103 replies to this topic

[Ernteameise]

Hello Ernteameise;

I’ll get some from my sister-in-law….she’s cat crazy!
RPT

I have a sister like that.... but with here, it is horses.... not much ant food to be had, there....

[Ernteameise]

Oh wow- look at all these new eggs and larvae! Whole piles of them!

How do you make them stop????

 

 

 

As for the "wild" colony on the balcony....

it literally takes just 5 minutes after I offered some food to have a whole massive swarm devouring the offering.

 

[Ernteameise]

So while all my other pet ants are ignoring the fish food (Gel food Tetra Delica), the "wild" girls on my Balcony are going crazy for it.

 

[Ernteameise]

Chicken is always a success

 

 

[Ernteameise]

Many of those pupae I showed earlier have now become workers, so the colony is growing steadily.

And they continue to have a large pile of eggs.

They are also very hungry.

 

 

[Ernteameise]

Yesterday, I fed some large crickets to my Messor barbarus colony.

However, this morning, they had dragged one of these crickets onto the garbage pile.

I thought this was a bit of a waste.

So instead of throwing it away, I gave this cricket to my outside Lasius colony.

And they were all over it, swarming it in minutes.

Waste not want not.

 

[Ernteameise]

I moved the small inside Lasius colony to the bifurcated mini-hearth, since they still have some growing to do.

It went surprisingly fast and clean and without any hassle- I just shone light on them and they went into the darkened new home.

They have tons of brood, so they might probably fill out this nest in a few months time.

 

 

They have also stored some trash on the upper level (in the normal mini hearth, they also did that) but I hope this won't be a problem and will solve itself when the colony grows bigger.

Cleaning a running nest with some extremely fast small ants is certainly not an option.

 

[Ernteameise]

Massive new egg pile!

(right side of the picture, atop the pile of cocoons).

 

 

Also, boiled turkey meat is also accepted.

 

[Ernteameise]

The Lasius in the Mini Hearth continue to do very well.

Amazing growth with lots of eggs and cocoons.

They also eat anything and they are the most clean and organized ants, concerning their rubbish disposal, that I keep.

In the small outworld of the mini hearth, they have one corner where they dump their trash, so I can clean it up fast and without a hassle.

They do however also use one corner of the nest as rubbish dump, but I hope that clears up when they grow further.

 

 

[GOCAMPONOTUS]

Eggs and cocoons galore!

Edited by GOCAMPONOTUS, June 2 2024 - 6:09 AM.

[Ernteameise]

The Lasius niger continue to explode, and they also have become messy with food leftovers and trash piling up in the nest. I hope this improves when the colony becomes bigger.

They are however very well behaved up top- they have a neat little trash corner where they stash all their cocoon shells and it is easy to clean.

Just the inside of the nest is the issue.

 

[Ernteameise]

Very active and fast growing little colony.

There is always something going on.

No surprise that this is one of the top popular beginner species in Europe.

And yes, I am aware that they drag food into the nest, but at least they are very well behaved and pile their trash into two neat piles up top which are very easy to clean.

 

 

[Ernteameise]

So I keep talking about it, but have not shown photographic proof.

Here are some pictures of the cleanliness and trash behaviour of 3 of my species.

All species were fed one tiny locust yesterday afternoon, this is how it looks today:

 

Lasius niger is very tidy and arranges the trash in neat piles up top which are easy to clean.

 

 

Camponotus piceus is a cryptic species and they are like ninjas, they even cut their cocoon shells up into tiny pieces so they leave no trace. It looks pretty sterile.

 

 

And Camponotus lateralis are trash queens, they throw everything around willy-nilly, without rhyme nor reason and it is just a big mess:

 

[Ernteameise]

Today I bought some large locusts at the pet store, and all of my girls got to share.

For my smaller colonies, I copped the locusts up to provide smaller pieces.

 

 

And the colony is still not done growing!!!

Look at that pile of cocoons and eggs!

However, it only looks as if the nest is full.

They have just piled everything next to the glass.

As you can see further back, there is empty space in the nest where they have dumped their food leftovers.

 

 

Looking at all this brood I am VERY tempted to remove some and use it as food for my betta fish....

Edited by Ernteameise, July 13 2024 - 12:05 PM.

[ANTdrew]

Your betta would probably like Tetramorium brood more. You’ll have plenty of that soon, too!

[Ernteameise]

These girls are showing real explosive growth.

So I actually did what I had been thinking about for a while-

what about taking some of that brood and see if my betta fish likes it?

 

Look at all that brood, piled against the glass:

 

 

 

I just slid the glass to the right and took some of the brood on the left side.

Workers came out in defense, and I used a soft brush to put them back inside.

I did this as quickly and hopefully with the least stress possible.

 

 

This worked very well.

 

Plus- my betta LOVED the brood.

He basically breathed it in.

No dance around, no spitting out (he can be fussy), he really liked it.

So this is actually a good way to control the population of the colony as well as having good quality live food for the betta.

And yes, writing this on an ant forum is a sacrilege and I am sure NOT posting this on Facebook since this will make me an animal abuser

(although the same people might actually chide me in a Facebook betta group because I do not always feed live foods, which also makes me an animal abuser. Talk about double standards).

[Ernteameise]

These girls are very active and growing with speed.

And they swarm their food as soon as I put it in.

 

 

Despite me taking out some pupa as fish food, it does not seem I made a huge dent in the population

 

[Ernteameise]

Well, people are often asking me what happens if ants escape.

Well, today I had a mishap while cleaning and feeding, but luckily, I have employed a clean-up crew that keeps escapees in check.

 

 

(I leave the spiders, just vacuum away their waste; I am not afraid of spiders and this is a great biological pest control)

[ANTdrew]

RIP Lasius.

[Ernteameise]

RIP Lasius.

The colony is still doing fine, by the way, it is just some of the escapees that were eaten.

I would have loved to catch them myself with a brush, and I did some, however, these ants are so small and FAST, I never stood a chance of catching all of them.

It is much easier to catch my bigger, slower ants.