27 replies to this topic

[Works4TheGood]

Just wait probably by next year you'll wish they were too scared to venture out .

 

When I first got into ant-keeping in late July, I was outrageously enthusiastic about the whole endeavor.  I simply hadn't realized yet just how much patience this hobby requires.  Just take a look at the process:  When you first catch queens, they're supposed to remain dark and undisturbed for several boring weeks.  Then, when you can finally peek at them, they boringly sit by their boring brood for a few boring months.  Then, when the first nanitics appear, they're all utterly terrified of leaving the nest for months.  Now, I'm preparing my boring colonies for an even more boring hibernation.  Totally anti-climactic!  I just wanna fast forward to the point where I have an enormous colony that can sting an attacking bear to death or devour an entire deer carcass in mere minutes!

[Okeedoke22]

 

Why not just have top to outworld with a mesh screen?

 

All of my foraging areas have lids as well as barriers.  The lid keeps my cats out, and keeps in any ants who get over the barrier.

Why have a barrier at all?  If you have a colony with 500 workers, you will have at least 50+ on the lid.  Pretty hard to open without escapees, bites, or stings.

 

Perfect Explanation.  I think my plan will be just change fluon barrier every 6 months. Obviously check on it just in case it stops being effective earlier than that..  Since cleaning is easier at that point it seems like a win win.  I will take William advice and go with the byformica fluon. 

[dspdrew]

 

Just wait probably by next year you'll wish they were too scared to venture out .

 

When I first got into ant-keeping in late July, I was outrageously enthusiastic about the whole endeavor.  I simply hadn't realized yet just how much patience this hobby requires.  Just take a look at the process:  When you first catch queens, they're supposed to remain dark and undisturbed for several boring weeks.  Then, when you can finally peek at them, they boringly sit by their boring brood for a few boring months.  Then, when the first nantics appear, they're all utterly terrified of leaving the nest for months.  Now, I'm preparing my boring colonies for an even more boring hibernation.  Totally anti-climactic!  I just wanna fast forward to the point where I have an enormous colony that can sting an attacking bear to death or devour an entire deer carcass in mere minutes!

 

 

Ant colonies are definitely a LOT more interesting to watch when they are large. New colonies are kind of like a new born baby; they just sort of sit there and don't really do anything that's all that interesting.

[Vendayn]

I've used olive oil (and other cooking oils, but olive oil seems just a bit better for some reason) with great success. Right now, I have an ant colony that I applied a very thick layer of olive oil on (enough to drip when applied) and they have been there for over 3 months now. Haven't had to reapply it and they haven't been able to cross it at all. I had some initial workers get stuck on it, but after a week they stopped trying to cross it. Now they get to the barrier and then go back to "ground".

 

Fluon I also have great success with, but it didn't work for my Monomorium ergatogyna. Maybe it was the container I used, but they kept finding little dust particles to cross over...they are a very tiny ant that is already an amazing escape artist as it is. I could have applied it not as good, but my other ants don't cross fluon. Don't know. I keep them in the garage and there is a ton of dust and paint particles, plus very dry and lots of static.

 

Olive oil however has worked for all my ants, it just needs a thick application. I tried a thinner approach, but it dries out quick. A thick application of it, and four months later, still as good as ever. Just expect some workers to get stuck on it for the first week or less, till they learn not to cross it.

[BrittonLS]

 

Just wait probably by next year you'll wish they were too scared to venture out .

 

When I first got into ant-keeping in late July, I was outrageously enthusiastic about the whole endeavor.  I simply hadn't realized yet just how much patience this hobby requires.  Just take a look at the process:  When you first catch queens, they're supposed to remain dark and undisturbed for several boring weeks.  Then, when you can finally peek at them, they boringly sit by their boring brood for a few boring months.  Then, when the first nanitics appear, they're all utterly terrified of leaving the nest for months.  Now, I'm preparing my boring colonies for an even more boring hibernation.  Totally anti-climactic!  I just wanna fast forward to the point where I have an enormous colony that can sting an attacking bear to death or devour an entire deer carcass in mere minutes!

 

You read my mind. 

 

And yeah, the two species I've tried to put in outworlds, Pheidole and Brachymyrmex, both with around 20 workers, never even tried to climb the walls. It was apparently inconceivable to them. 

[antmaniac]

 

Just wait probably by next year you'll wish they were too scared to venture out .

 

When I first got into ant-keeping in late July, I was outrageously enthusiastic about the whole endeavor.  I simply hadn't realized yet just how much patience this hobby requires.  Just take a look at the process:  When you first catch queens, they're supposed to remain dark and undisturbed for several boring weeks.  Then, when you can finally peek at them, they boringly sit by their boring brood for a few boring months.  Then, when the first nanitics appear, they're all utterly terrified of leaving the nest for months.  Now, I'm preparing my boring colonies for an even more boring hibernation.  Totally anti-climactic!  I just wanna fast forward to the point where I have an enormous colony that can sting an attacking bear to death or devour an entire deer carcass in mere minutes!

 

I think you have discovered the most important essential crucial critical aspect of ant keeping...patience! On a side note, the ants outside has a lot more than you think under ground than on the surface, try drop a piece of oily raw meat and they will swarm out, stuck in oil and drown in hundreds. True story

[Works4TheGood]

 

 

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... try drop a piece of oily raw meat and they will swarm out, stuck in oil and drown in hundreds. True story

 

 

LOL!!!  I think it was the twitching emoticon!

 

On a more serious note, do you suppose that that's why ants sometimes cover food items up rather than take it back to their nest?  As a young childe, I once saw a colony do that with some peanut butter that I had laid out for them and I always wondered why.

[antmaniac]

Could be, but also they may be aiming to preserve the food or dry it to avoid the mould. In a documentary I watched, the ants use this method to transfer food or kill the slug.