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After thinking about it, I haven't written an article about pet ants for a long time, I have written two articles before, but they are both general things, and then I am going to write about the breeding of some specific ant species.
If you're interested in pet ants, you can take a look at two articles I wrote earlier.
A beginner's guide to pet ants into the pit
Turning to pet ants, this time I will talk in detail about artificial nests
Among all the ants, there is a very special kind of ants, which are harvest ants.
Harvest ants are widely distributed around the world, collecting the seeds of plants, and the worker ants peel and break the shells, make seed bread and store them for food during the cold season.
What this article is about is that it is a representative breed of harvest ants that are raised as pets, and it is also one of the introductory species, the savage harvest ants.
< h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > about savage harvest ants</h1>
The savage harvest ant, for a long time before, was known as the native harvest ant, and for now, the native harvest ant is also its most commonly used trade name than the savage harvest ant
The savage harvest ant is mainly produced in North Africa and Europe, and belongs to the subfamily leafcutter ant subfamily Harvest ant genus. As an introductory breed of pet harvest ants, the savage harvest ants have the advantages of explosive production, active predation, differentiation of large and small workers, and moderate price, and have a strong attraction for pet ant novice players, it can be said that ten ant lovers, at least nine of them have or have owned the savage harvest ant colony.
Distribution of savage harvest ants
For an ant colony, the most important thing is naturally the queen, so the following focuses on the savage harvest of the queen.
On the question of the lifespan of the savage harvest queen.
I remember before, on the Zhihu platform, someone asked me a private message about the life of the queen, and I think that for some players who are new to pet ants, this is also one of the more concerned issues.
The lifespan of the queen ant is usually extremely long, and after eliminating everything else, causing premature death and the like, it is natural to die naturally, and in the case of artificial breeding, it is actually a problem that needs to be worried about the least. A normal queen, from marriage and flying mating to lay eggs, to the end of life, there is at least a period of ten years in between, I think few people can raise a nest of ants for more than ten years! In the case of artificial breeding, there are various reasons that can lead to the death of queens, of which the most rare encounter is to die!
There is also a question about the queen
Many players, especially some players who have just entered the pit, may wonder, can I raise multiple queens together, so isn't the growth rate of the ant colony geometrically?
It is true that there are many post-existing ant species, and there are also harvest ants, such as needle hair harvest ants, but the savage harvest ants personally believe that they are by no means multi-post-production ant species.
When the savage harvest ants are new or small in the early stage, there is a possibility of developing together with many queens, so that relatively speaking, the size of the community will increase relatively quickly, but usually when the scale reaches a certain level, there will be a phenomenon of choosing the latter. Between the queens that develop together, there must be strong and weak, and the queens who are suppressed in a weak position will gradually be eliminated by the worker ants. Of course, it is not excluded that the queens are evenly matched and have been developing peacefully for many years, but it is very rare, and few lucky people will encounter such a community.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > how to raise savage harvest ants? </h1>
As one of the best pet ants, harvest ants are the introductory ant species for many ant lovers, but it is not so easy to raise them out of state and raise them until they are in full production.
Let's start with the purchase of savage harvest ants
The savage harvest ants, in the place of origin, fly at about october every year, and then flow into the domestic market, at least after November of each year. Therefore, after November, you can buy a new post, and the next year you can buy a small group. Of course, this is only a rough statement, the time for the savage harvest ants to enter the country is uncertain, coupled with the bumpy road, the time for the new spawning is also fast and slow, so in December and even january of the following year, there may also be a new post-spawn that has not laid eggs.
On the question of the so-called queen's appearance
The appearance of the savage harvest ant queen, one natural refers to the limbs are sound and uncompromised, and the other, the savage harvest ant queen has a so-called bright three red, bright double red, the so-called bright three red, refers to the queen's head and buttocks three red individuals, such an ant queen, the natural price is a little more expensive.
My personal opinion is that after buying an ant, it doesn't really matter what bright three red, or it is not necessary, one is that the queen is generally reclusive, especially when there are more worker ants, it is difficult for you to see it again, so is there any difference between the bright three reds? Second, whether it is a bright three red queen or an ordinary queen, the worker ants it produces are all the same, which I have experienced myself, I have a savage harvest ant colony, the queen is the so-called bright three red, but most of the worker ants are still black.
The phone scum, the queen's back red did not shoot out
Nests for savage harvest ants
Simple point raising, for us ordinary players, as long as it can meet its living conditions of the nest can be. Let me recommend that nature is the cabbage nest, convenient for feeding, but also convenient for observation, as for the ant colony is large, add root test tube is, no need to change the nest.
Please ignore the garbage in the activity area, I am lazy
About this nest of savage harvest ants, in fact, it has developed to a community of more than 200 workers before, but unfortunately, a period of neglect of care during the New Year, and placed on the balcony without heating, resulting in a large number of worker ants dying, directly into a small community!
Points to note about usual feeding
Savage harvest ants are more sensitive to light, or to changes in light. So either the nest area is shaded with red shading paper and the shading paper is opened as little as possible, or the nest is placed in an astigmatism environment. Avoid sudden changes in light, otherwise you will explode the nest, especially small communities.
Regarding feeding, although the savage harvest ant can survive by collecting the seeds of the feeding plant, it is generally a situation that occurs in the case of food shortage, so in the artificial environment, it is still necessary to provide some meat supplement protein. For example, cricket thighs, cherry cockroaches, termites, etc., which can breed the egg-eating phenomenon that may occur after the ant, and provide prerequisites for explosive production.
When feeding live feed, remember to kill the live body and then feed, at least get a half dead, don't look at the barbaric harvest ants are very warlike, but in fact, it is a war five slag, directly fed alive, it is likely to cause a large number of deaths of worker ants. Especially feeding termites, a small number of termites thrown in alive is fine, but throwing a large number of live termites into it at once will definitely be a lose-lose situation, and this person has a tragic experience.
On the issue of feeding seeds, the most commonly used is the Canary seed, but do not put too many seeds at once, just the right amount, otherwise it will exhaust the worker ants. In addition, for harvest ants, there is a more troublesome problem is that the seeds will germinate, which can only be said to keep the activity area as dry as possible, for the cabbage nest, there is no good way to solve.
Regarding feeding honey and other issues, honey must be diluted and then fed, otherwise it may stick to the ants, and the honey water can be absorbed with cotton balls, and then thrown into the activity area for feeding, which can avoid drowning of worker ants.
The problem of savage harvest ants warming up in winter
It is recommended to take the method of heating up in winter, after all, ants live deep in the wild, which can be regarded as a natural greenhouse.
It is best to use the method of heating the environment, using a foam box, making an incubator, and then putting the nest into it.
Because of the large temperature difference, take a picture out, and the test tube wall immediately condenses the water droplets
Probably that's a lot, do all of the above, at least feed and work is no problem!