78 replies to this topic

[Jonathan21700]

I was moving a honeypot queen but it wouldn't come out of the test tube. So I flicked the tube a little harder and she disappeared into thin air. I never saw it again.

This has happened to me several times but at lest only one queen was lost.

[antmaniac]

 

Well, lets put it this way. It was a bit windy that day and I had to answer a phone call...

At least now I know why there are so much fuss over the terracotta army. 

Were you able to at least salvage the pieces and make smaller nests? That's an interesting concept though, how were you planning on keeping the ants in the nest?

 

Yes, I have considered recycle the bottom block for other formicarium. This would be an outdoor formicarium for my Polyrhachis Sp., putting next to a plant in my garden. I will post the photos in my journal later.

[Ants4fun]

Having a fully grown Pheidole colony with tons of Queens escape.

[Miles]

 now have about 100 fancy 5x7x5" acrylic containers taking up a ton of room and only 3 are in use because they are so wide and I need to use heat cables due to low house temperature.

How did you get this many, and where? Sounds very expensive!

[Ra3MaN]

My dumbest mistake was thinking that my Lepisoita caspensis actually wanted to live in the formicarium I made for them... so I left the container open and unattended. I killed the escapees for there defiance   :stuckup:

 

Edited by Ra3MaN, March 4 2015 - 9:58 PM.

[Gregory2455]

Haha, how much of the population got out?

[Ra3MaN]

Quite a few and possibly a queen, L. caspensis is polygynous so it wasn't much of a loss, the only thing is I had to deal with ants showing up in random places.

[Crystals]

 

 now have about 100 fancy 5x7x5" acrylic containers taking up a ton of room and only 3 are in use because they are so wide and I need to use heat cables due to low house temperature.

How did you get this many, and where? Sounds very expensive!

 

It was a special order, and yes, it was quite expensive.  But they were nice and well made.  I have some of these empty containers on my page in the Marketplace section.  Luckily, they also work well for small high humidity plants and tarantulas so I was able to sell some already.

[antsinmypants]

Here are some pictures showing the making of my new formicarium, a work of art after hours of careful design, test and carve has finally come to fruition.

Front view with nest entrance.

 

Side view, look at that perfectly carved interconnecting tunnel and holes just fit for the clippers. 

Back view, another set of nest. By the way, keep on reading before you yell this is wrong topic to post on.

A water tank, perfect for the water source.

Combined and fitted nicely.

 

Well, lets put it this way. It was a bit windy that day and I had to answer a phone call...

At least now I know why there are so much fuss over the terracotta army. 

Your story reminds of the time when I lived in LA and took a telescope-making class. We learned how to grind our own mirror for a reflector telescope and then eventually made the mount, etc. The course was several months long. John Dobson taught the class and told us that "if you're going to break the mirror, break it on the first day."

[antmaniac]

 

The story...

Your story reminds of the time when I lived in LA and took a telescope-making class. We learned how to grind our own mirror for a reflector telescope and then eventually made the mount, etc. The course was several months long. John Dobson taught the class and told us that "if you're going to break the mirror, break it on the first day."

 

It is just murphy's law. Although I have been extra cautious, I have been thinking to myself, at one stage, something will go wrong for sure.

[Vendayn]

I think I did the most personal stupid thing I've done yet.

 

I was feeding my brand new Dorymyrmex bicolor colony. And I was putting a bottle cap of honey (soaked in napkin) in there for them. But, then the neighbor and me started talking about my new ants. Then I went to see the Pheidole megacephala that are still in his garage. Then I went on a walk with my wife...

 

And I forgot to close the lid again xD There goes my brand new colony. They moved really quickly to outside the garage.

 

Note to self: Be sure to close ant farm lids...even while distracted.

Edited by Vendayn, March 24 2015 - 8:58 PM.

[Gregory2455]

Just topped my last dumbest mistake.

My largest Liometopum colony's test tube became molded, so I decided to dump them into a foraging container because they were large enough anyway. I placed the new test tube into the container for them to move into, I pulled their test tubes cotton out, and I dumped them out. Then I realized. I did not apply any Fluon... I am surprised I only lost like 5 workers doing damage control, but I did and up getting them under control and applied Fluon.

[AntsMAN]

I put 9 camponotus queens in thin plactic containers, the next day they were all crawing around the house. They made easy work of the thin plastic, I only found 5 and Ma stepped on one. One of the survivors exploded with tiny worms.

 

I dug up a colony with a ton of alates thinking they were fertile queens.

[Trailandstreet]

long time ago, i put a few alates in an old aquarium to get them mated (Lasius) but after a while, they died.

 

The last mistake happened, as I tried to force a Temnothorax queen to change the testtube. I put the tubes front on front together, but through a tiny gap the queen escaped. Ok, Temnothorax queens are small ...

[Canadian anter]

Not making the cotton in the test tube tight enough. this cost me 3/4 of my myrmica colony, 6 myrmica queens. Which got out and killed my solenopsis molesta and my temnothorax through the out world. I also had a Camponotus queen and 3 tetramoriums get out this way.

[Loops117]

2 nights ago i flipped my Large C.pennsylvanicus colony over while cleaning out the outworld. Shortly after my girlfriend (the ruler of the house) walks past, so i quickly move the coffee table over the spilled nest forgetting to put the lid back on the outworld. Told her i was looking for something under the table. 3rd of my workers escaped and quickly scattered across the living room floor. That colony is no longer my largest =(

[Goldsystem]

I Tryed interducing a p.imparis worker to my queen, well that dident go over well but at least the queen was (as far as I can tell) unharmed

[ctantkeeper]

2 nights ago i flipped my Large C.pennsylvanicus colony over while cleaning out the outworld. Shortly after my girlfriend (the ruler of the house) walks past, so i quickly move the coffee table over the spilled nest forgetting to put the lid back on the outworld. Told her i was looking for something under the table. 3rd of my workers escaped and quickly scattered across the living room floor. That colony is no longer my largest =(

sorry to hear that

[ctantkeeper]

A while back, i purchased a Messor barbarus queen for roughly 30 dollars and was able to rear a successful colony from her (around 48 workers with majors on the way). On one of the Facebook ant keeping forums, someone recommended feeding them a slice of apple to give them an extra carbohydrate boost, so I carefully washed apple slice and gave it to them. Long story short, my 30 dollar queen quickly succumbed to pesticides two days later. I was absolutely devastated!!! To this day, I no longer feed my ants fruit of any kind out of fear lol

[Antennal_Scrobe]

Does this thread still exist? Well, here goes: I though two Tetramorium immigrans queens were Myrmecina americana for about a week. I caught the first one on the day of the massive nuptial flight, so I just assumed since she didn't have any brood and Tetramorium flew in July that she was the latter species. The second one looked the same as the first, so naturally I categorized it as the same species. To be fair I hadn't gotten a good look at a Tetramorium queen for a while.