Modifications

I made some modifications to the ant farm. First, I added ventilation by cutting out a hole in the top cap and gluing on one half of an old tea seaper. Secondly, I made a sleeve cover that goes around the outside of the container to block out any light coming in from the sides.

The ants have built up a network of tunnels and cavities into the sand but they have created a shallow burrow just beneath a yogurt bottle cap where they stashed the egg cases. Most of the ants seem to be staying in this shallow cavity, though I have noticed a few hiding in the tunnels they a have built along the sides of the wall of the container.

Been feeding the ants some papaya and pineapple. They seem to love the papaya since it's pretty much all gone by the end of the day. They really munched down on some oats I put in three days ago but they haven't touched it since. I put in a small bit of corned beef, but they didn't touch it. Might have been too salty for their taste.

It's raining out now and most of the ants are hunkered down inside their burrow. Interesting that they seem to sense that it's raining outside and are waiting it out inside.

One strange thing that I have noticed is that a number of ants are constantly wandering around carrying the body of their dead compatriots. I figured that they would have dumped or buried the bodies somewhere, but no, they keep wandering around with the bodies in their mandibles. Kind of freaky if you think about it. I did notice three ant bodies in the water bottle cap that that has water in it. Perhaps that is now their body disposal site.