4 replies to this topic

[antmaniac]

I found an iPhone earphone case, then a thought come to my mind. This well made material could be useful as a formicarium, so here goes.

 

11/12/2016

I used a hot needle and melt a hole in the cover. Field tested and it was proven that the fattest worker can squeeze through the hole.

 

The colony was already too large to transfer easily at this point, therefore I calmed them down a bit by freeze them. Relocated or dumped them seems be relatively easy and smooth, didn't have enough time for a good photo before they woke up though.

 

Put the cover on, the colony woke up fine.

 

Completed the whole set up by adding a water source and this is how it all started...

Edited by antmaniac, February 11 2017 - 12:46 AM.

[antmaniac]

26/12/2016

This species loves meat, so I fed them some mosquitoes.

 

27/12/2016

At this point, the colony has already got used to this new formicarium.

 

5/1/2017

Food is relatively easy to obtain during summer time. In this occasion, a mosquito tried to bite me, but ended as dinner.

 

13/1/2017

The queen was hoarding her precious.

 

21/1/2017

As some parts of fruit flies and mosquitos are too big to fit through the entrance hole, the ants dumped them in the water source to soften them up. During this time, the workers actually relocated all the brood to the water source. The queen actually purposely slimmed down and the workers were encouraging her to abandon the overly dry formicarium.

 

5/2/2017

Clearly that didn't work out. They reverted back to delivering water from the water source and use queen as water storage. They also stored up on honey as food, perhaps this is like the condition in desert and these ants have adapted very well.

 

Lots brood so far, I think soon I can create a passage outside for them to fetch foods from wildness.

 

Edited by antmaniac, February 11 2017 - 12:43 AM.

[antmaniac]

18/2/2017

The colony was well fed with honey and fruit flies.

 

They are neat and tidy, made a small pile of rubbish dump in the corner. 

 

A worker is fetching water from the water source.

 

I made a video to show the overview of the setup.

[Nincadaguy]

that's a pretty cool way of using an earbud case

[antmaniac]

2/3/2017

By using the freeze technique again, I tried to put 4 new queens into this colony. But all of them got killed soon after.