AndyJ's Buggery room

[Britishants.com]

Start work on your Atta setup now then! Wink wink!

[Deansie26]

Don't do it Andy lol, you will regret it.

[Andyj]

Well,,,,it's doable. Just 2 feet above my Acro' cabinet is my attic, the plan was if my colony grows was to put a pipe straight up into the attic and expand. Seeing what Daubz is doing is very inspirational if not a bit expensive for me but could be a plan in the future. IF IF IF and IF. Lets see how this lot goes and get my bloody holiday out of the way first

[Acromyrmexbob]

Andy, your colony looks good. Taking the tissue out is important, Sean was correct. The tissue soaks in ammonia and other waste and seems to concentrate them. The smell is very noxious and can kill a colony very quickly. The opposite of your boredom is having to fight to keep them alive. At this stage, bored is good!!

[Andyj]

At this stage, bored is good!!

Understood

So at last i have seen the Queen in the flesh for the first time, and i'm not talking about "Game of thrones" She was bumbling about over the fungus looking at what the workers had been doing before paying them.

Here she is revealing her back end to me

Image00001.jpg

So the tin foil thats reflecting the heat back in against the front of the pod seems to have worked as most of the condensation has now gone, but i think i might put some jabbalite there instead. The soil has also got very wet as you can see, but i'm not going to mess with it. I put in about 1/2 inch of water in the pod at the start because i wanted to see how long the humidity would stay constant. Holiday worries...

[RichardP]

So at last i have seen the Queen in the flesh for the first time, and i'm not talking about "Game of thrones"

[Andyj]

So at last i have seen the Queen in the flesh for the first time, and i'm not talking about "Game of thrones"

Ah Richard, someone's on the same level as me.

[Andyj]

A full week has gone by since my ants arrived and everything has gone well so far. The fungus has been rebuilt from it's journey to me and grows daily. The ants are cutting and adding leaves. I have only used Privet, Vinca and rambling rose shoots so far. Privet has been the least favourite and rose the best. The temps have been stable and the humidity has not budged from 99%. I have added a small hole at the bottom of the pod so i can ad some water if needed. The surface has dried a bit and the ants have been digging down into it. They have sealed up one of the pipe holes in the fungus pod as the hole was a bit big and air was getting in. I could have fitted a sleeve into the hole to make a tighter fit perhaps.

So far i am pleased with my decision to build an incubator style set up, it seems to have worked really well, my only gripe is there is not enough room at the top to gain enough access. Raising the pods a few more inches above the heat mat wasn't planned but that was my fault.

Errrrmmm, next weeek i want to finish the foraging section below and/or put a shelf up level with the top section. I want the food plants to stand in water or better still, potted so height is important. I need the plants to last about 10 days whilst on holiday. Coincidentally at xmas i was breeding Oleander hawk moths and Vinca is their food plant. I saved all the roots and potted them up which i still have growing outside. How lucky

Oh and i noticed this morning that the ants had put a small piece of fungus at the bottom of the feeding pod, could they be moving, not happy ? and this evening they have put it up into the leaves which are standing in a small pot of water. How awkward.

[Acromyrmexbob]

Andy, classic sign from Acro that they need something fixed. You should examine your setup directly where the fungus is and ascertain what they dont like. Maybe this has been asked and answered but are you measuring temp and humidity exactly where the fungus is. Also what media are you using again. Might be somewhere in the thread but I cant be bothered to trawl and look. When you say it is drying out, how dry is it? Does the temp vary much at night. Fungus looks good though. What you should do is put a small tub, with a little soil, into the feeding area and let them move into this entirely. Then you can take the nest area to bits and change things. They will find the tub in the feeding area and will move quickly which makes working on their nest so much easier. Also when they move they really go through a growing spurt.

[Andyj]

The temp and humidity sensors are right where the fungus is and the temp is pretty stable at 24.5 fluctuating perhaps +/- .2C. Humidity 99%. Night temps are the same. I'm using a pulse stat.

There is about 1 1/2 inches of clay ball with about 1 1/2 inches of soil not compost on top with about 1/2 inch of water in the bottom.

The surface has dried a bit but is still wet but not as wet as a week ago. The vent is about 80% closed

The original garden is still being tended and leaves being added.

In the feeding pod there is a small pee sample pot ( sterile ) with water in it and a few sprigs of rose leaves and vinca standing in it. The vent is wide open. No idea what the stats are in that pod. They are adding the fungus to the leaves but i haven't seen them carrying any. They are in total darkness.

I will ad a small pot tomorrow to the feeding pod as you advise. Thanks.