189 replies to this topic

[NickAnter]

Harrumph.  I can't seem to do anything on Tinkercad.  I just can't seem to find out how to cut the shapes. Anyway, disregard my ranting, good job on it!

[Mettcollsuss]

Tetramorium immigrans
As expected, there was a huge boom in brood. I’m seeing tons of pupae and large larvae in piles all over. And I got to see her Royal Highness for the first time in what feels like forever. I was expecting her abdomen to be a little bit bigger than it was, but overall she seemed very healthy, so I’m glad.

Pogonomyrmex occidentalis
Colony 1: They really love their crickets.
Colony 2: Nothing new.

Edited by Mettcollsuss, February 27 2020 - 5:45 AM.

[ANTdrew]

Nice to see an update. Yeah, it always amazed me how much brood Tetra queens pump out with such small gasters.
I just pulled out a small colony from the fridge yesterday.

Edited by ANTdrew, February 16 2020 - 9:33 AM.

[RushmoreAnts]

 I was expecting her abdomen to be a little bit bigger than it was, but overall she seemed very healthy, so I’m glad.

Perhaps she laid all the eggs she was going to for a while , resulting in the 'brood boom', and is currently taking a break.

[Mettcollsuss]

Tetramorium immigrans

Their outworld is getting really crowded and messy. They're getting kinda restless and pulling at the cotton plug constantly. They decided to put their trash pile at the base of a fake plant where it's hard to scoop up and because the outworlds so crowded it impossible to clean it up without getting a bunch of healthy workers as well. Same thing with the empty exoskeletons of their prey. Even though they've hollowed it out thoroughly and there's no more food left, the empty exoskeletons are always full of ants and impossible to remove. Maybe I'm valuing the lives of individual workers too much. But I have a new setup on the way and hopefully the added space will make the outworld less crowded and easier to work with.

 

Pogonomyrmex occidentalis

Colony 1: Still doing very well. Gave them a thawed dubia nymph for the first time. As usual, their prey response was great. It's so much higher than I would expect from a harvester. Or maybe most harvesters are like this. I don't know much about Pogonomyrmex. Anyway. Roach is now decapitated, legless, and having it's severed limbs spread to every corner of the outworld.

Colony 2: Gave them a thawed dubia nymph. I opened up the abdomen for them to make it a little easier since they're still not as strong as their colony 1 counterparts. They ignored it for a while when I first gave it to them, but now, 12 hours later, I saw the queen and one of the workers burying themselves in the roach. I've seen this colony's queen out and about plenty of times, but this is the first time I've seen her actively helping to collect food. I hope this will lead to some eggs since they have no brood at the moment and I've been getting kind of worried about them.

 

 

I'm planning on bringing all the others out of hibernation soon, probably at the end of the month. Except for the C. pennsylvanicus, who are in desperate need of a nest upgrade and'll stay in there until I can get something fully figured out.

Edited by Mettcollsuss, February 27 2020 - 6:08 AM.

[TennesseeAnts]

Any updates on the Formica colonies?

[Da_NewAntOnTheBlock]

yeah, now that I am keeping some Formica, they tend to catch my eye...

[Mettcollsuss]

HIBERNATION'S DONE! (except for the Camponotus)

 

Formica subsericea

The main Formica colony's doing great. They woke up from hibernation very quickly. Though they weren't particularly asleep during hibernation. I'll give them another day or so to wake up and then I'll give them back their outworld. The test tube colony had some problems with flooding in the tube upon removal from the fridge. It didn't start in the first few minutes so I thought they were safe and when I checked up on them later it had flooded. I had placed the tubes vertically while they warmed up just in case this sort of thing happened. The queen was sitting at the top of the tube but the two workers were crumpled at the bottom and looked drowned. I dried up the water and they ended up being perfectly okay if not a little dazed. I moved them all to a new tube and have left them alone to settle in. I provided them with a drop of Sunburst and after a few minutes one of the workers began drinking.

 

Formica neorufibarbis

Also had some post-hibernation flooding problems. Easy clean-up and no deaths. They've already accepted a drop of Sunburst. Albeit not with their usual enthusiasm, but they were still eating right away.

 

Formica obscuriventris

Did not survive hibernation. 

 

Lasius cf. brevicornis

 

Doing okay. Still shaking off the sleepiness. Not dying but not thriving. I just don't have great luck with Lasius and they never seem to get very big under my care. This colony seems to be following that same trend.

 

Aphaenogaster picea

Queen survived, but no workers.

 

Aphaenogaster cf. rudis

They died. A while back, actually. Now that I've done an update on my other Aphaenogaster, I remember that I forgot to update this journal when they passed. Shortly after I posted my last update on them back in October 2019, the queen passed away. She had been getting less and less productive and the brood number had been dwindling to the point that it was no longer even replacing the dying workers until she eventually just died. I'm assuming it was natural causes. Maybe an illness, or maybe she was just genetically unfit.

 

Camponotus pennsylvanicus

Still sleeping till I can figure out their setup.

 

Tetramorium immigrans

First time in a while that their brood piles are genuine piles and not just a thin lining on the floor/wall.

 

Pogonomyrmex occidentalis

Nothing new to report so instead I'll leave a question for anyone with experience with Pogonomyrmex. I've heard that they count as a destructive species and as such shouldn't be housed in Ytong. So putting a large Pogonomyrmex colony in Ytong seems unwise. My question is, would a Ytong nest work for a small colony without enough workers to waste time chewing away at the nest? Or am I underestimating their gnawing power?

Edited by Mettcollsuss, March 1 2020 - 6:13 PM.

[TennesseeAnts]

You are underestimating their jaw strength. I'm sorry to hear that the F. obscuriventris died... Is the original subsericea colony still good?

[Mettcollsuss]

Yep, the main subsericea colony's doing good. I just forgot to add them to the post. Fixed.

[Mettcollsuss]

Formica subsericea

Main Colony: Already have a new clutch of eggs. I haven't even given them any new protein since they woke up, but they're already starting up their laying. Granted, it's not a very large pile yet; it can still all be held by a single worker. I fed them a mealworm to get egg-laying up and running faster which they accepted. Already very protein hungry. I have high hopes or them this year.

Small Colony: Nothing new.

 

Aphaenogaster picea

Queen died.

[RushmoreAnts]

I fed my subsericea a piece of earthworm and the queen was dead the next day?! It appears the workers mainly stuffed her with the guts, as the worm piece was almost completely devoured by a colony of 7 workers and no larvae.......... Somehow it seems the worm was toxic.

[Mettcollsuss]

So, completely hypothetically, if a large T. immigrans colony were to escape, and hypothetically were to get all over my room, and theoretically I (my mom) made an impromptu aspirator out of tubing and an old sock and got most of them back into their setup (remember, this is all hypothetical), how long would it take any stragglers to die off?

[ANTdrew]

Holy crap. I hope you’re joking. If not, get some Terro ant gel. That will finish the stragglers off quick.

[RushmoreAnts]

And (purely hypothetically), how upset would ones mom get if hundreds of ants escaped into ones house.........

[TennesseeAnts]

So, completely hypothetically, if a large T. immigrans colony were to escape, and hypothetically were to get all over my room, and theoretically I (my mom) made an impromptu aspirator out of tubing and an old sock and got most of them back into their setup (remember, this is all hypothetical), how long would it take any stragglers to die off?

Hypothetically, eh?

[RushmoreAnts]

Seems a little too vivid to be hypothetical..........

Edited by AntsDakota, March 29 2020 - 6:52 AM.

[TennesseeAnts]

Seems a little too vivid to be hypothetical..........

Yeah. Too many details...

[RushmoreAnts]

Hypothetically, what if none of this is hypothetical, and all of this really happened? Purely hypothetical, though. And, hypothetically, what if I’m using ‘hypothetical’ too much?

[Mettcollsuss]

Well, I have some positive news in contrast to last night’s events. I was cleaning the filter of our cats’ water fountain and found a small colony of Tapinoma sessile living inside the cord cover and motor. It’s a fairly small colony, not sure if its a satellite colony or just young, but I made use of the makeshift aspirator mentioned in the last update and collected as many as I could. I now have all 4 queens and I’d say around 50 workers, though I’m absolute garbage at estimating colony sizes, so take that estimate with quite a few grains of salt. Two of the queens are huddled together in the back end of the test tube with a small cluster of workers attending to them. One is collecting herself in the middle of the tube and has only one worker escort, but still seems to be doing fine. Queen 4 decided to set herself up on the wall of the outworld. She seems more panicked and disoriented than the other 3. A small grouping of workers came to check up on her at first but them dispersed a few minutes later. When I tried to guide her to the tube, she smelled around the entrance and paced around it before deciding to run off and hid under the side of the tube. I didn’t manage to collect any brood, though they didn’t really have much. Maybe a few eggs here and there. But overall things went smoothly. I’m going to let them settle in and then try moving them to a better setup.