Hi Peeps, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and as we move into the new year, I hope you all have a very happy and prosperous time. I've been away now for a week or two. Lots to do and lots of people to see, and it didn't help that I was without a computer for a short time, but now I'm back, with new PC, and so heres the first blog for little while.

Myrmica Ruginodis - RIP

It saddens me to say it folks but I have lost this colony. They all died within a couple of weeks of losing the queen. I had vague hopes of the colony having 2 queens but saddly it was just the one. I must stress the importance of having a way of giving your ants fresh water on a daily basis. Now, I know that I watered the nest regularly, but when it had fully dried out, I guess the water I was spraying onto the ground was absorbed very very quickly and left not alot for the ants to drink. Its my own fault, I didn't keep a close enough eye on things, and now I'm gutted. Still, its a valuable lesson learned.

Tetramorium Caespitum

WOW! These guys are busy little buggers. I can definately see why they might be seen as pests in certain areas. They excavate huge amounts of sand and dirt. And breed, whoe, they are very fast at it. Lets just say that the colony probably is now over a hundred strong, and thats starting with just 5 ants and the Queen. A word of warning though, they are very small, and if they get out, they are very hard to get back in the nest again. Make sure you have all the escape routes blocked off. They are definately a colony worth having though. The amount of tunnelling that goes on is excellent, and they love honey and will swarm around it when I put it in the nest. Unless I make a terrible mistake, I can see that I might have to move them into a larger home before too long.

Messor Barbarus

They've woken up a bit it seems. I've seen a couple of them now foraging in the basin area. The colony is now 25 strong and there are a lot of larvae at various stages of growth within the nest. Its been interesting to see that so far I have not seen them eat anything other than grass seeds. I've put crickets in, I've put mealworms in, I've put flies and also honey in with them and as far as I can see, they have never touched them. They don't even drink a lot of water from what I can see. I do water them just as regularly as all the others though, just in case.

Campanotus Ligniperda

Not much to report on these guys. They are still in the tubing with both end blocked off and they still occasionally move around, but thats about it... Except to say that when my brother came over yesterday, he said something along the lines of "Holy Sh*t" Thats not a queen thats a beetle...lol He was refering of course to her size. As she is probably twice the size of a messor barbarus queen, and a messor barbarus queen is twice the size of a Lasius Niger Queen, so I guess she's quite big.

Lasius Niger

Nothing to report. They are still doing fine within they're ant farm, and are just waiting for the spring time when I guess they will start working on raising a brand new nest.