38 replies to this topic

[Alza]

unlike you i actually have people who don't like heat in my house. Thus we bought air conditioning. its 65 degrees in my house at all times. Heating cables are actually needed. every house near mine comes with an air condition, did yours not ? And if you can't keep your ants away from the outside heat, like when it was 117 degrees then your ants will die off.

 

Also acting smart isn't the right word, maybe being smart ?

Edited by Alza, September 23 2014 - 4:31 PM.

[Gregory2455]

Being a smartass without knowing the actual facts of my ants living conditions and my house.

[Gregory2455]

Or is the correct word just "troll"?

[DesertAntz]

JERRY! JERRY! JERRY! 

 

You two are like mountain goats. 

[Gregory2455]

It bugs me when he HAS to make a correction even if his point is wrong, irrelevant, or he knows nothing of the subject. 

[dspdrew]

unlike you i actually have people who dont like heat in my house. Thus we bought air conditioning. its 65 degrees in my house at all times. Heating cables are actually needed. every house near mine comes with an air condition, did yours not ? And if you cant keep your ants away from the outside heat, like when it was 117 degrees then your ants will die off.

 

Also acting smart isnt the right word, maybe being smart ?

You keep your house at 65 degrees?!? That's colder than data centers and server rooms are kept at. That would take some serious electricity usage. Not all houses or apartments have air conditioners.

[Crystals]

65F = 18C.

The basement in our house is always that cold, but I do live in northern Canada and it was designed that way to reduce heating bills.

 

Our server rooms sit around 14C (57F).

[dspdrew]

Wow, that's pretty cold. The average is about 67F or so.

[Gregory2455]

Yeesh that's cold, I have an AC in my house, just nowhere near where I keep my ants.

[Gregory2455]

Q-Tips for handling brood!!! I always use q-tips to move brood around, it doesn't crush those delicate little guys.

[DesertAntz]

Q-Tips for handling brood!!! I always use q-tips to move brood around, it doesn't crush those delicate little guys.

Do you dampen the ends at all or just leave them dry? 

[Gregory2455]

Dry, you do not want them to stick to it.

[Crystals]

I use featherweight forceps, or toothpicks for smaller brood.  I could never get the brood off of the Q-tip unless I trimmed it a lot.

[Gregory2455]

I do not thing I have lots of problems... 

[dspdrew]

Yeah, like Crystal said, toothpicks would be good. I use a barbeque skewer. The reason why wood works well, is because the water soaks in and makes it damp. On plastic or metal, it would just bead up and then wipe off and dry too quick. Anything soft or fuzzy would be a problem because really tiny brood will end up getting stuck in it, and you would have a hard time seeing them, or getting them out without doing damage. I twist the skewer in the opposite direction that it would roll for the direction I am swiping in; this keeps pushing the brood out from underneath it as you swipe, so they don't end up smashed. When placing them into the new tube, I just reverse the movements. I can move the tiniest eggs very quickly this way without smashing any of them.

[Gregory2455]

16 x 150 Millimeter Test Tubes are the standard size of test tube that I use.

[AntsAreUs]

1. test tubes that are not too big

2. some sort of protein, can easily be found at pet store (mealworm, superworms, fruit flies, crickets, ect.)

3. waxpaper and scissors for clean feeding inside test tubes

4. plastic containers if you plan on keeping larger colonies, might want to get fluon (insect-a-slip)

5. a dropper with some sugary liquid

6. cotton for the test tube setup

7. optional: tin foil to cover the test tubes for darkness (makes them feel safer in the beginning)

8. carefulness! but don't overcare them (don't feed them too much enless they have an outworld) and don't give them too much nest space

[AntsAreUs]

Optional for max care:

 

1. a nest (if you can't make a nest you can put a bunch of test tubes in a conainer)

2. naturalness (substrate in the nest/ outworld, or if you don't really care about watching them just have a container of soil for them to dig in)

3. colored glass/plastic or a colored mat over the glass/plastic

4. liquid feeders

5. breeding your feeders for really large colonies (which I do)

[Gregory2455]

3. colored glass/plastic or a colored mat over the glass/plastic

It specifically needs to be red.