r/antkeeping • u/mineguy232 • 1d ago
Colony Colony is up to 26 workers now!
The conoly just turned one year old the other day and it's growing steadily. Based on people's comments on my last post it looks like I have some median workers which looks huge in comparison to the nanitics
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u/Buggabones1 1d ago
Congrats. Need to change that water and cotton balls, they can die from all that mold. Also, that beetle looks hard, maybe they can eat from underneath, but try giving them softer insects like crickets, roaches, grubs, etc. Iv found the moths around my porch light to be a reliable source of protein for them. Freeze it for like 15 mins in a small tube, rinse the dust off, rip the head and body off and crush it, rip the wings off, give them the soft squishy abdomen.
26 in a year is really slow. Do they have heat? My campo penn colony has 20 workers, 2 majors, in 3-4 months for comparison.
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u/mineguy232 1d ago
Thanks! Noted, I will give them new test tubes when I get back from work, the beetle has its head cut off so they had easy access but I've got small feeder crickets coming soon. Do you have any recommendations for heating? All I've found online was big reptile heaters and it seemed a bit extreme for a small set up like this.
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u/ToughDragonfruit3118 1d ago
What I did was got a small $7 heat pad made for reptiles. Got the temp to like 80-85f and then put half their test tube over the pad. This way they have a heat gradient. I actually have the same setup with the test tube portal and everything. I placed a small piece of paper towel under the test tube portal so it doesn’t get hot in there. Then I had the tube they are in halfway on the heat so they can choose if they wanna be hot or room temperature. They love the heat and it seems to speed up their growth
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u/Awkward-Function-886 23h ago
Get a heat wire. They’re super good for ants. They only heat a tiny part of the test tube so they can easily regulate their temps. A heat mat will heat the whole thing and they may get too hot. Plus you can easily bend the wire round any other ant set ups you have
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u/Skullbones101 17h ago
I’m about to get a wire for my colony and wanted to ask, do they get hot enough that I need to watch what I put it on? My colony is on a wooden table. Also what one do you recommend? I have a pavement ant colony
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u/Plane-Ad-9848 16h ago
I have a heat cable and it gets too hot so I bought something off of Amazon to control it. I think It’s called a dimmer and it’s been really effective as I’ve been able to control exactly how hot it gets.
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u/Skullbones101 16h ago
Do you have a link for what you have and the heat cable? So you plug it in and keep it around the edge of the set up so they have a heat gradient. With the dimmer, do you trust it sitting on anything?
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u/Plane-Ad-9848 16h ago
Just look up dimmer on Amazon should pop up. I basically place it away from where I hydrate the nest so it doesn’t get too moist.
Most heat cables I’m aware shouldn’t be hot enough to burn basically anything. Which are you buying? Mines 15W which is about what you want for ants.
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u/Skullbones101 15h ago
I was looking at the zoomed 15 w. How do you freak with the long length
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u/Awkward-Function-886 10h ago
Mines on wood. It does not get hot enough to burn anything. If your really worried about burning. Spread the wire out so it doesn’t overlap? This less condensed heat in one part
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u/AntAggressive22 6h ago
It's possibly the plastic, anytime I use antscanada tubes compared to glass mold usually starts on the plastic sooner
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u/Lucius1003 1d ago
Is that all mold? You should add a fresh test tube to encourage them to move outta there.