Stop and Go Ants Project...

[deleted-669430]

I am replicating the Go and Stop? Ant Traffic Signals experiment. It can be found here: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ic-signals

We decided to replicate the experiment using Harvester ants to see if they, too, use repellant signals. We were very meticulous to replicate the "Y" platform, the control paper, in measurements and all.

Unfortunately, our ants don't seem interested in walking up the ramp. Even when we place the ants on top of the slices of apples at the base of the "Y" platform, they don't seem interested...they are not signaling other ants to the food.

Today, we spent 3 hours just allowing them to walk around...we did not disturb them, at all.

We keep them in a sand ant farm. They have not eaten in the past 4 days...no water, no food...so, they should have been very hungry.

The things we've learned:
1. We learned about 2 days ago that we needed to narrow the amount of space they have to explore...in an attempt to narrow their focus on our ramp.


2. We learned we should not pick the ants up (using a brush, of course...not our hands) as this just agitated them.


Question:


1. Right now, the ants are housed in a plastic ant farm. Then we simply open up the door to the ant farm and allow them to walk out onto a table that has been modified to make sure they don't walk away. Should we modify this system?

Nothing has worked, up to this point. Any assistance/advice you can give would be greatly appreciated.

[lynnsamuelson]

I don't know much about harvester ants or ants in general a quick search reveals that they eat seeds and grass and will eat a single source until it is gone. If the ants are not eating, even after several days, I would be curious as to what they would eat.

I'm not sure how to make them eat, but would consider trying another food source. In addition, you could consider

https://www.earthsfriends.com/harvester-ants/