Help Me Build My Dream Ant Form
You might remember reading about a situation on my plant stand where ants were collecting honeydew from scale insects that were living on my bonsai trees. The details are located here Rainforest Ecosystem on my Plant Stand by RPT - Ant Keeping Journals - Ants & Myrmecology Forum
Unfortunately, it seems the ants I saw were a few transients and there wasn't a colony living in the pot of a tree. I eventually had to spray the scale insects to avoid damage to my trees and when I repotted them there was no sign of any nest. I really wanted to design an Ant Form (formicarium), probably an all-in-one for display, that would highlight the "dairy cow" behaviour, but scale insects and bonsai trees aren't the easiest things to grow in something that would be suitable for ants, and more importantly, the visibility of the nest and brood. It would be easy to put soil in a container and plant something, but I want to have soil only around the outside of the container, probably only on one or two sides. I'll grow the plant in the same soil where the ants will nest. The soil would also have to be watered for the plants to grow and the ants will have to be able to survive that kind of wetting and drying. Scale insects and bonsai trees just didn't seem to be flexible enough for this kind of setup.
Aphids (Aphidoidea) on the other hand, would be the perfect insect for this kind of project. I often get them on my plants because of the warm, ideal growing conditions under the grow lights. Aphids love actively growing plants and I often see them on the Creeping Wood Sorrel (Oxalis corniculata) plants that I grow with my bonsai trees. Two weeks ago, I noticed an outbreak of aphids on a couple of my African Violets (Saintapaulia), so I positioned a potted sorrel plant nearby to attract them.
Creeping Wood Sorrel is an ideal plant for this type of symbiotic arrangement. Leaf and stem growth is fairly short while the plant also produces runners that are very actively growing and highly attractive to aphids. This plant will root all along the runners, wherever a node (the place along a runner where leaves and roots emerge) touches the soil, so it spreads quite easily. It's able to grow in shallow soil with variable moisture. All of these traits and their ability to feed aphids makes this an ideal plant.
Presently, I have the sorrel plants draped over the affected violets and some cut flowers with aphids inserted in the pot as well. Once enough of the aphids have transferred to the sorrel, I'll have to spray any aphids remaining on the violets with insecticidal soap or they'll seriously stunt my violets growth.
I have a few founding Lasius colonies that would probably do well in this type of setup. But founding colonies can be shy and I'm wondering if I should connect a larger Lasius colony and use the planting as an outworld. What do you think? Are Lasius the best ants to use in this setup?
I'll copy this post to RPT's Journal located here RPT's Journal - Ant Keeping Journals - Ants & Myrmecology Forum where I hope you'll post your suggestions, and I can post progress reports as this project develops.
I welcome your comments
RPT
