Post by Deleted on May 9, 2012 0:55:10 GMT 1
Greetings all.
I have recently bought a Messor Barbarus colony. They number about 20 workers and a queen.
I have attempted to keep Messor twice beforehand and they both ended in eventual failure. The first time I believed to be down to something i'd done wrong, as the queen died, workers after a period of time followed.
The second time I had much better success the colony reached around 50 workers and then again, the queen died and the workers followed afterwards over a period time.
Is it something common in Messor that the queen out of the blue dies? To describe my set up, I had made a plaster of paris/ytong nest and had the now popular flat design with tunnels and a glass top etc...which I made myself. The nest had a water reservoir and they were fed seeds and the occassional cricket.
The workers on both occassions seemed perfectly healthy. But one day I would wake up and find the queen acting strangely then eventually dying...
I would very much like to prevent this from happening again. My new and current set up is different; It is now a plastic container with a gauze (excuse spelling) filled with about a 2 inch layer of loam/sand with a test tube attached with the standard cotton wool bung holding water and a small square plastic box lined with cotton wool and water acting as a reservoir.
The ants quickly started excavating and now the queen and majority of the colony reside in a chamber they dug themselves. They are still excavating as I type and a second tunnel is being excavted on the opposite side of the container.
Now excuse my blabbering on but a few things concern me; I haven't as of yet seen any ant carrying a seed. When i've had this species before, the seeds i put in were quickly collected but now appear to just be ignored...
Another is about heating, i've read various forums and articles saying you can heat them using a heat mat but i am unsure. Any adivce on this would be appreciated!
Now if you've managed to reach this far, hopefully you have.... Any adivce or past experience that can help me on anything mentioned in the above, it is most appreciated. Feedback on my set up or specific things right or wrong about it please feel free to say so. If we aren't critisized how are we to improve?
Thank you for reading! ;D
I have recently bought a Messor Barbarus colony. They number about 20 workers and a queen.
I have attempted to keep Messor twice beforehand and they both ended in eventual failure. The first time I believed to be down to something i'd done wrong, as the queen died, workers after a period of time followed.
The second time I had much better success the colony reached around 50 workers and then again, the queen died and the workers followed afterwards over a period time.
Is it something common in Messor that the queen out of the blue dies? To describe my set up, I had made a plaster of paris/ytong nest and had the now popular flat design with tunnels and a glass top etc...which I made myself. The nest had a water reservoir and they were fed seeds and the occassional cricket.
The workers on both occassions seemed perfectly healthy. But one day I would wake up and find the queen acting strangely then eventually dying...
I would very much like to prevent this from happening again. My new and current set up is different; It is now a plastic container with a gauze (excuse spelling) filled with about a 2 inch layer of loam/sand with a test tube attached with the standard cotton wool bung holding water and a small square plastic box lined with cotton wool and water acting as a reservoir.
The ants quickly started excavating and now the queen and majority of the colony reside in a chamber they dug themselves. They are still excavating as I type and a second tunnel is being excavted on the opposite side of the container.
Now excuse my blabbering on but a few things concern me; I haven't as of yet seen any ant carrying a seed. When i've had this species before, the seeds i put in were quickly collected but now appear to just be ignored...
Another is about heating, i've read various forums and articles saying you can heat them using a heat mat but i am unsure. Any adivce on this would be appreciated!
Now if you've managed to reach this far, hopefully you have.... Any adivce or past experience that can help me on anything mentioned in the above, it is most appreciated. Feedback on my set up or specific things right or wrong about it please feel free to say so. If we aren't critisized how are we to improve?
Thank you for reading! ;D