8 replies to this topic

[luccat82]

Hi,

 

I live in Brisbane, Australia and have recently started keeping Bullants. Currently I have a M. pilosula queen with 1 worker and a few larvae and will be getting a M. gulosa queen relatively soon.

Considering that they're native ants to us and especially M. gulosa to the this region in particular, I was wondering if I should be considering a heater to keep them or if they should be fine without one?

Thanks in advance.

 

Luciano

[Flu1d]

A heating cable is typically good for an ant colony because weather can change as far as temperature, and having a gradient for your ants to fumble around with and find a good spot for themselves is always good.

I don't know about your species in particular, but a lot of ants thrive with some heat, and use it to accelerate the growth of their brood and can usually use the gradient to position their brood in favorable spots.

[Artisan_Ants]

Yeah; like what Flu1d stated. Heat cables can increase the activity of your colony, and boost the development of your eggs to worker (I’m pretty sure it takes typically 5-7 months on average for bull ants to found from the egg to worker which is very slow) but could be even faster with a heat cable. Good luck!

[luccat82]

Sweet, thanks guys. I may do that in the colder months then.

[Flu1d]

Sweet, thanks guys. I may do that in the colder months then.

A lot of ants could technically benefit from a heat gradient in the warmer months as well. Just make sure it's not in a place where they can't get away from it if they need to. I like to drape mine over one side of the nest so they can either be right by it, or go all the way to the other side if they don't like it.

Sometimes they'll only keep brood by it, to accelerate their growth.

Just be mindful, if your ants look like they don't really like it and are avoiding it, you can take it off. From my experience, however, they are usually at the halfway point or directly at the heat cable. Some species like less heat, some want more. I haven't found one that doesn't like it at all, though.

For test tubes, I typically just run it horizontally across the front of the tube, right before or right over the cotton. For species that want more heat, I run it across more toward the center of the founding chamber part of the tube.

Just play around with it and see

(Again, just be sure to be mindful and not to cook your ants! 15w heating cables are the standard, don't get anything that puts out more than that!)

[rptraut]

Hello luccat82;

With many of my colonies it seems that queens with eggs and very young larvae prefer (require) cooler temperatures than larger larvae and pupae. I’ve accidentally overheated founding colonies twice. Only the queens died. I often wonder when someone reports the mysterious death of only the queen in a colony, if overheating her might have been the cause.
RPT

[luccat82]

Thanks, on that note I may get a 15watt cable to experiment. I keep my bullants in a test tube setup that leads to an outworld through tubing

Currently the temps in the room go from 25C (77F) during the day to around 21C (70F) at night

Cheers!

Edited by luccat82, March 27 2024 - 8:01 PM.

[Flu1d]

Hello luccat82;

With many of my colonies it seems that queens with eggs and very young larvae prefer (require) cooler temperatures than larger larvae and pupae. I’ve accidentally overheated founding colonies twice. Only the queens died. I often wonder when someone reports the mysterious death of only the queen in a colony, if overheating her might have been the cause.
RPT

I live in Florida and the ants here may like heat more, because even our smaller species tend to stay near the heat. That being said, it is typically the workers more often than not carrying the brood to the cable and holding it up at the top to be as close to the heat as possible, while the queen is usually taking care of whatever she is doing closer to the humid areas.. so what you're saying makes sense. I notice the Camponotus try to stay a little further from the heat than my Pheidole/Solenopsis species do.

Edited by Flu1d, March 27 2024 - 2:11 PM.

[Mushu]

Hello luccat82;

With many of my colonies it seems that queens with eggs and very young larvae prefer (require) cooler temperatures than larger larvae and pupae. I’ve accidentally overheated founding colonies twice. Only the queens died. I often wonder when someone reports the mysterious death of only the queen in a colony, if overheating her might have been the cause.
RPT

Interesting, so the queens had workers and overheating, only the queen died? That is my hypothesis for why my buddies queen may have just randomly died, it was doing great otherwise. Most queens do seem to prefer mildly warm and humid areas of the nest.  What temperature did it get up to if I may ask?