The ants weren’t being very adventurous this morning so I hoped some protein might get them all excited and busy. This meant going hunting for the tribe. The first thing I found under the wheely bin in the back garden was a (soon to be) unfortunate woodlouse. I did feel a bit guilty boiling it alive to finish it off and kill off any nasty mites it might be carrying – the moral quandaries of keeping ants!
Cut in half and placed near the tube’s entrance it soon proved to be a nice surprise for one of the workers. After finding it tasted as good as it looked she scurried back inside to spread the word and quickly re-emerged with about 10 of her friends – feast time.
As ants like dark places for bringing up their young I’ve made up a cardboard tube to keep the light out of their nursery area so it’s been kinda hard to see what’s going on in the depths of their nest. In particular it’s been difficult to check that the queen’s OK as there was just this large dark blob in there which didn’t seem to move very much.
Now, with most of the workers out of the tube devouring woodlouse I got a great chance to check on her. She is alive and moving around on the bung at the bottom of the nest so all is well.
Once the ants had had a good munch they dragged one of the halves into the test tube nearer the queen and brood. The queen has started to tuck in. I think she’s very happy with her workers today.
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