My Ant Farm (Nature at work) *56k warning*

[Legin76]

Got my ants today (Cheers Famished), what a hassle getting them all into the container without them climbing out. I'm sure famished gave me his trouble makers, a few got out through the air holes, buggers!

Is it safe to block them up until they start digging? Do they need complete darkness or just not sat next to the window? Any tips on how to get them digging faster?

I'd suggest covering the top only so they go down into your holes to get closer to where the light is comming from.

I didn't cover mine but they started digging with-in a few hours. But my coverin the top does get more ants down their and more work done.

[Furton]

Result, two have started digging, it's about 2cm deep atm, but they've ignored the holes I made for them and started a fresh one, the rest are still bunched up in the corner sitting on the eggs? Maybe they think there birds?

[Nick F]

My ants have spent a lot more time at the top of the antworks now they have made a few interconnecting tunnels, they are also starting to climb the walls. I just wish they would start digging towards the bottom more, I might add a few more tunnels to get them going later tonight.

[da.Guvna]

Mine are really starting to make progress since I killed half of them off (ironically). I *think* it might be to do with the fact I gummed up the corners of the lid with vaseline. They can't get to the rubber seal to chew it off anymore, so I guess they put all their effort into digging! ALL my tunnels are heading towards the window light, but I don't actually mind because it's neat seeing them run along the tunnels unobstructed

[Legin76]

I rotate mine regularly!

[da.Guvna]

Ooooh, matron!

[Furton]

Also, someone explain this post it note thing for me, I've got one who keeps trying to get out, can't find the original post for it

[Nick F]

Just use a bit of tape to cover the air holes for the first few days, after that you wont need to bother.

[Legin76]

Oh yes you do! mine have been in their for a week and still get out if I take the covers off.

[tommylittleboy@]

This is so Cool, might buy one myself! Personally this is the longest thread I have seen for a while, well done Famished

[Legin76]

Ok my new camera has arrived... I take 1 picture and they all decide to stay on top and do not want to go into the tunnels even if I put my cover on.

I've only taken one worthwhile picture of them so far.



This is a cropped version of the image above. I have not resized it in any way. Just cropped the original and saved it as an 80% quality jpg.



Just in case you are wondering the camera is a Nikon Coolpix 5900. Once I've played with it a little longer I'll post a review.

[Nick F]

Notice the difference in colour and size between mine and yours? I am guessing your tunnel system will be alot more structured than mine very quickly.

[Legin76]

Only more structured in that it goes towards the light.

[muddyfox470]

Wow i am so impressed by these little blighters!

I put them in at about 5pm today, they seperated into 2 groups (15 ants in total) and there was a group of 4ish and the other 11 all jumped on top of each other!

While trying to load them into the Antworks they kept on climbing the wall which i thought was brilliant, although slightly annoying as i kept on having to flick them back into the case, and put the lid on without squashing any of them.

For a few hours they just rested in their corners, and then i saw one ant, investigating one of my premade tunnels, and then she wouldnt stop scrurring around on the surface. Then i looked a bit later and then i saw a group of 3 ants, one of them i couldnt see her move, so i guessed she had died, and it looked like the other 2 were just nursing or enbalming her. So i took the thing outside along with the small film case thing (that the ants came in) to go and take her out, but after the journey downstairs they all sprung 2 life. So i was quite releaved.

Anyway i decided to empty the contents of that ant container (that looks like a camera film case!) and found another lava(e), so i was pleased, so i put that in the antworks. So i now have 3 lavae in my antworks YAY.

It was funny seeing the ants moving these lavae about, and eventually they stacked them up in a small little pyramid, which i thought was cool. They have now all resided back to their 2 opposing corners, with a few wanderers exporing their new environment. I don't think they have found out they can eat the gel yet though.

However another ant did go down into one of the vertical holes for sometime, i don't know whether she was enlarging the whole, or attempting to remove a bit of dirt that must have fallen into the tunnel, when i initially emptied all the ants! After quite a few minutes she came back to the surface and they are just on the top on top of each other, with the lavae near by.

Cheers Famished, i am well pleased with this, however your webcam link doesnt seem to be correct?!

Anyway i will try and get some decent fotos of my ants if you really want, when we can find the family digi cam, its only a cheap pentax 3.2mp one mind tho! But we shall see

Laters all

Ian

[Legin76]

Well they have been working hard over the last day or two. There are now between 7 and 12 ants in the tunnels most of the time.

2 tunnels at the back of the antworks that have joined together.



Also at the back. This is the biggest tunnel at the back I think its also the largest diameter tunnel currently in it. It often has 3 or 4 ants working in it at once when it's to the front.



Both the tunnels shown above again.



Again from the back. You can see the deepest tunnel on the left which was untouched untill I made it deeper using the end of a cotton bud with the cotton removed. They have acutally made it a little deeper still. When I first made it they had a habbit of falling all the way down as the sides were very smooth but they seem to have roughened off I guess as they walk down or nibble away at it.



Front. You can see the longest tunnel accross the middle. The ant on the right hand side of it is dead and has been there for about 3 days. I though they were supposed to take the dead out. There is another one somewhere too.



Sorry if there are too many images the same but I have the new camera. You should see the other 20.

[Nick F]

As you can see my ants are loads smaller than yours, they spend agaes in the tunnels until you put them in the sunlight.

Sorry about the image quaility of this shot.