground up insects, which you also mix with water for a paste. The ground up insects reminds me very much of the insectivore mix that we feed to wild insectivorous birds ( I worked with wild birds for my Master and PhD degrees at university).

 

So I tried out the banana powder-paste and the insect paste with my Messors, and yes of course, the ants are pigs when it comes to food, they actually eat it.

 

[Ernteameise]

Right.

I am at a loss.

What do the Messors trying to tell me with this? (piling sand on top of the food)

They were just eating it!

 

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

^ some  ants really don't like water/anything too wet around where they live.

Also not all the ants in a colony will agree up front about it all.

So maybe some were eating, but some others determined it was too much exposed water/moisture around them and covered it up.

 

I might imagine a much less wet mix, more like play-dough consistency might not get this treatment.

[Ernteameise]

^ some  ants really don't like water/anything too wet around where they live.

Also not all the ants in a colony will agree up front about it all.

So maybe some were eating, but some others determined it was too much exposed water/moisture around them and covered it up.

 

I might imagine a much less wet mix, more like play-dough consistency might not get this treatment.

You might be onto something!

Because right now, many more of the workers are sitting around the food- and they appear to use the sand as stepping stones!

What do I learn from this?

Use less water next time.

Thank you for your suggestion.

[Ernteameise]

My Messors continue to do well.

I also finally seem to have some more brood in there with the queen.

 

And no, these huge majors do not really leave the nest. At all. I see them go to the toilet and the water bottle, but as soon as I come near, they panic and run back into the nest.

 

Edited by Ernteameise, April 20 2023 - 11:37 AM.

[Ernteameise]

Some strange observations I keep making:

Every time I feed fresh seed, the Messors go into total overhyped OCD mode.

This is now the fourth or fifth time I see this.

I feed new seed, they start collecting, and suddenly, the natural order is disturbed and they start getting all the previously collected seed out and arrange them anew!

They appear to have a neat system of seed stored according to size and shape.

New seed appear to create a problem- to have it all arranged in order, it needs to all get carried out, and then rearranged and then carried back in in the right order.

This is basically the ant version of Mr. Monk from the TV series.

 

Today I decided to offer a few very small seed as well as- for the first time!- two huge grain seed which they never had before.

 

 

And a short time later, I looked back in and saw this mess-

they got all the seed out and even stuffed them into the toilet!

Just to be able to re-arrange them again.

I am not worried, since I have seen this before and I know that come tomorrow morning, the toilet will be empty of seed again.

 

 

Has anyone seen this weird behaviour with their granivorous ants before?

Edited by Ernteameise, April 24 2023 - 2:08 PM.

[Ernteameise]

Update-

as predicted, the toilet is now empty of seed and used again for toilet purposes.

However, some of the seed are now stashed in between the decorative rocks in the arena and very closely guarded.

 

 

I also can say that my experiment of feeding large grain seed did not succeed and the Messors took all other seed and left the grain

 

 

In other news, I got some liver pate for myself for dinner tonight and thought I share and it proved to be quite popular

 

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

I have not offered a mixed seed variety like that.
I have several single type seeds, and offer them something different rationally. Or at least i did until they got hooked on chia seed crack.
Once i gave them black chia seeds, they don't really want anything else any more. I have placed four piles of different seeds, chia, poppy, blue grass, dandelion. And only the black chia get touched any more.
 

I once poured some chia seeds ontop of where there were already poppy seeds. A day later the poppy seeds were still there untouched, while not one chia seed could be found in the outworld.
 

 

I have observed that they rotate the seed pile in their nest from top to bottom. Digging down to pull older seeds up and lay them on top. But i have not seen my Pogonomyrmex O. set to arranging seeds in any kind of way as you describe there.

 

lastly on the seeds stashed under the rocks.
pretty sure a lot of ants wind up not having a real distinction between what we see as nest and outworld.
From their smelling POV, it's a more homogeneous environment in the little enclosed no active wind outworlds we have.

mine too have a clearly defined trash location, but then also places in the outworld they are just stashing seeds as if it were the nest's larder.

So they like dandelion seeds still i guess, they get stashed in the outworld not the trash pile. But they were willing to drag the chia seeds a longer distance to get them back in the nest proper.
 

Edited by Full_Frontal_Yeti, April 25 2023 - 12:28 PM.

[Ernteameise]

I have not offered a mixed seed variety like that.
I have several single type seeds, and offer them something different rationally. Or at least i did until they got hooked on chia seed crack.
Once i gave them black chia seeds, they don't really want anything else any more. I have placed four piles of different seeds, chia, poppy, blue grass, dandelion. And only the black chia get touched any more.
 
I once poured some chia seeds ontop of where there were already poppy seeds. A day later the poppy seeds were still there untouched, while not one chia seed could be found in the outworld.
 
 
I have observed that they rotate the seed pile in their nest from top to bottom. Digging down to pull older seeds up and lay them on top. But i have not seen my Pogonomyrmex O. set to arranging seeds in any kind of way as you describe there.
 
lastly on the seeds stashed under the rocks.
pretty sure a lot of ants wind up not having a real distinction between what we see as nest and outworld.
From their smelling POV, it's a more homogeneous environment in the little enclosed no active wind outworlds we have.
mine too have a clearly defined trash location, but then also places in the outworld they are just stashing seeds as if it were the nest's larder.
So they like dandelion seeds still i guess, they get stashed in the outworld not the trash pile. But they were willing to drag the chia seeds a longer distance to get them back in the nest proper.

These are some spoilt ants!
I feed the mixed seed because that is how I bought them... and in nature, different seed will be available also.
I need to try chia seed, though!
Thank you for sharing your observations, This is very interesting,

[Ernteameise]

Finally the weekend and some time to watch the girls a bit more closely.

Today, my ants got a nice breakfast of some small bit of apple, a few chia seed and boiled chicken.

 

 

For the Messors, I also got a corn puff "crocodile"- these are for little kids and have no salt or spices on them, they are just plain corn puffs (my friends and I had a games night last night and these came up and I just brought one for my Messors. It is said that they also seem to like popcorn and this is similar).

However, so far, I have to say that there has been no interest whatsoever.

 

77

 

Since I have seen that some people on this forum feed chia seed to their harvester ants, I thought I could try these also with my Messors.

Yes, there is definitely some interest there, but I could not observe the addictive run on chia seed that other people were describing.

Ant colonies really seem to show different tastes in things.

This probably helps with competition out in nature, everyone has a slightly different taste and can exploit slightly different things.

 

 

 

 

 

The Messors completely ignored the piece of apple (so far) but showed some interest in the boiled chicken.

It was however not the overwhelming approval that the liver pate got last week.

 

 

 

As for the colony itself-

I got some nice big larvae in there and also some beautiful huge majors. However, these majors do not seem to leave the nest. I hardly ever see them outside, I only see them using the toilet on occasion.

 

 

Edited by Ernteameise, April 29 2023 - 4:12 AM.

[Ernteameise]

Update:

Well, who would have thought.... I did not expect the Messors, who so far were no fans of sweet things, to like the apple, but turns out they like apple as much as the chicken!

 

[Ernteameise]

It is official-

I can attest that the marrow of chicken bones is a success.

The girls would like to thank ANTdrew for the recommendation! 

 

[Ernteameise]

Since chicken bones appear to be a success, I decided to smash the leftovers and freeze the bits, so I have some treats which I can feed every now and then.

 

 

[Ernteameise]

Weekly colony update-

not much has happened.

However, there are a couple of absolutely huge larva in the chamber with the queen (chamber middle left). Probably another set of these huge majors which barely leave the nest? I by now suspect their sole reason of existence is chewing up seed (and dragging in pieces of ham when available).

 

[Ernteameise]

Egg is always a success with these girls (as soon as I drop it in, they come along)

 

 

They are also completely timid and not aggressive, always prefer to run away instead of fighting. But they are quite pretty- all the shiny smooth black

 

[Ernteameise]

With Messors, the eyes are ALWAYS bigger than the stomach (or the carrying capacity).

"I just take the whole thing, thank you very much."

 

 

 

They are so funny, trying to handle food items that are well above what they can manage and then they and up dragging the thing in circles.

Love them to bits.

[T.C.]

What are you feeding them?

[Ernteameise]

What are you feeding them?

I feed them a very diverse seed mix, which is a mix of the seed the Antstore sells, chia and quinoa seed and some bird seed.

I also feed them the slurry foods from Antstore (I bought the packet, and it also has these powders with sugary foods and insect-protein which looks very much like the insectivore mix for birds; these powders you mix with some water).

As other protein sources, they get egg, steak, chicken (bones and meat) and they absolutely go bonkers for liver pate and ham.

I tried feeding them ant nectar, but they only drink that occasionally, and so I stopped with that, Messor are just not the target audience for ant nectar.

 

I am not a big fan of live insects- I am much too afraid to introduce parasitic mites, in addition, I do have a very small flat and just do not want feeder insects in here and the suggestion to buy feeder insects and then store them in the freezer and then boil before feeding- I get a much faster and easier result by just offering boiled egg and chicken when I cook for myself.

[Ernteameise]

Last night, one of the large majors had left the safety of the nest and was active in the arena. The majors rarely leave the nest.

So I took the opportunity of gently picking her up and taking some pictures with her.

She was not aggressive at all and did not think of biting at all (she was more interested of getting back down to her sisters). After a few minutes, I put her back down.

But she surely is very pretty.

I love these Messor ants- they are gentle, show interesting behavior, are very active and are also very easy to care for. It is no surprise this species is recommended as THE beginner species next to Lasius niger here in Europe.

Personally, I think it was a very good decision and a gift to myself that I decided to get back into ant keeping in February and that I started out with these girls. It is a joy watching all this.

 

 

 

 

 

The colony is doing well, they continue to love their acrylic nest and live in there, tightly packed, and also store their most valuable seeds in there.

What I have noticed-

there are also some fecal smears in the seed chamber- I wonder if this some kind of territorial claim? Marking what is theirs? "Hands of these seeds, they are ours!"

 

 

[ANTdrew]

I would love to keep these ants, Lasius niger, too.