You may remember that I was concerned that they were bored (which sounds ridiculous, perhaps I'm no better than the kid with the perpetually runny nose, a stick and a nasty streak on a day at the zoo) and so decided to add some grass seed for them to gather up. I didn't manage to get my hands on a sensible quantity of grass seed so I figured that sesame seeds would substitute. The ants showed some interest and a few made it to the bottom of the tunnels and got tucked away, the remainder were left where they fell. Maybe they're picky and sesame seeds just don't cut the mustard, maybe when they're burrowing through a delicious, sugary gel they don't really need to be bothered with my paltry offering.
However, I wasn't just sowing seeds; along with them came an inoculum of fungi that liked the gel just as much as the ants.
And a fly-by (caution, my videography isn't for the car sick).
Not the nice, space-age blue gel I started out with. The ants didn't mind this at all, in fact they would pull off chunks of the blackened gel and carry it up to the surface of the tunnels to a pile that I started to view as a sort of midden. They would eat the fungus sprouting from individual sesame seeds and add these to the pile on the surface too. Eventually, when the mould became extensive they would feed happily on this large pile of dense, ant-farmed matter.
At any one time there was still a division of labour, with some ants on the surface browsing around and nibbling and the remainder down in the tunnels. Here's Humdiggler napping:
That's change number one, now for change number two and it's a sad one. I can only count eleven ants. Twenty-five went in, one suffered from a bad case of nominative determinism (any pet I have from now on is going to be called Methuselah) and the remaining unlucky thirteen...? I suspect they've gone to the great network of tunnels in the sky. In fact, I managed to catch Minus - Warrior Queen of the Ant People carrying the corpse of Adam and trying to give her a head start on the journey.
It's not unexpected, I've had them for five months now and they're supposed to live between three and six months, but so long Nigella, Splodey, Carlotta, Gertrude, Antoinette, Flip, Tweetspawn, Sickof, Cuddles, Omar and Squash D. Say hi to Squish D for me.
5 comments:
Not a bad post for a meat puppet ;-)
By the way, the slight eye watering I experienced was a result of chopping onions x
Mike, please don't post about ants in ways that make people cry. It's not right Mike. It's just not right...
For the love of all that is good and right in this world, please treat the remaining anties well. Bless those little anties.
Josh.
I'm sorry - I got a bit carried away with the music, but silence was worse and Adagio for Strings far too much!
Just glad to hear that some of them are still going - I was so inspired by your ant farm that I have given one to a friend who I think will enjoy it!!
They're very undemanding as far as pets go - but mesmerising to watch. I wish I'd been able to set up a camera full time to record them, especially in the early stage when every morning there'd be a new set of tunnels. I reckon they'll definitely enjoy it, even Karen admits that they're interesting, even if they do make her itch and she'd rather they weren't in the house ;)
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