102 replies to this topic

[Vendayn]

I found, when I kept them...they were kind of picky. They'd only eat dead bees and flies I'd find outside. They also liked honey, but ignored sugar water. They ignored all seeds, chicken, and all kinds of household foods they ignored. I tried peanut butter, I tried tons of stuff...they'd only eat bees and honey.

 

I recommend trying a product called All Living Things Bearded Dragon Variety (not sure the last word, but...)...you can find it  at petsmart and its a bunch of dried up insects for 8 dollars (so its rather cheap really). It comes in a rather big container (lots of dried insects inside) and it lasts a long time. All my ants (Pogonomyrmex and Dorymyrmex bicolor) so far have really liked it. I'd assume Pheidole megacephala would too.

[SMILEforAnts]

@Vendayn What's up bro! You don't go to the yuku ant forum no more?

 

 

Nice formiacrium design!

 

I have a quick question that I was hoping you could answer.  I recently collected a Pheidole megacephala colony from a potted Yucca gloriosa plant.  I managed to extract hundreds of workers and four queens, along with a very small amount of brood.  These ants quickly relocated to the test tubes I provided.  However, they've shown barely any interest in the dead (frozen) insects that I have been offering them.  

 

Did your colonies have a similar lack of appetite in the first couple of weeks after collection?  I'm hoping that this is just a temporary consequence of stress during the move, or perhaps a result of low brood numbers.

 

Thanks man!

 

This might get pretty long, but when I first caught my colony it was similar to yours. I had 200+ workers, 5 queens, couple of larvae, and no eggs. I also had only about 5 majors. Do you have majors? If there are no majors, I think they ignore the dead insect because they can't cut it up into smaller pieces. But if you do or you don’t, you can try small live prey, like a spider, small cricket, or a fruit fly.

 

My colony readily accepted food within the first two days. The day I caught them, I put out a drop of honey water, and then the following day I fed them their first insect meal. It was a live spider. I know it can be a gamble feeding live insects because they might carry mites but it’s your choice to offer them or not. But I find that if the prey is live, they go into defensive mode and start to attack even in small numbers. Then soon after they’ll spread-eagle their prey, drag it bag to the nest and from there they’ll start to break it down after they have successfully neutralized the intruder. If they don’t come out of the nest/test tube to explore the live food, you can try guiding the live prey into the entrance of the nest/test tube and of course they’ll have to defend their living space, so then they’ll attack and pin it down.  And then if majors are present, they’ll chop off what they can. If no majors, then the minor workers should chew a small hole into the prey and suck out the juices.

 

But yeah for a P. megacephala colony that small I suggest trying live food. And then when they get bigger in numbers, eventually they’ll accept dead/frozen prey like my colony has. Also the only dead insect (freshly killed) they have ever accepted was a dead mosquito that I smacked for sucking out my blood. I feel like my colony and I are closer and connected as one now since they have tasted my yummy, nutritious blood. BLOOD SIBLINGS FOR LIFE! (jk I'm being sarcastic) lol but they did take in the mosquito, maybe because it was tiny and easy to break apart.

 

 So yeah even though you have 4 queens, I only had 5 at that time and within a week they produced a lot of eggs. They had a pile a little more than half an inch wide. You can also try what Vendayn suggested but if still no change, you might just have a picky colony, and all you can do is put out food and wait for them to accept it. And like you said too it’s probably the small amount of brood. If there are no larvae or even major workers at all to break down solid food then maybe that’s the reason. That’s why I chose to offer a spider because spiders liquefy their food which is similar to ants as they feed on liquids and not solids. And if fed to ants, they can just suck out the liquified food/juices from the spiders abdomen. Hope that answers your questions. If you got more just hit me up on here! Good luck!

[Vendayn]

Hey. Yeah I don't really go there anymore, I ended up moving here. I browse there once in a while as a guest, otherwise this is my main place to go.

 

I'd like to try a colony of these again at some point, but it may have to wait a while and it depends if I move or not. And if I do move, how far we (my family) end up. If we  move out of state, obviously I won't be taking any P. megacephala with me.

 

The colony I had before they got mites and were given to Drew...they were REALLY relaxed. I'd open the lid and they'd just keep doing their normal thing. None tried escaping at all, and even blowing on them they didn't act aggressive or anything and ignored it. Most laid back ant species I've had.

[SMILEforAnts]

Yeah I wanted to just move as well but I guess most newcomers that get into ant keeping google about ants and that forum pops up on the first page of links. So keeping my thread alive there might help them out or spark more interest into the hobby.

 

Yeah even though they are the same species, they might differ around the world. Like in Australia P. megacephala colony's are bigger in size and maybe the P. megacephala ants of North America are just laid back like you said.

 

Oh and my colony had a similar experience with those mites you mentioned. They got it from infected crickets and it wiped out a lot of the workers. Thankfully the queens never got them.

Edited by SMILEforAnts, March 25 2015 - 9:09 PM.

[Myrmicinae]

I found, when I kept them...they were kind of picky. They'd only eat dead bees and flies I'd find outside. They also liked honey, but ignored sugar water. They ignored all seeds, chicken, and all kinds of household foods they ignored. I tried peanut butter, I tried tons of stuff...they'd only eat bees and honey.

 

I recommend trying a product called All Living Things Bearded Dragon Variety (not sure the last word, but...)...you can find it  at petsmart and its a bunch of dried up insects for 8 dollars (so its rather cheap really). It comes in a rather big container (lots of dried insects inside) and it lasts a long time. All my ants (Pogonomyrmex and Dorymyrmex bicolor) so far have really liked it. I'd assume Pheidole megacephala would too.

 

Thanks!  I will try to feed them some "unconventional" varieties of insects.

Thanks man!

 

This might get pretty long, but when I first caught my colony it was similar to yours. I had 200+ workers, 5 queens, couple of larvae, and no eggs. I also had only about 5 majors. Do you have majors? If there are no majors, I think they ignore the dead insect because they can't cut it up into smaller pieces. But if you do or you don’t, you can try small live prey, like a spider, small cricket, or a fruit fly.

 

My colony readily accepted food within the first two days. The day I caught them, I put out a drop of honey water, and then the following day I fed them their first insect meal. It was a live spider. I know it can be a gamble feeding live insects because they might carry mites but it’s your choice to offer them or not. But I find that if the prey is live, they go into defensive mode and start to attack even in small numbers. Then soon after they’ll spread-eagle their prey, drag it bag to the nest and from there they’ll start to break it down after they have successfully neutralized the intruder. If they don’t come out of the nest/test tube to explore the live food, you can try guiding the live prey into the entrance of the nest/test tube and of course they’ll have to defend their living space, so then they’ll attack and pin it down.  And then if majors are present, they’ll chop off what they can. If no majors, then the minor workers should chew a small hole into the prey and suck out the juices.

 

But yeah for a P. megacephala colony that small I suggest trying live food. And then when they get bigger in numbers, eventually they’ll accept dead/frozen prey like my colony has. Also the only dead insect (freshly killed) they have ever accepted was a dead mosquito that I smacked for sucking out my blood. I feel like my colony and I are closer and connected as one now since they have tasted my yummy, nutritious blood. BLOOD SIBLINGS FOR LIFE! (jk I'm being sarcastic) lol but they did take in the mosquito, maybe because it was tiny and easy to break apart.

 

 So yeah even though you have 4 queens, I only had 5 at that time and within a week they produced a lot of eggs. They had a pile a little more than half an inch wide. You can also try what Vendayn suggested but if still no change, you might just have a picky colony, and all you can do is put out food and wait for them to accept it. And like you said too it’s probably the small amount of brood. If there are no larvae or even major workers at all to break down solid food then maybe that’s the reason. That’s why I chose to offer a spider because spiders liquefy their food which is similar to ants as they feed on liquids and not solids. And if fed to ants, they can just suck out the liquified food/juices from the spiders abdomen. Hope that answers your questions. If you got more just hit me up on here! Good luck!

 

Thanks for the advice!  I really appreciate it.

That is an interesting observation about their preference for live prey.  It could be that freezing an insect alters the protein composition (please note that I do not pretend to understand biochemistry), which might make it less attractive to this species.  That would make sense, considering that P. megacephala are from regions that never experience freezing temperatures anyway.  As for your other suggestion, my colony only has about four major workers at the moment, so that could be an important factor as well.

I actually have good news to report on this subject.  Last night, I offered the colony a very small (briefly frozen) cricket and they actually dragged it into the nest.  A couple of the majors helped cut it up beforehand.  A very exciting moment for me.    I think that I will try adding some live fruit flies soon and see how they react.

Edited by Myrmicinae, March 26 2015 - 10:30 AM.

[dermy]

SMILEforAnts: Nice Formicarium and back drop looks like the ants are in a forest I hope the colony grows well for you and have fun feeding all them

[SMILEforAnts]

Thanks for the advice!  I really appreciate it.

That is an interesting observation about their preference for live prey.  It could be that freezing an insect alters the protein composition (please note that I do not pretend to understand biochemistry), which might make it less attractive to this species.  That would make sense, considering that P. megacephala are from regions that never experience freezing temperatures anyway.  As for your other suggestion, my colony only has about four major workers at the moment, so that could be an important factor as well.

I actually have good news to report on this subject.  Last night, I offered the colony a very small (briefly frozen) cricket and they actually dragged it into the nest.  A couple of the majors helped cut it up beforehand.  A very exciting moment for me.    I think that I will try adding some live fruit flies soon and see how they react.

 

 

That's great man and no problem! Keep me posted!

 

SMILEforAnts: Nice Formicarium and back drop looks like the ants are in a forest I hope the colony grows well for you and have fun feeding all them

 

Thank you! I like adding a background to my formicarium (if it’s a tank setup). I try to make it look as appealing not for me but for guests (family, friends) that come over. Since most of my family and friends still think I’m weird because I keep ants as a pet, I want them to see that it is a serious hobby and it can look nice too just like say, keeping fish. And I do have a lot of little nieces and nephews that ask me about it, and they think ants are awesome now especially when I show them my ants dragging a cricket back to the nest. Letting them observe the ants can teach kids good values such as teamwork, working together to achieve a goal. And I can tell I influenced them alot because now when I see them play Lego Marvel Super Heroes, the video game, the character they choose most of the time to play as is Ant-man LOL! Gotta start them young you know! And I tell you what, when my brother-in-law said to his daughter (my niece) that she should've chose Hulk because Hulk is strong, my niece replied, "No Dad, Ant-man is stronger!" Man that made me smile in the inside haha. But anyway, yeah this colony has been eating ALOT! I'll have my hands full in the future for sure.

[NorthEdge]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's an impressive picture! What do you use to take these? 

[SMILEforAnts]

@ NorthEdge Thank you! I use a Canon DSLR with a macro lens attached. I do like the depth of field you get when using a DSLR versus a regular point and shoot camera.

 

UPDATE! So today I moved the colony into their new home! I took pictures so here they are.

 

 

The original group of ants I placed in there first did great and no deaths so everything was good to go. I placed their old nest into the tank and removed the glass. They went nuts, I wished I recorded a video but I didn't. D:

 

 

The glass had alot of brood stuck to it, but I took this picture after they had already removed them.

 

 

*Sound of trumpets* The first queen has arrived!

 

 

As soon as the first queen arrived, the workers were like yup this is our new home. They created a trail and started the big move.

 

 

Bringing in the brood.

 

 

Second queen arrives.

 

 

More brood and the third queen.

 

 

Fourth queen.

 

 

More queens and another chamber being filled with brood.

 

 

More progress.

 

 

Almost done, but there's still brood left in the old nest, and more queens.

 

 

And finally all moved in.

 

The old nest was almost packed and in their new nest they only fill a part of it. Shows how big this nest is, but I'm sure they'll outgrow it really quick.

 

It was awesome seeing them move, but I'm bummed I didn't record a video. I was too caught up observing them and in between that, too busy taking pictures. Anyway hope you guys enjoy the pictures, and more updates to come as soon as they settle in. Hopefully a video too (:

Edited by SMILEforAnts, March 30 2015 - 1:18 AM.

[Servercheck]

Awesome pictures as always! Big colonies in that kind of setup are so easy to move... Unlike small colonies in test tubes...

[Crystals]

I love the look of the new nest.  The lines look so smooth and natural.

 

Is the nest just sitting against the glass, or is there something holding it there?

 

Are you having any problems with the ants climbing the silicone corners and trying to escape?

 

I can only imagine feeding time as that colony gets bigger. 

[Alza]

I want a pheidole megacephala now....

[Myrmicinae]

Congratulations on the successful move. With all of that brood, I would expect the worker population to explode soon.

Following your advice, I switched to offering my P. megacephala colony mainly live and recently-killed insects. It seems to have made a significant difference, as they have begun to accept food more regularly. Thanks again for the help!

Edited by Myrmicinae, March 30 2015 - 1:08 PM.

[dermy]

Nice Pictures as always

 

If I was you I'd get ready with a new setup soon with the way these guys grow

[Vendayn]

I can't find where I asked. But, what do you do as a barrier for these guys?

 

Also how did you end up drilling the glass? I assume it isn't tempered and regular glass?

Edited by Vendayn, March 30 2015 - 10:42 PM.

[dspdrew]

That nest looks really nice.

[antmaniac]

Your new formicarium is amazing! 

 

I didn't go to yuku often either, mainly due to the annoying advertisements pop up on my mobile phone.

[SMILEforAnts]

Thank you for the compliments! I enjoyed making their formicarium and taking the pictures. I’m glad I get to share them with you guys! (:

 

@dermy Yeah I’m going to have to make a satellite nest soon. D;

 

@Antmaniac I know right! The ads do ruin it!

 

@Crystals I took your advice from the Yuku forum when you suggested to use fluon. I broke down and bought some and I realized it is one of the most important purchases to make when getting into ant keeping. It can be expensive but really it is worth it. I love this stuff and I should’ve bought some a long time ago lol. Also you mentioned that it is impossible for ants to climb upside down on anything when fluon is applied and that’s how I’m keeping them in. It worked out great because the 10 gallon tank they’re in has this flat rim under the top of the tank. Here’s a picture of it.

 

 

It goes all the way around on all four sides and it’s wide enough that the workers can’t stretch their legs and grab on to the other end to escape and get over to the top. I applied two coats of fluon and no escapes so far! And with the silicone they do try to chew it but after a while they stop because they realize it’s useless lol. And then the nest is being slightly pushed and held by a wooden dowel/rod behind the nest. It touches the back of the nest all the way to the other side of the tank glass where the background is. The tank is on a sturdy shelf so there's no chance of the tank getting bumped or moved, unless there's an earthquake. D:

 

@ Vendayn I drilled it the same way I did when I made my first tank setup. I still had the diamond drill bit i used before. Drilling more than one hole this time was even more nerve-racking, but after the first one it was smooth sailing after that. When it comes to ten gallon tanks usually the bottom is tempered and the rest of the sides aren't.

 

And now a small update on the colony and with a couple pictures ^^. They’ve settled in and so I fed them a cricket and two large drops of honey water. I usually feed them 3-5 medium sized crickets every other day, but since they don’t occupy the nest fully yet, I don’t want them using one of the chambers to store garbage. I’ll continue to feed them a small amount until I see that they’ve started to pile garbage out in the foraging area.

 

Here are pictures of them when I gave them a large drop of honey water. They were really craving some energy after that big move. Look at that pile of workers! That’s like trying to bob for apples while other people stand on you lol.

 

 

 

Here’s a picture of workers in the process of dragging and holding onto a cricket from a tree branch I placed in their foraging area.

 

 

And then they’ve started to customize one of the entrances with sand from the foraging area.

 

 

Just a couple pictures and I hope you guys enjoy them! And again I appreciate you guys for the compliments even though I am keeping a captive colony of highly invasive ants. At least I’m able to bring you guys into the world of a P. megacephala colony and give you glimpses of why they are so successful and dominant through the pictures I take. I'll be making videos of the colony too, so look out for those in future updates!

Edited by SMILEforAnts, March 31 2015 - 1:07 AM.

[Crystals]

I can hardly believe how much they wanted that honey.  Have you thought of making a waterer and offering sugar water or hummingbird nectar?

 

I agree, fluon might be expensive, but it goes a long ways and gives you peace of mind.  Just don't forget to gently roll the solution in the bottle once or twice a week.  I forgot and most of mine is stuck on the bottom - and actual shaking is not good for it.

[Foogoo]

I agree, fluon might be expensive, but it goes a long ways and gives you peace of mind.  Just don't forget to gently roll the solution in the bottle once or twice a week.  I forgot and most of mine is stuck on the bottom - and actual shaking is not good for it.

 

Why is shaking bad? Do you have a good method of applying it? I just wipe it on with cotton or tissue which doesn't work well. Either it drips or doesn't get enough coverage.