A week has passed since I got the colony, so it is time to write.
I have not looked after an Ant colony before, so it is my first. I thought it would be interesting for all the family (with two gradeschoolers) so we give it a go.
I did not know much about the differences between Ant species, so I checked the information and Messor barbarus seemed both interesting and easy to take care of. I have purchased the AntCube's starter kit with a Messor barbarus colony (~20 workers).
I have quickly setup the kit following the AntCube's instruction video, effectively connecting the outworld/arena to the seed storage nest and the seed storage nest to the actual nest, putting on the Fluon as well as water and food, and finally the test tube containing the colony onto the arena.
I could not put each structure (the arena and the two nests) next to each other like in the instruction video due to space limitation so the hose from the arena to the seed storage nest became a bit too steep/vertical than I would want.
Following 4 days, only a few workers have explored the nests and the colony was mostly staying in the test tube. It did not look like they want to move soon. Meanwhile I tried a few types of foods.
After 4 days, I decided to change the shape of the hose connecting the arena to the seed storage nest. I made a change to decrease the steepness of the hose. Also, in this night, I let a not so strong light powered on over the arena (thus over the test tube) to motivate them to move.
I also realized the analog thermometer and hygrometer that came with the kit is not quite accurate, so I removed them and attached a wireless sensor in their location.
The next morning, the colony were already emptied the test tube and started to dig in two places in the actual nest. Following the instructions, I had kept the seed storage nest dry but added water to the actual nest when setting it up, so it was more humid, and the colony already selected this nest. They kept the brood usually in the shallow hole (and sometimes outside), but workers continue to dig the other hole. The kit came with two red (thin plastic) filters to be used in front of the nests, to block the non-red light and imitate darkness. I guess it works, both holes are dig on the red filter side and not visible from the other side. The nests contain a material called digfix, not sure exactly what it is.
Following days until now they continued digging one hole, caring the brood mostly in the other hole, foraging in the arena and carrying sand or small stones particularly to the entrance of the hose I believe to cover or hide the entrance to the nest. I see I believe one pupa and a few larvae.
One issue I was not sure was cleaning/vacuuming. As I saw/read in one post, I tried holding a small diameter hose in front of a hand vacuum cleaner and vacuumed the arena. It was pretty simple and effective.
Other issue I was wondering is how I can add water to the actual nest when it starts to dry. Once I tried to add some drops from the top where there were no ants, but they got alarmed very strongly (I guess mostly because I caused vibration). I believe I need to use the side hole as shown in the instruction video. I did not try it yet.
Just to make it a bit more like natural environment and maybe to prevent mold, I decided to try forced ventilation/installing a fan (AntCube also has such a product). I 3D printed a basic 40mm to 50mm adapter and installed a small 40mm fan on one of the holes over the arena cover. It seems to be working fine and ants do not show any reaction to it. The fan is working at the lowest setting, hardly audible and blowing the air from the arena to the room.
A few general observations:
- Having no major workers I believe, they definitely only take easier to eat/carry small/soft seeds. Hemp seed (hulled, for human consumption) and amaranth was a success, chia, sesame etc. was not.
- They definitely like fruit flies (I catched a few and boiled), but not much the cricket jam which came with the kit. They did like the dry protein (powder) that came with the kit. They also liked both the white and the yellow parts of a boiled chicken egg.
- They do not like sugar-water, honey-water or jam. They also very rarely go to the water reservoir (sponge). They ate banana mash once, but not the other time.
- They do not seem to care sound (not so loud but they are in the living room, so all the usual noise/tv/music etc.).
- They are staying ~2m inside from the north looking window, so just the indirect daylight is coming. I also have a low power LED light over the arena, which is on all the day (not the night). If I take the red filter out to see the nests, they also do not react, so I think they are not very sensitive to light in this regard.
- They are sensitive (or very sensitive) to vibration. It is OK to touch the shelf or put something lightly. However, if the shelf is tapped hard with finger etc. or the red filter (plastic) lightly hits the glass, they immediately alarm.
I bought a Pentax Papillo II binoculars some time ago for the kids to use in their trips. The unique thing with this binocular is it can focus to very close distance like 0.5m. So it happened to be a great observation device for the ants also.
Some photos:
