58 replies to this topic

[dean_k]

I received this Myrmica sp colony from Crystal.

 

The colony has 3 queens and 50ish workers. Myrmica is very hard to ID, so I will ID this species later when I have ample time.

 

Their nest is AntsCanada Omni nest small, but I am having some problems with their relocation.

 

Mymrica is polygyny (thus 3 queens in a colony) but due to its polygyny nature, the queens must stay in close proximity. Otherwise, queens' scents change and workers will start to fight each other.

 

Right now, the colony is currently split into two major factions. One faction has 2 queens and the other faction has 1 queen + all brood. I've been trying to get them together without much success. I may need to force them instead of simply disturbing them.

 

 

 

Edited by dean_k, April 12 2015 - 4:17 PM.

[dean_k]

They seem to have all moved in together over a night.

 

[dean_k]

March 13, 2015

 

I believe I am seeing divided factions within the colony. While they do get along, there is a dominant queen who seems to have control over all broods. There are two non-dominant queens who stick by but with a short distance away from the dominant queen. About half of workers warship the dominant queen. The other half warship the two other non-dominant queens.

 

I cannot get them together as I've tried but the colony is divided after a short while. (I shook the nest to make them get together.) But as long as they are not fighting each other, this is no concern.

 

This behavior is also seen from the Myrmica Latifrons colony I have although not as extreme as this. It may be because of the smaller size of Myrmica Latifrons's colony.

 

 

[dean_k]

March 14, 2015

 

They seem to accept Blue 100.

 

You can also see one of the queens out for a walk on top right.

 

[dean_k]

March 18, 2015

 

The youtube video took 10+ hours to finish "processing"... and it's only 2:44 long video.

 

A, anyway, I've been feeding them blue 100 exclusively because they seemed to really like it.

 

 

But they are tad harder to manage because, unlike my other colonies, they stick to food they like and they are sticking to dried up blue 100. I have to get them off the food manually when replacing.

 

Also, the outworld of current formicarium is proving to be too small. I may need to relocate them to a bigger nest with bigger outworld. The size of outworld is my main concern.

 

Edited by dean_k, March 18 2015 - 5:48 AM.

[Crystals]

Tip: Use tweezers to move the dried up food up higher, for example on top of the waterer.  A couple of hours later they will move to a lower level. 

 

The foraging area should be plenty big,I have larger colonies in a 4"x4"x4" foraging area.  Choose whatever you feel comfortable sticking your hand into. 

[dean_k]

March 20, 2015

 

Their desire to drink ...

 

The force is strong with these ones. They do need a bigger outworld.

 

[dean_k]

March 20, 2015

 

Flood crisis

 

It seems they didn't want to drink sugar water. They wanted more moisture. It seemed clear because they were in progress of relocating brood to feeders.

 

When I came back home, I found that one of the liquid feeder leaked sugar water, probably because the ants were sticking too close to it.

 

 

I found about 8 ants looking drowned but none actually died. But seeing they are seeking for more moisture, I opened up the rest of the nest where the water foams are present.

 

 

I will observe how they will behave.

 

Meanwhile, the outworld is a big sticky mess right now.

Edited by dean_k, March 20 2015 - 6:00 PM.

[dean_k]

March 22, 2015

 

The colony has experienced mass die off. Approximately 35 ants died in span of just 2 days.

 

 

 

 

Here is a video of a dying ant.

 

 

 

Thankfully, I've experienced this symptoms before with my other Myrmica colony. I was almost positively certain that they were poisoned. But since I stopped using tap water, I concluded that it had something to do with the nest itself.

 

Thus, I relocated the ants one by one.

 

 

 

 

It took me 2 and half hours but I managed to move remaining ants to a THA growth chamber I had.

 

 

 

All three queens were fine thankfully. I will get them a proper formicarium in a month or so. I don't think I will be buying AntsCanada formicariums anymore. Of two I've purchased, I've had troubles in both of them.

Edited by dean_k, March 22 2015 - 7:01 PM.

[AntTeen804]

Sorry to hear

[dspdrew]

I hate when that happens. It's always a mystery.

[Crystals]

Sorry to hear of the die off, at least the queens are okay.  Luckily Myrmica are hardy as long as there are a few workers left.

 

Did you wash the omni nest before using it?  Those plastics often have residual chemicals from factory.  Did you also wash the foam?

 

All else fails, this colony does quite well in a test tube setup.

[dean_k]

I washed the nest briefly since I had to disassemble it before using it but did not wash the foam.

 

I will be putting the formicarium on for sale here probably in near future for almost nothing + shipping.

[drtrmiller]

Some members may disagree, but did you find it odd the amount they were drinking?  They seemed to be constantly hugging the liquid feeders in most of the pictures you showed.

[dean_k]

It was initially because the nest itself had no moisture. I blocked off a chock point into over half of the nest because I felt it was too big. I guess they were looking for moisture another way and hugged the feeders. I did add water to a cotton ball blocking the path daily but obviously it wasn't enough.

 

They are no longer showing such behaviors in growth chamber at the moment since there is plenty of moisture in there.

[drtrmiller]

Dehydration can manifest in similar ways as acute poisoning, and can wipe out a colony as you describe.  That would be my best guess as to what happened, given they were fine for nearly two weeks, save for the odd behavior of not being able to get enough to drink.

Edited by drtrmiller, March 23 2015 - 2:46 PM.

[dean_k]

Sugar water isn't likely the cause. At least not a direct one as I use the same sugar water across all my colonies including the same other Myrmica colony

[Gregory2455]

I do not see how it could have been the nest's fault, can you rerun the hydration system you had going with me?

[dean_k]

March 24, 2015

 

I guess the ants are itching to bounce back.

 

I see that the queens have already laid some eggs and larvae are turning into pupae. I counted no pupae when relocating the colony. I also saw no eggs during the relocation.

 

Edited by dean_k, March 23 2015 - 9:11 PM.

[dean_k]

March 27, 2015

 

The colony is showing signs of revival. I see more eggs and no worker is dying anymore. 3 did die but I think they were going to die regardless due to whatever happened in their previous formicarium.

 

There are also many pupae.