96 replies to this topic

[NickAnter]

Yeah, I like seeing other interesting finds of queens, especially when you are not looking for them!

[ANTdrew]

My free range colony of Tapinoma were feeding on a mouse I caught in a trap with Nutella. Rather revolting.

[Polyacanthus]

Yeah, Nutella is gross

[Polyacanthus]

Happy to find this afternoon they decided the grout nest was the place to be. Holy pupae! I like to see them excavate the dirt but I definitely like being able to actually see them more.

[Polyacanthus]

The Tapinoma are still producing tons of brood. I don't see any alates anymore.

Formica are doing okay, have a few new workers that are a little smaller so I'll have to try to get them to eat better. But they're still producing brood.

C. pennsylvanicus. queen seems to be doing great. Took her out for a pic. Plenty of larvae and one pupa.

[Polyacanthus]

She has her first nanitic. Isn't that just precious?

[ponerinecat]

that was really quick!

[ANTdrew]

Excellent!

[Acutus]

Very cool!

[Polyacanthus]

Well I had some setbacks last year.

When I returned from vacation, the T. sessile habitat was bone dry and everything inside deceased

The C. pennsylvanicus queen was up to about 15 workers when the colony suddenly all died. I believe I accidentally gave them water with a pipette I used previously for aquarium dechlorinator. The ant watering pipette is clearly labeled now!

The Formica cf. pallidefulva were living in plastic tubs all summer and producing small workers. After a bit too long without checking on them I noticed there was no more brood and no queen to be found. In the fall I was able to coax them into a tube setup by letting their tubs dry out. I sealed up the tube and put them in the cool basement for the winter months. I brought them upstairs this spring and connected them to the outworld I had originally made for the T. sessile and they are still living out their lives with no queen.

Edited by Polyacanthus, June 29 2020 - 8:27 PM.

[ANTdrew]

Ant colonies require lots of vigilance to thrive. Not too late to find new queens and start over, though.

[Polyacanthus]

Indeed! Just wanted to finish logging where I left off before new updates 😁

The Formica outworld is sitting on a heating pad that turns on and off with the aquarium light timer, so just on during the day. It gets up to about 90F by afternoon. They seem to enjoy it, always a few running around in there. Recently I set up a fresh new tube in case they wanted to move but of course they're sticking with the gross one.

[Antkid12]

Nice!

[Polyacanthus]

So this year I was prepared to catch queens. I heard Camponotus pennsylvanicus were seen flying the evening of the 24th here in MI so the next day after work I started looking around the house. I didn't see anything so was just observing the ants on the driveway and I see what looks like a queen running along a seam in the concrete. I had a container in hand so I collected it. Sure enough looks like a Formica pallidefulva queen!



Seemed really early for Formica to be out like that but I'm glad I happened to be out looking!

I captured her in a plastic portion container and she was laying eggs before I even got her into a proper test tube that evening! Here she is a week later with a pile of eggs.

[Polyacanthus]

For future reference here are the data:
Collected May 25
First egg May 25
First larva June 4
First pupa June 18
First nanitic June 29









She was up to about 10 eggs at one point, 6 made it to larva, and 5 made it to pupa. 2/5 of the pupae formed cocoons. She has her second nanitic now, and one new egg.

[Polyacanthus]

I was prepared for Camponotus season this year. Last year I think I was late to the party and ended up with the stragglers- I had 3 pennsylvanicus, two died, one survived only until fall. This year I caught 12 pennsylvanicus and was given one nearcticus found in a pool. Sadly the nearcticus and a couple penns passed, now I have 9 pennsylvanicus queens healthy and producing lots of brood.



Recently the Tetramorium immigrans were out so I grabbed some queens from the driveway, I have 7, all laying eggs.



Here is my setup right now. I have all the test tubes between two folded blankets on a shelf.



We keep the house around 75F, I wanted to warm them a bit so I picked up a reptile heat lamp. It turns on during the day and warms the top blanket a bit, a thermometer inside with the tubes shows about 86F so that probably helps.

[Polyacanthus]

After her first nanitic eclosed I gave the Formica queen a drop of sugar water which she quickly slurped up, then ran over to the nanitic to feed her.



A few days later with a second nanitic present I gave them a little flake of boiled egg white, here the one on the right is working on it.

[Polyacanthus]

WOW the Tetramorium really go for it! No wonder they're everywhere.

[ANTdrew]

Yeah, they don’t screw around!

[RushmoreAnts]

Keep in mind that most of these eggs are trophic, and will be eaten by the queen and/or larvae. The amount of nanitics is comparable to most other species.