Acromyrmex octospinosis

[Deansie26]

Great pictures!
Feels like luck off-the draw sometimes Raj lol,

[Antkit]

I gave them all a bramble leaf tonight. The more active/larger number of workers to a colony really went at the leaf, so interesting watching them cut small pieces off the leaf.

Mission tomorrow go round the housing estate and find me some Privet.

[Jackie62]

Thanks, I'll give privet a go too....but bramble leaves are their most fave to date...apple and grapes, orange peel....we are lucky here at the Uni as we have an old cemetery next door with a plentiful, year round supply of bramble leaves.

[Antkit]

I have at long last found privet in a few places..... I was like a Ninja walking past and grabbing a few leave . Yes the Ants enjoyed it. I will try the suggestion of Grapes tomorrow... those I will not pinch.

I read somewhere that leaf cutters were good at improving the soil with the amount of organics they bring to the soil. My leaf cutters are terribly messy with the amount of rubbish they throw into the water. It will need to syphon pretty soon. I am thinking of adding the removed water and dirt and placing it into one of my compost bins.

[Antkit]

Most the colonies have fungus of this quantity now.

Except for these poor girls.

These were really struggling, so what you see here is almost all fungus from another colony, been approximately a week now and they have been sitting happily on it and it appears to be expanding in size.

[Acromyrmexbob]

I would remove the tissue, if not from the others that are doing well, then certainly from the struggler. I would also give one or two leaf fragments directly onto the fungus. If toy can get a tiny amount of very new growth fungus from one of your other colonies then put it onto the struggler. What you need to do, now that you have stabilized the colony, is kick start their foraging. Also offer a small quantity of honeyed water so they can feed whilst the fungus is recovering but not producing fruiting bodies.

[Atta solider]

Very nice pics of your colony's mate and with the queen

[Acromyrmexbob]

Jon, have you removed the tissues from the tubs. Its quite important because the tissues act as a growing medium for a host of fungus and bacteria which can normally be controlled by the ants but can lead to problems. Things look ok from pics but best to remove them soon imo.