In April, I found a Formica subeascens queen ant, which i am trying to grow into a colony. I also began a worm-breeding project for live food and fishing bait. This is an update on these.

WORMS:

The worms have been growing big. I have also spotted some cocoons. The worms are also finally coming to use as I have started feeding them to my new Banded Killifish as occasional treats.

ANTS:

The queen has laid many eggs so far (about 8). Now they are larva. I am turning a pickle jar into an ant farm by placing dirt and a ring of Vaseline in it. I transferred the queen and her remaining larvae into it on the 18th. After checking in on it on the 20th, I noticed she had dug a small cave in the dirt, inside were her and a couple larvae. She has been eating her larvae lately, and While she is fully claustral, I think she is starving, so she instantly accepted my gift of brown sugar to her.

Her digging a cave tells me that she is a mound digging ant, and her colony would dig ant hills in the wild. This is great because she has compact soil below her that goes down about 5 inches.