Betsy update

Betsy's colony seems to be doing extremely well. I gave them a couple of pieces of meal worm today and they went crazy within 15 minutes. This seems to be there favourite thing put of everything I offer them. I'm estimating she has about 25+ workers at this point.

Aggie's escapees...

I tend to have several escapees from both Aggie and Betsy's colonies at any given time. They always go back though! One of Aggies wasn't so lucky a week ago and perished on the piece of sticky tape that I had put over the holes to prevent (ha!) them escaping.

Anyway here are a couple of dodgy pics of them going back home again (note the dead worker I left there as a warning to the others :-P). The holes are only the size of a sewing needle.

Charlene has 3 workers now :-)

And they are all doing well. I gave them a tiny drop of protein/vitamin powder, maple syrup and water today. They were impressed :-)

I gave them a small drop of milk and honey the other day too (thanks for the suggestion Vasile), they seemed to enjoy it more than all of my other ants.

Some photos from the 17th February.


A worker drinking

Workers

And the lovely Charlene

Charlene is officially a Mummy!!

Finally!! It has been approximately 2 months since Charlene laid her first egg, and I was beginning to wonder if they were ever going to amount to anything.

Today I caught her first worker emerging on the camera which wasn't easy seeing as though she has kept walking up and down her tunnel and getting in my way, and also because I had to put my camera in the outworld to get a reasonable view of the happenings inside. So anyway as I took the lid off I noticed one of Aggie's workers had escaped again and decided to visit Charlene's outworld, so had to catch it first and return it to it's rightful home (and tape up more holes!).

This is Charlene on the 2/2/2012

11/2/2012 10.30am

10.30am

10.30am

10.30am Good view of Charlene's next worker - you can see it's eyes quite clearly in this picture

12.30pm

12.30pm

12.30pm

12.30pm

12.30pm

12.30pm

12.30pm

2.00pm Hooray, hello there little worker!

Aggie's Ant Family

Aggie (Nylanderia queen?)and her colony are still happily residing under the mouldy cotton wool ball... The colony seems to be increasing in size too - I don't like to bother them though so I cant be too sure of numbers. Today I put a small piece of banana and meal worm in their outworld and within one minute workers came to check it out. Here is the first lucky (hungry) worker.

Betsy's Ant Family

I haven't seen Betsy (Nylanderia queen, we think) since she moved into the ant farm on December 28 last year, but her little colony seems to be going very well! They have made several tunnels and eat lots of things, but mealworms are their favourite. There are lots of eggs and larvae hidden in the corner near where I let them in originally. It was hard to get a photo, but here is the best one I could get today.

Exciting!

Two cool things today!
Firstly, A has a worker or two with her in her test tube! And secondly I picked up B in her jar, and the workers went nuts - I think they felt threatened? Anyway, when they go nuts they move larvae, eggs and pupae from where they normally are to they other side of the cotton ball, really quickly. I noticed they moved a pupae and sort of nibbled and pulled at it's cocoon and after about 20 minutes it was completely free and walking around! How awesome is that?! It would be much clearer with a better camera, but I tried to catch most of the action (missed the first couple of minutes though). Lots of photos :-)

And then there were five.

2 new workers for B today (up to 5 now). They have all moved back out from under the cotton wool ball and I think they are no longer freaked out by the blowfly, perhaps even eating it.
A is still carrying her larvae around, but there don't appear to be any pupae or workers for her yet - I suppose B fed her larvae on the bugs I put in her container and they grew quicker? Seeing as though they both had eggs/larvae on the same day, this seems to be the logical explanation..
The new queen has been carrying around about 6 eggs today. She is still quite jumpy/timid and doesn't like me moving her at all.

Finally up to date!

Today I put a broken up blowfly into B's container for her and her 3 workers. I had to go out so couldn't see what happened, but 2 hours later we came home to they had all moved to behind the cotton wool ball - it seems they are scared or don't like blowflies! There are 2 more dark pupae so I think tomorrow there will be 5 :-)
Still think nothing much has changed for A and her larvae or the new queen.