On 28/11/2013 17:16, Martin Brown wrote:
On 28/11/2013 14:57, Spider wrote:
On 28/11/2013 10:36, Martin Brown wrote:
A long while ago we had a discussion where I reckoned I had ants in my
garden that farmed a fungus. Well yesterday I put a spade through what
looks to me like a perfect example of their action. Small 5cm x 5cm x
1cm chambers with a white mushroomy smelling fungus uniformly coating
the walls. Unfortunately the ants are long gone now wherever they go.

However, I now know exactly where to dig next year and hope to catch
them in the act. Unfortunately I was digging quite vigorously and didn't
spot it in time to avoid messing it up, but pieces of the white fungal
carpet were obvious as I smashed up the soil.

I will go back and try to catch them in the act next year.

If you google on "ants farming fungus", you will see some images for
comparison.

The closest to the texture of the farmed fungus is on this one. It was
literally snow white and mushroomy until I covered it in soil.

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=...ectedIndex=112


and

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=...lectedIndex=70


Neither are quite right. It was much whiter than either and more nobbly
than the first and much less than the second. Appeared to be just
growing as a skin on the chambers. I haven't ever seen any ants carrying
leaves in (but then I haven't looked that carefully).



Oh, well, at least the rest of us got an idea of what you saw, which helps.



I tend to put ants in my compost heap. It helps break down the compost
very nicely.


The heap must be a bit too dry them.


I would normally have thought so, but it doesn't seem to work like that,
fortunately. I get excellent compost from my bins so, presumably, it's
neither too dry nor too wet. Alas, I don't get snakes and amphibians,
but have oodles of worms, woodlice, ants in season, and even spiders.
Unfortunately, I have slugs in a couple of bins at the moment :~((. I
don't mind snails so much; they tend to eat themselves to death and
politely decompose, but slugs enjoy it too much *and* breed! Horrendous.


Mine has worms, slow worms, frogs,
toads and if I am very lucky grass snakes lurking in or around it. The
amphibians surprise me since we are a long way from open water.



It's surprising just how far amphibians seem to travel. Sadly, I
haven't seen many since the Red Leg disease of frogs. My one and only
toad managed to crush itself in a stack of terracotta pots:~((.

--
Spider.
On high ground in SE London
gardening on heavy clay