Comments on: Ant Farm Update #3: Failure http://www.sciencepunk.com/2008/07/ant-farm-update-3-failure/ Kicking ass in the name of science! Thu, 11 Feb 2010 04:23:49 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Chapstick http://www.sciencepunk.com/2008/07/ant-farm-update-3-failure/comment-page-1/#comment-23182 Chapstick Wed, 30 Jul 2008 21:11:08 +0000 http://www.sciencepunk.com/v5/2008/07/ant-farm-update-3-failure/#comment-23182 When I was a kid my dad made me a formicarium out of three lengths of wood and a couple of sheets of perspex and alternating layers of soil and sand sandwiched between them. I experienced the same disappointing results as you until dad heroically raided an ant's nest with a trowel and made of with a few juvenile queens and some accompanying workers. They bit the fuck out of him but it worked a treat - at least for a few weeks, before all the queens matured and flew off. So I think the workers really won't do much without the motivation of a queen to work for. I think your idea of attracting some flying ants is a good one. I believe that if you see a big fat one wandering about without wings it's a queen that's just mated so if you gather up a few of them and trap them inside with a food source (I used to feed mine with a piece of cotton wool soaked in sugar saturated water) that may well do the trick. When I was a kid my dad made me a formicarium out of three lengths of wood and a couple of sheets of perspex and alternating layers of soil and sand sandwiched between them. I experienced the same disappointing results as you until dad heroically raided an ant’s nest with a trowel and made of with a few juvenile queens and some accompanying workers. They bit the fuck out of him but it worked a treat – at least for a few weeks, before all the queens matured and flew off. So I think the workers really won’t do much without the motivation of a queen to work for.

I think your idea of attracting some flying ants is a good one. I believe that if you see a big fat one wandering about without wings it’s a queen that’s just mated so if you gather up a few of them and trap them inside with a food source (I used to feed mine with a piece of cotton wool soaked in sugar saturated water) that may well do the trick.

]]> By: Ian http://www.sciencepunk.com/2008/07/ant-farm-update-3-failure/comment-page-1/#comment-23160 Ian Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:14:40 +0000 http://www.sciencepunk.com/v5/2008/07/ant-farm-update-3-failure/#comment-23160 Blue gel, eh, so that's how you lure them in... Blue gel, eh, so that’s how you lure them in…

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