Now we will tell you where to hold your formicarium, what to do with it and how to introduce ants into it.
The first and very important thing! It is best to place the format in a place where there will be
no direct sunlight - it is best to keep the ants in the dark, but this is not necessary. Ants do not like
vibrations and
noise very much, so it will be good if we find them a quiet place.
Well, we already have a formicarium and we've found the right place for it! It is time to bring them to life! Most often, ants are bought in tubes. Before placing ants to the formicarium, it is important to moisturize them by pouring some water into the moisturizing chamber. About 30 workers are best moved to formicarium.
If we have a large arena, we can simply put the tube on the arena and the ants will go to the nest themselves. Otherwise, we need to connect the tube to the formicarium through a tube (the formicarium must have a place to connect). Sometimes ants do not want to go to the nest, what to do in this case? It is then necessary to create
unpleasant conditions. Namely, illuminate the tube with bright light, raise its temperature. When the formicarium is large and has partitions - then it's best to close them so that the ants don't clutter there.
Feeding: Ants must consume a lot of
protein and
carbohydrates for the rapid and proper development of your colony. This means that they should consume mainly
sweet fruit. If you grow
Messor ants, their basic diet is mixtures of
grains and occasionally dead insects. If it is the
Lasius or
Camponotus species or some other carbohydrates then it is worth giving them in the form of syrup (sugar / honey with water, 1: 2 - 1: 3) or fruit, but the insects themselves also play a large role in these species. Sometimes, instead of insects, you can give boiled chicken
without salt.
It is not recommended to give ants insects from the street, they can be infected with ticks or various parasites!!! How often do you feed? You can feed a small colony every
1-3 days. When the colony is large, it is better to
feed daily. What ants could not eat, should be discarded so that bacteria do not reproduce.
And a few tips: for convenience, I recommend placing a drinker with water, for example in a test tube, in the arena so that the ants can regulate the humidity of the nest by themselves.
If you have to leave your ants alone for a while, then:
- leave extra food - preferably something with a lot of protein - supplement the amount of syrup, which should be enough for a long time - check the water bottle.
In properly designed formicarium, the correct humidity should be maintained for up to
7 days without the need for daily moisturizing.
We have a format and ants. What's next? And then waiting for us fascinating observation of the lives of young workers, which life is interesting for both children and adults.
We wish everyone satisfaction in running their own ants!
#ants #mrowki #formicaria