118 replies to this topic

[KBant]

Decided to start a journal on my first ever colony.

I got this queen with around 7 or 8 workers and some brood from Nurbs back in July 2017.







They eventually grew, was up to about 27 workers. Killed about 5 on my first tube change, which devastated me! No majors yet, which i think is the most exciting part about having a camponotus colony, but i do have a median worker.

As they grew, I made a grout formicarium for them with two tubes. I have a heat cord running though the formicarium.



Put my modocs in the fridge, on October 28, they were not doing anything, gasters were full so I tossed them in the fridge. They got tossed around in the fridge over the course of three months. My sister got married, lots of guests over, nobody knew what was inside, and yeah i was upset. Luckily they survived. Pulled them from the fridge once to give them sugar water.

Took them out February 7th and put them in room temperature. They were a bit sluggish at first but all but 5/21 showed signs of life. 5 deaths, not bad. About 5 or 6 days later I added heat to them despite people telling me to wait a month or two. I figured id try giving them a protein and sugar water surplus so they can have an explosion in growth. Two - three small crickets a week.

Today 02-24-18, I checked to see them, and the queen has laid 8 eggs!

Edited by KBant, April 9 2019 - 3:48 PM.

[KBant]

Oops, just realized I posted this under general ant keeping and not under ant journals. Where my mods at? Ty

[Hunter]

that's a lot of pupa, and i love the solid non shiny black

Edited by Hunter, February 26 2018 - 5:28 AM.

[KBant]

Right now, no pupa. Just like 4 larva that I had before hibernation and by last count I have 15 eggs, almost double my last count. I’m gonna keep giving them a cricket every 2 days or so as well as sugar water in between. They’re on heat and they keep the brood near the heating cable. I wanna see an explosion in growth so I’m giving them all they need and then some.

[nurbs]

Oops, just realized I posted this under general ant keeping and not under ant journals. Where my mods at? Ty

 

Right here, yo! Done.

[KBant]

i love when people don't just talk about what they see with their colonies but actually post pictures so let me post some pictures too.

 

 

 

Here they are just parked at the front of the test tube, very close to the heating cable.  

 

 

Here are some close ups of the egg pile. There are a couple eggs not in the pile.

 

 

[KBant]

1.5 days later. Egg laying machine. ~28 eggs

Edited by KBant, February 28 2018 - 9:42 AM.

[Derpy]

Same, my camponotus laevigatus queen has also been pumping out eggs rapidly. Easily 25+ eggs.

[KBant]

How often do you feed, Derpy?

[Derpy]

2-3 times a week

Edited by Derpy, February 28 2018 - 9:44 PM.

[T.C.]

Man, I wish my Camponotus produced that fast.

[nurbs]

Man, I wish my Camponotus produced that fast.

 

You need NCC, Nurbs Certified Camponotus.

[T.C.]

Man, I wish my Camponotus produced that fast.

 
You need NCC, Nurbs Certified Camponotus.

And you will ship to Wisconsin? Or are you saying it's good enough I should move to Cali?

[nurbs]

 

 

Man, I wish my Camponotus produced that fast.

 
You need NCC, Nurbs Certified Camponotus.

And you will ship to Wisconsin? Or are you saying it's good enough I should move to Cali?

 

 

Excellent advice. I'll make a post asking if it is legal to ship across state lines. Pretty sure someone has the answer to that.

 

Or you can move to CA and hangout with the cool kids 

[KBant]

Man, I wish my Camponotus produced that fast.

 
You need NCC, Nurbs Certified Camponotus.

And you will ship to Wisconsin? Or are you saying it's good enough I should move to Cali?

 
Excellent advice. I'll make a post asking if it is legal to ship across state lines. Pretty sure someone has the answer to that.
 
Or you can move to CA and hangout with the cool kids 

No need. It’s 100% legal from the extensive research I’ve done. Go ahead, slap a stamp and send away!

[T.C.]

Man, I wish my Camponotus produced that fast.

 
You need NCC, Nurbs Certified Camponotus.

And you will ship to Wisconsin? Or are you saying it's good enough I should move to Cali?

 
Excellent advice. I'll make a post asking if it is legal to ship across state lines. Pretty sure someone has the answer to that.
 
Or you can move to CA and hangout with the cool kids 

Haha, yeah. Just hold on for a while, I'm just gonna wait and ask if I can ship on April fools day.

[KBant]

Egg watch continues. Roughly 50 eggs in this test tube.

Edited by KBant, March 5 2018 - 10:45 PM.

[KBant]

here is the queen, in all her glory, just laying on them eggs. i stopped counting but she is still laying.

 

 

I leave for a two week trip to australia and new zealand in a couple weeks.

 

If i feed them a good amount of crickets, and leave a bottle cap of sugar water before I leave you think they'll be ok?

[Gabraime]

No, you will need a helper I cought 12 queens last year all having brood and 6 to 8 workers, I moved to another apartment leaving my solenopsis xyloni queens for 2 weeks when I came back to pick up my queens and other things I looked to them and water tubes were empty and 7 queens died. I just wrote my bad experience.

[KBant]

No, you will need a helper I cought 12 queens last year all having brood and 6 to 8 workers, I moved to another apartment leaving my solenopsis xyloni queens for 2 weeks when I came back to pick up my queens and other things I looked to them and water tubes were empty and 7 queens died. I just wrote my bad experience.

 

Not trying to be mean, but how do you have empty test tubes of water? You just have put water in a test tube and plug it with cotton properly once every couple months, if that. And they don't run dry for me, they're changed only for mold control, and not because of lack of water. My concern is more with nutrition, water will be plentiful. 

 

Maybe if I feed them a lot before leaving and remove the heat source it'll slow their metabolism and growth until I can return and speed it up again? 

Edited by KBant, March 10 2018 - 6:09 AM.