They are like little sun sprites, motes of joy and determination made animate. I decorated their outworld like a magical desert. Here you see their annex nest (not their main home just an outpost) and the geode and branch they explore. I feed them on the jade dish, they neatly pile trash in the upper right corner for me to pick up. (Dorymyrmex bureni, the light brown cone ant)
Poor girl she bit the paint brush I use to help them to move and can’t seem to let go. I tried to help her by cutting the bristles off. But, I think her sisters should be able to help so I returned her, still clutching the bristles to the colony.
It seemed like a brave thing to do in the moment. Bite the evil paint brush and defend the colony! But it has gone all wrong.
A short video of the little brown ant holding the bristles in her mandibles. I gently lower her on to a sheet of graph paper and she runs away still holding the bristles.