Ant colony

It’s Elizabeth’s 13th birthday this week so we’ll officially have two teenagers in the house soon. She’s been asking for an ant colony for months and months now so we finally caved and that’s what she’s getting for her birthday. Expecting delays with the postal strikes and public holidays I ordered it last week but it arrived very quickly before Christmas and I’ve had to hide it away, ants and all.

Unfortunately the housing I chose is broken and the ants can’t get from the test tube they arrived in up to the outworld where food is so before Christmas I put the test tube in a tupperware container and ordered replacement housing and have been feeding and caring for these blasted ants in secret for over a week now. I can’t wait for her birthday so I can hand it all over to her.

When Elizabeth first mentioned wanting an ant farm I had nightmares of ants colonising our house, nesting in our beds, eating food in the pantry but I needn’t have worried. These are native British ants and like all animals, the British version is much less menacing than anything in Australia where I grew up. Australian ants are like the British version on methamphetamines and testosterone. Elizabeth’s ants are Lasius Niger, or common black ants. Incidentally you can’t type “Lasius Niger” the Latin name for black ants on Facebook without it being moderated away. The trick is to type “Lasius N” instead. We got native ants because they’re supposed to be easy to care for and when she gets sick of having them she can release them outside.

When we first got hamsters we didn’t know very much about them. I joined a hamster Facebook group to learn more and most of the posts are one of two types: they’re either people with experienced hamsters showing off their magnificent cages; or they’re newbies showing off their dreadful pet-shop recommended cage which is far too small and the hamster police on Facebook descend to set them straight. They then realise they’ve wasted their money and have to upgrade.

I decided to join an ant Facebook group early to avoid making this mistake and to learn more but it’s the opposite with ants. The smaller and darker the nest the better as they like tiny cracks and enclosed spaces. The first potential nest I shared with the group I was told was too big and too expensive.

Right now the ants are in a kitchen tupperware container that isn’t sealed very well but they’re still stressed from having gone through the post and haven’t left the test tube, not that I’ve seen anyway. Last night I killed an insect and put it just outside the opening to the test tube. This morning it is gone so perhaps they’ve been wandering around at night?

We got Elizabeth one Queen ant and around 10 workers. Ant colonies are quite fascinating. The Queen does nothing except lay eggs. The workers clean and feed her. All the workers are female so the entire colony is female. Male ants are pretty useless and die shortly after mating with a queen. Once the Queen’s eggs have been fertilised she never needs a male again.

Hopefully a working formicarium, as they’re called, will arrive today and I can move the test tube to a properly sealed space then have it all ready for Elizabeth’s birthday on Saturday.