For those that may be new to this blog, MR is short for Myrmica Ruginodis - Red Ant, and MB is short for Messor Barbarus - Harvester Ant.  LN is short for Lasius Niger - Black Ant. 

Yesterday, (Saturday) I went out an bought a few items that I thought might help my colonys.  The first thing I bought was a tub of small crickets.  I bought them really for the MR's but will probably feed them to the MB's also.  So, I pulled off a crickets head, then put the head and body into the basin for the MR's.  Immediately the head and body were taken by the ants, and they seemed to enjoy them alot.  The reason I bought the crickets is twofold really.  The first reason is that I don't really like taking insects (apart from flies) from the wild as food for the ants.  Now I know thats what they would eat anyway, but it just seems kind of wrong.  The second reason is that because they are captive bred specifically for feeding to other creatures, and because they are there in the tub, they are an easy way of giving food to the ants.  The MR's are definately going strong.  I quite often see new ants (you can tell because they are much paler than the others).  There are also a lot of eggs, larvea and pupae now, more so than when I first got them.  The chambers of the nest continue to be expanded although there are no new ones.

The second thing I bought was a heating mat for the MB's.  Its the smallest one available at only 7 Watts.  I have rested it against the back of the ant farm so that the mat touches the top of the farm, and is away from the bottom of the farm.  This makes the top warmer which is what you would expect at the in the wild.  The farm is now at a comfortable 80 degrees fahrenheit as opposed to the 72 that it was at before, so hopefully we will see an increase in their activity somewhere back to normal.  What is interesting about the MB's is that they have almost finished blocking off my view into their main chamber with sand and grit.  If you turn the tank around, the eggs are against the glass clearly on view, along with most of the ants, and the queen.  I guess they are shy.

The LN's are doing well.  The first LN that I caught continues to look after her eggs, and the second one has now sealed off her chamber, and has laid her eggs, although I cant really tell how many she has yet.  I will let you know.

I have another project on the go at the moment, and that is creating a plaster nest.  The first thing I did was to create a frame 35Wx 28Lcm x 10Dcm out of wood.  The reason for this was the size of the glass I had.  This was taken from a cheap photo frame from a pound shop.  I then attached to the bottom of the frame an MDF base nailed into place.  I have now been slowly filling the box with plaster of paris.  Unfortunately, because the plaster needs to be as deep as the frame so that the glass sits directly on it.  The plaster of paris comes in 1 kilo bags, and I have so far used three bags.  I reckon another 2 bags should see the frame filled.  I've got my self a dremmel and attachments so that I can start to cut out the chambers for the nest.  I think I will lightly pencil mark the chambers before cutting them, so that I can maximise the space within.  Once that is done, I will drill a hole through the side of the frame and plaster for the tubing that will link to the foraging basin.

More later