11 replies to this topic

[Acutus]

So I captured and am currently keeping these ants in a Ants Canada Hybrid 2.0 Camponotus setup. (see pics) My biggest question to this point is how much do I feed a colony this size? they seem to eat voraciously everything I put in. The night they were introduced they started eating an apple slice. Lately I've been giving them Honey pretty much everyday I started with a drop or 3 and now I more than half fill the top of a standard water bottle lid and it doesn't last long. for protein I've been catching beetle grubs under things around camp, grubs are about and inch long and I gave them 4 today and they're gone within an hour.

I just don't want to mess this up!!! Had the Colony about 1 week.

 

 

 

Edited by Acutus, April 24 2019 - 7:13 PM.

[TennesseeAnts]

HOW???!?! DID YOU TRAP THEM? I NEED TO KNOW.

[Acutus]

HOW???!?! DID YOU TRAP THEM? I NEED TO KNOW.

 

LOL!! Luck I guess. I needed to clean up some debris at work where I manage a camp. When I went to move an old tree cookie a piece broke off and I saw all the ants. I had previously bought all the gear for our Camp Nature Center and was waiting for Nuptial Flights. I decided I'd try and catch this since it had to be moved anyway.

I took a big hunk of the tree cookie and put it in a wheelbarrow to contain them. My friend that does this with me has all types of insect gear and he had a small vacuum. any free roaming ants were sucked up in the vacuum, we also had a manual vacuum where you suck on one end and it sucks up the ants) once we were sure they weren't queens. We spotted a queen and put her and a couple workers in a test tube and set her off to the side. we then methodically and very carefully (and this took hours) broke apart the entire tree cookie until we were sure we had all the ants! We even found a second queen.

We put all the workers in the out-world and hooked up the nest and allowed them to start moving in. We then took one of the water feeders off the nest and attached the 1st queens test tube. Ants came in seemed to chat with the workers in the tube then our queen proceeded into the colony. We then tried to do the same with the second queen and that went horribly wrong as she was killed in literally seconds. All the rest of the ants we gathered got along just fine and there were no other ants we got them all. Hope all that makes sense.

[ANTdrew]

Definitely order some ByFormica liquid feeders and some Sunburst nectar! Then you need some feeder insects. Mealworms are cheap and you can keep them alive for a long time in the fridge. Dubia roaches are really easy to raise, too, and ants love them. You can keep finding grubs, but I would be sure to freeze or boil them to kill possible pathogens.

[TennesseeAnts]

Beetle grubs are fairly pest free. I just caught a few rhino beetles. Just got back from anting and came home with 4 more of these queens!

Edited by Ant_Dude2908, April 24 2019 - 12:36 PM.

[Acutus]

Back to topic, how much should I be feeding these guys?

 

I can get mealworms my daughter has a colony I started for her and I could start Dubias again no problem.  I guess my question is hoe to know you're feeding enough.

[Guy_Fieri]

There is no definitive answer on how much to feed an ant colony. It depends on the amount and size of larvae and temperatures. They seem to fit pretty well into their formicarium though so you can feed them as much as they will take. But if you move them to a larger formicarium, be a bit extra cautious because if you feed them too much they might start taking in too much and store the excess in unused space where it may rot.

Edited by Guy_Fieri, April 24 2019 - 7:26 PM.

[Acutus]

There is no definitive answer on how much to feed an ant colony. It depends on the amount and size of larvae and temperatures. They seem to fit pretty well into their formicarium though so you can feed them as much as they will take. But if you move them to a larger formicarium, be a bit extra cautious because if you feed them too much they might start taking in too much and store the excess in unused space where it may rot.

 

Thank you! that helps. I just worry about underfeeding them. I keep Honey Bees as well and it's easy to see if they have enough stores or if you have to feed them. Ants don't seem as easy.

[PwnerPie]

I am a firm believer of feeding them as much as they can eat. If they eat all of it in a day, feed them more next time.As far dragging it into their nest, Looks like the nest is being completely used (no empty chambers) so they shouldn't store garbage in there. Even if they do, they should empty it before it gets too moldy. I feed mine their fill (a little more than they can eat) twice a week. Once they start eating all of it really quick, ill add some more in the future.They do bring it into their nest at times, but they always end up bringing it out and into the outworld within a week or 2.

[Acutus]

I am a firm believer of feeding them as much as they can eat. If they eat all of it in a day, feed them more next time.As far dragging it into their nest, Looks like the nest is being completely used (no empty chambers) so they shouldn't store garbage in there. Even if they do, they should empty it before it gets too moldy. I feed mine their fill (a little more than they can eat) twice a week. Once they start eating all of it really quick, ill add some more in the future.They do bring it into their nest at times, but they always end up bringing it out and into the outworld within a week or 2.

 

There is a garbage dump in one corner near an entrance. In the pic it would be in the upper left corner. there's a little room in the nest but not much. (I'll try to get a better picture there's so much glare)

I've been feeding them everyday , today was 3 meal worms and a half a water bottle cap of honey. Is that too often?

I noticed today the brood are getting BIG! there appear to be pupae forming now too. I try not to look in too often. I wish I could estimate how many there actually were.

[ponerinecat]

 

HOW???!?! DID YOU TRAP THEM? I NEED TO KNOW.

 

LOL!! Luck I guess. I needed to clean up some debris at work where I manage a camp. When I went to move an old tree cookie a piece broke off and I saw all the ants. I had previously bought all the gear for our Camp Nature Center and was waiting for Nuptial Flights. I decided I'd try and catch this since it had to be moved anyway.

I took a big hunk of the tree cookie and put it in a wheelbarrow to contain them. My friend that does this with me has all types of insect gear and he had a small vacuum. any free roaming ants were sucked up in the vacuum, we also had a manual vacuum where you suck on one end and it sucks up the ants) once we were sure they weren't queens. We spotted a queen and put her and a couple workers in a test tube and set her off to the side. we then methodically and very carefully (and this took hours) broke apart the entire tree cookie until we were sure we had all the ants! We even found a second queen.

We put all the workers in the out-world and hooked up the nest and allowed them to start moving in. We then took one of the water feeders off the nest and attached the 1st queens test tube. Ants came in seemed to chat with the workers in the tube then our queen proceeded into the colony. We then tried to do the same with the second queen and that went horribly wrong as she was killed in literally seconds. All the rest of the ants we gathered got along just fine and there were no other ants we got them all. Hope all that makes sense.

 

Off topic, but you probably found two colonies in on log.

[Acutus]

 

 

HOW???!?! DID YOU TRAP THEM? I NEED TO KNOW.

 

LOL!! Luck I guess. I needed to clean up some debris at work where I manage a camp. When I went to move an old tree cookie a piece broke off and I saw all the ants. I had previously bought all the gear for our Camp Nature Center and was waiting for Nuptial Flights. I decided I'd try and catch this since it had to be moved anyway.

I took a big hunk of the tree cookie and put it in a wheelbarrow to contain them. My friend that does this with me has all types of insect gear and he had a small vacuum. any free roaming ants were sucked up in the vacuum, we also had a manual vacuum where you suck on one end and it sucks up the ants) once we were sure they weren't queens. We spotted a queen and put her and a couple workers in a test tube and set her off to the side. we then methodically and very carefully (and this took hours) broke apart the entire tree cookie until we were sure we had all the ants! We even found a second queen.

We put all the workers in the out-world and hooked up the nest and allowed them to start moving in. We then took one of the water feeders off the nest and attached the 1st queens test tube. Ants came in seemed to chat with the workers in the tube then our queen proceeded into the colony. We then tried to do the same with the second queen and that went horribly wrong as she was killed in literally seconds. All the rest of the ants we gathered got along just fine and there were no other ants we got them all. Hope all that makes sense.

 

Off topic, but you probably found two colonies in on log.

 

that's one of the things we thought but there are no others in the log and ALL the workers were put together. One scenario mentioned was we found a Colony and a recently mated Queen who took up residence too close to a colony. Definitely strange but alls good as this Queen is doing awesome!!