149 replies to this topic

[FeedTheAnts]

all my roaches have wings, male and female
depends on species - mine are speckled lobster roaches

Mine are dubia roaches. The roach's exoskeleton has hardened now and its wings have stiffened up. The wings now go past the full length of the roach's body, which means its a male(female's wings are basically just stubs).

Three other males have also emerged from their final molt, but unfortunately no females. I'm hoping I don't just have a batch of all males

Edited by TennesseeAnts, February 8 2019 - 6:51 AM.

[ANTdrew]

I really like your naturalistic set-up for your Valentines. Can you describe how you hydrate? Sorry if that’s a dumb question.

Edited by ANTdrew, February 10 2019 - 5:24 AM.

[FeedTheAnts]

I really like your naturalistic set-up for your Valentines. Can you describe how you hydrate? Sorry if that’s a dumb question.

Hydration is actually pretty hard for their setup. I wouldn't do things the same way if I were to remake their setup. I just pour water in, but what makes it hard is how shallow the dirt is and how badly it drains. I kinda fixed this problem by adding a little more dirt and also some wood.

One thing I'd recommend is adding a piece of wood or maybe a large rock, then you can pour the water onto the wood and it doesn't disrupt the dirt or soak into the dirt too quickly, which can flood your ants if the dirt is also shallow.

[FeedTheAnts]

The Valentine Soldiers - Crematogaster ashmeadi - 2/14/19

Wow, wasn't expecting this so early in the year, but they are producing alates! They are in the larva stage right now, but are already larger than the queen.

 

 

The Woozles - Camponotus chromaiodes - 2/14/19

Their larvae are growing at a nice speed. Most of the ones that were very small at the beginning of the year are getting pretty fattened up, and it looks like the queen has laid 10-15 new eggs.

 

[TennesseeAnts]

Wow! Looks like they are females too! My colony only has four workers and some brood. I think my C. chromaiodes colony might produce alates this year. They have larvae almost as big as the queen and still growing!

Edited by Ant_Dude2908, February 14 2019 - 8:25 AM.

[TennesseeAnts]

Any tips for a small Crematogaster colony of 7?

EDIT: I think I'm going to name mine the Valentine Soldiers 2.

Edited by Ant_Dude2908, February 19 2019 - 12:49 PM.

[FeedTheAnts]

The Woozles - Camponotus chromaiodes - 2/22/19

Larvae have been pupating in the past two days, I think they have 5-6 pupae! I don't see any that appear to be majors, but then again, I don't think they usually produce majors this early in the year(correct me if I'm wrong). 

I've started feeding my ants the adult male roaches from my Dubia roach culture, and this colony love the "drumstick" portion of the roaches

 

The Valentine Soldiers - Crematogaster ashmeadi - 2/22/19

Look at all these dead ants, I guess the oldest workers from last year are starting to die off or something. Or possibly the colony is just starting to move out some of the dead from hibernation fatalities.

Sometime in the next couple of days I'm going to get out my Hybrid Nest and let this colony have it as a second nest. This time though, I'm definitely going to glue down the glass because I had a ton of problem with the glass not being completely flush with the top of the nest last year. So ya, I'm just mentally preparing to add tubing and connections back to this colony's setup. Let's hope things go better than they did last year as far as mass escapes.

 

[TennesseeAnts]

My Camponotus chromaiodes are producing majors like crazy. They have over 300 brood with the queen constantly laying new eggs. I think she's broken... May need to attach a new Mini Hearth because they are filling up the top chambers now. 

 

Edit: How long until my Crematogaster (They have nine workers and around 60 brood) get to the size of yours?

Edited by Ant_Dude2908, February 22 2019 - 2:25 PM.

[FeedTheAnts]

My Camponotus chromaiodes are producing majors like crazy. They have over 300 brood with the queen constantly laying new eggs. I think she's broken... May need to attach a new Mini Hearth because they are filling up the top chambers now. 

 

Edit: How long until my Crematogaster (They have nine workers and around 60 brood) get to the size of yours?

Your colony is about the size of mine at this time last year, so about a year(it really depends though).

[TennesseeAnts]

Thanks!

[FeedTheAnts]

Crematogaster ahmeadi - 3/4/19
They are not doing well... I have no idea why, but about 400 workers have just died. Maybe it's just all of last year's workers that are getting old and dying off. 
In other news, I've added the Hybrid to their setup because they needed more room, and I also attached an outworld to the Hybrid Nest. I took this short video just to go over their current setup, and at the end you can see the two huge piles of dead ants. The colony is really looking pathetic and inactive right now, it just makes no sense.

 

 

Here is a little bit of their brood that they've moved into the new nest. The queen and the alate larvae are still in the natural nest.

 

Edited by TennesseeAnts, March 4 2019 - 4:55 PM.

[TennesseeAnts]

That is not a little like of brood! I wish mine would grow quicker...

[FeedTheAnts]

The Heffalumps - Camponotus castaneus - 3/17

I froze this colony, things weren't looking up for them. The queen hadn't laid any new eggs and she was very skinny. Their brood was also not developing at all. I definitely plan on catching a queen of this species once it gets a little warmer.

 

The Valentines - Crematogaster ashmeadi - 3/17

Finally the queen moved to the Hybrid Nest and out of the wood in their terrarium. It also looks like more of the brood has been moved out of the terrarium as well, but I still haven't located the alate brood. Since the queen moved into the Hybrid Nest there have been a lot more worker there as well, seeing as they like to follow there queen and protect her. 

 

The Woozles - Camponotus chromaiodes - 3/17

a few days ago one of the workers brought a living and thrashing mealworm into the nest, and it stressed them out so much they've eaten their youngest larvae

One of the majors also died, leaving about 17 workers. New workers are eclosing though and they are eating lots of protein, so the queen will quickly lay more brood to replace the old ones.

 

I found these weird roaches in logs throughout a forest, and I can't ID them. They're very large and chunky, almost looking a bit like passalus beetles. I caught about 30 so I'm hoping to breed them.

 

 

 

[TennesseeAnts]

Aww. I would have taken the castaneus...

[FeedTheAnts]

Aww. I would have taken the castaneus...

They weren't gonna live much longer. I caught them last year with seven workers and all they've done is die off slowly.

[TennesseeAnts]

Ah, I get it.

[ANTdrew]

That's a shame. Do you think that castanaeus are harder to raise than other Camponotus? I don't really see anybody with big colonies on the forum.

My Crematogaster queen looks just like yours, but I don't think we have ashmeadi this far north. I don't even know where to start figuring out what species she is. I hope the Valentines keep rebounding.

[TennesseeAnts]

I think there are not many castaneus journals because they are more rare than most Southern Camponotus.

[FeedTheAnts]

Another reason there may not be as many C. castaneus raised in captivity(compared to other Camponotus species) is that they nest in dirt, and so young colonies can be very hard to capture. I know most people start colonies from a mated queen, but Camponotus are also commonly caught as young colonies because their wooden nests are easy to uncover. C. castaneus, on the other hand, are herder to collect because you will usually need to dig and this risks killing the queen.

[ANTdrew]

Would a blacklight be an effective way to find these queens? My parents’ yard is full of them. This is my dream species, for sure.