Ant keeping

I will try and update this as often as I can

8th April 08

My Pheidole pallidula colony arrived today from Edu-Sci, they were sent in a glass test tube but they arrived safe and sound. I have got 1 queen, 2 soldiers and 10 workers, I didn't see any eggs or larva when they arrived. The test tube was a bit dirty so I have moved them to a new clean test tube ( I didn't see any brood when they moved tubes). My L.niger setup is free and I plan to house them in it, but there are some small gaps in the lid and this colony has very small workers so I need to make some modifications.

12th April 08

They seem to be doing well, they have moved out of the old test tube now and are settling into the new one nicely.  I fed them a dead fly that happened to land by me while i was watching TV :D not much of it left after 10 mins.  I have put some photos of the colony in the gallery.

20th April 08

They seem to be doing well and settling into the test tube nicely, i gave them a fly and it vanished within a hour.  I have uploaded a few photos on the gallery of them eating some honey.  That's it for now.

1st May 08

They are doing well and the queen is still laying eggs :D  I fed them a fly again today and they jumped on it.  I have put some pics in the gallery so not much to say just no loses yet.

11th May 08

They seem to be doing well she is laying more and more eggs.  I have given them 2-3 flies since last update and they don't last 5 minutes  

24th May08

I think I'm going to have a population boom very soon, i can see loads of eggs and larva in various sizes.  They are taking a fly every 2-3days  so i better find them a new home very very soon.

14th June 08

Well i was given a small fish tank 18x12x12in tall so i think i will make that a new home for my P.pallidula, just needs a good clean.  I have lots of cocoons and the egg pile is growing and they fly intake is just crazy, but at least they are doing well.

14th August 08

They are doing very well i have been trying to find out some numbers but they seem to spend most of the time under ground.  They settled into the tank very well and seem happy and still digging tunnels, other than that not a lot to say.