i feel lucky....oh yea...

[whitehaze2008]

ok ok so let me tell you the story.
I was outside the other day......and was doing my usual bug hunting for my two female versicolors, and tumped this log over.
I saw ants (a small brown variety) scrambling about under this sheeth of bark. Carrying there white eggs and panicking rather heaviliy.
I reached over and pealed the palm sized bark over real slow.....
and the entire nursery was on the other side.....COMPLETE with a fat big reared queen sitting atop it all.

I quickly turned and started walking to my house, and put them in a deli container.
Went back to the log to brush off the remaining adults carrying eggs, and got almost the entire colony.
I left them in the deli conatiner, and today i went by petsmart and bought one of those neat ant farms that have the gell in them. The gell is food and water together, and they tunnel in it.
So now they are in there new home, complete with a queen to replenish the colony....how cool is that?

-David

 

[Mushroom Spore]

Pretty cool, but I do not think this goes in the tarantula forum.

 

[P. Novak]

Awesome find, but what do you mean by "bug hunting for my two female versicolors"? I hope you don't mean that you go out and find food for them and then feed it to them..:wall:

 

[whitehaze2008]

yes we live in the the country with 13 acres of land so its safe.

 

[tin man]

yes we live in the the country with 13 acres of land so its safe.

I think what he meant was that some bugs can have pesticides on them.

 

[Mushroom Spore]

I think what he meant was that some bugs can have pesticides on them.

Or nasty parasites in them.

 

[P. Novak]

yes we live in the the country with 13 acres of land so its safe.

I think what he meant was that some bugs can have pesticides on them.

Or nasty parasites in them.

yup, they nailed it. Since you have 13 acres of land that belong to you, I'm not worried about that, but parasites can be a problem..

I don't know if you've seen this thread, but here.. http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=104001

 

[Acro]

Ant Farms

If I remember correctly, there should be a thread somewhere here on arachnoboards that talks about ant jell farms. They were saying how the jell stuff is really bad for the ants. How its like making them live in a constant water loged environment and such. I dont remember it all, but I would look into it if you plan on keeping the ants for some time.

 

[lucanidae]

I don't know of a single deadly tarantula parasite that enters the animal via consumption. I'd be interested to here of any. Also, parasite/prey interactions are evolutionary very close, you don't find many parasites that can take on different taxa, thus, most exotic Theraphosids should be safe here. Also, if a prey item is carrying enough pesticides to kill a tarantula, it would be dead itself, so as long as you aren't feeding slightly tainted food items over very long periods of time it would be fine.

 

[ShawnH]

Be careful flipping those logs, if you have ground dwelling bees or wasps in your area you may get a nasty surprise. On one trip into a forest I flipped a log and disturbed a large yellow-jacket nest and was stung over a hundred times. It never hurts to sit and watch rocks or logs for a couple seconds before you flip them just to make sure your not about to uncover a wasp nest.

 

[Mr. Mordax]

Back to the topic at hand . . . that's pretty damn cool to find the whole nursury like that! I've found ants carrying the young around, but I've never recovered a queen like that.

 

[anter]

THat is AWESOME! I wish I had such a oppurtunity to scoop up an entire colony.

You better watch that gel farm attentively. Gel farms are not the best choice for a big, long-lasting colony with a queen. Sooner or later, the container is going to get too small. Watch out! The breathing holes may be too small for such a colony and they might die out altogether!

After a while, when you think it is time for your ants to find a larger and more comftoble home, you should be able to use an aquarium with actual dirt.
THe tricky part would be to remove the ants and broodings.

**********WARNING!!!!!**********
Must read to keep your ants healthy

The gel ant farm cannot supply nutrition for your ant larvae! Tha gel only gives enough calories for the workers to keep moving. Drop in cupple pices of cheese or ham. Be sure to give only pinhead amounts first and see if the ants love it. The gel ant farms are famous for getting moldy. Becareful not to give too much origanic materials that will not be eaten. If cottenlike fungi starts to form, get forceps and pinch them out before it spreads. If it gets too moldy, you better remove the entire colony to a dirt ant farm.

 

[Mr. Mordax]

Holy old thread revival, Batman!

 

[thedude]

Holy old thread revival, Batman!

ROFL :clap: