680 replies to this topic

[Canadant]

I found a huge crematogastor colony a few weeks ago. Will be watching for nups. They're a beautiful ant.

Edited by Canadant, August 15 2019 - 10:41 AM.

[ANTdrew]

Excellent! I found my queens around 2:00pm. They’re the best.

[Acutus]

I gotta get mine in a different setup. They're in a test tube setup right now with an AC Test Tube Portal attached. Trying to figure out how to make it easier to manage. I can't clean it the way it is. good thing is they can't escape! LOL

the cotton in there current tube is getting funky and the water is 1/2 gone. Probably gonna try some type of tubs and tube setup I guess. not really in to the smaller ants but I do like these girls.

[TennesseeAnts]

As usual... My colony won't move again, so I dumped them into the outworld of their new grout nest.

[ANTdrew]

I’m working on a Fort Knox level bead container formicarium for Sigyn to move into. I actually removed the lid of the container, flipped it over, and sunk it in hydrostone. In theory, there should be no cracks they can slip out of. I’ll hook this to an AC out world.

[Acutus]

I’m working on a Fort Knox level bead container formicarium for Sigyn to move into. I actually removed the lid of the container, flipped it over, and sunk it in hydrostone. In theory, there should be no cracks they can slip out of. I’ll hook this to an AC out world.

 

Post some pics!!

[Rstheant]

But just to be safe, cover the hydrostone with a plastic cover so water doesn’t drip through, if it gets over watered.

[Rstheant]

Feed Crematogaster lots of sugars and heavy protein, including bloodworm soup.

Bruh! Where you been?

.

I’ve hadn’t had much time to focus on ants, we have been moving to a new house.

[ANTdrew]

Update 8-18-2019

Sigyn keeps growing like crazy. Here is a picture of the massive amount of brood she has at the moment. This colony is almost a year old now.

 

I'm planning to move this colony into a Fort Knox level bead container formicarium that I have been working on plus expanding their out world to an AC out world.

 

[TennesseeAnts]

Your colony is doing much better than mine! But, then again, mine is still recovering. Mine has 80 or so workers with a great brood pile consisting of 200 brood in all stages. Queen keeps laying eggs!

[ANTdrew]

Update 8-20-2019

I got a prospective new diva today!

The same buddy and former co-teacher of mine who found one of my Camponotus chromaiodes queens in his house has done it again. His ant-hating wife actually found this beauty crawling across the kitchen table. I'm going to start stocking him with test tubes in the future. The queen hasn't dropped her wings, but she is acting very calm in the tube, so I'm hoping she is mated. I put her in a test tube set up with a drop of Sunburst nectar. It will be a lot of fun to start up the cycle again with a new Crema queen.

[Kaelwizard]

How do you keep these from escaping? Or is it not even possible?!

Edited by Kaelwizard, August 24 2019 - 6:05 AM.

[ANTdrew]

How do you keep these from escaping? Or is it not even possible?!

Solutions are temporary at best, but they can’t climb upside down on very dry fluon. The key is keeping humidity down. If you look back in this journal, you’ll see how I cut out the lid for their outworld.

[Kaelwizard]

How do you keep these from escaping? Or is it not even possible?!

Solutions are temporary at best, but they can’t climb upside down on very dry fluon. The key is keeping humidity down. If you look back in this journal, you’ll see how I cut out the lid for their outworld.

Ok. If my P. occidentalis don’t survive I may keep some Crematogaster.

[ANTdrew]

Update 8-26-2019

 

I've started trying to move my Divas into this set up. Yesterday, I just put their whole BoxBox container in the AC outworld and pulled out the cotton plugs. It was cool to see how excited they got over the new real estate available to them. Though many ants explored the nest, they haven't really started moving in yet. I may try shaking them out into the out world in a few days if nothing happens. I'm really eager to get them out of the tube they've been in for months now. It's totally dry, so it seems like this species doesn't really care much about humidity.

In any case their numbers continue to skyrocket, and they remain my favorite colony. Here's a look at their hundreds of eggs and a big pile of pupae they formed.

 

My new queen hasn't dropped her wings yet, but she looks fine otherwise. Still hoping to find more soon!

 

[TennesseeAnts]

Yea Crematogaster cerasi don't really need much humidity. They're arboreal, so drinking water is all they need for the most part. My colony has finally broke 100 again, with no signs of resting! I'll send you some pics in a DM. Their egg pile is about a third of yours, and their larvae and pupae pile is bigger!

[ANTdrew]

Yea Crematogaster cerasi don't really need much humidity. They're arboreal, so drinking water is all they need for the most part. My colony has finally broke 100 again, with no signs of resting! I'll send you some pics in a DM. Their egg pile is about a third of yours, and their larvae and pupae pile is bigger!

Definitely send them, Sensei.

[TennesseeAnts]

I shall, young padewan.

Edited by Ant_Dude2908, August 26 2019 - 12:22 PM.

[ANTdrew]

Update 9-3-2019

I found my first Crematogaster queens exactly one year ago on 9/2/2018. They had a big flight on the exact same date one year later! I was monitoring a colony I have living between the posts of a retaining wall in my yard when tons of winged males started swarming out around 11:15am. I didn't see any queens, but I knew I needed to start searching around. I managed to find one winged queen on my front steps (she later pulled off her wings, so I'm pretty confident she mated).

 

Once we got our kids down for their nap, I drove back out to the Washington Sailing Marina, which is where I found my divas last year. As soon as I started walking around, I found several dealate queens wandering around the bathroom building. One was right in front of the entrance to the women's restroom, which made catching her quite awkward! I ended up capturing seven queens at this location. One I found just crawling on my shoulder and another just crawled up on my brother's beer! Two of the queens I released in prime habitats in my native plant garden, and I released the still-winged queen my buddy had found me because I wasn't sure if she was mated.

 

That leaves me with six new divas! One is from my yard, while five are from the Marina. I'm hoping to sell most of these or trade them with ant keeping buddies out here.

Edited by ANTdrew, September 3 2019 - 9:09 AM.

[TennesseeAnts]

That's eight....