1113 replies to this topic

[Antkeeper01]

yeah

[TennesseeAnts]

1-22-23

Solenopsis xyloni

These girls got into some trouble last night. They chewed through the Arthropod Antics formisquarium, and started escaping through the hydration port. I cleaned them all up and got most of the workers into an XL mini hearth. From there the small minors were able to find a tiny gap between the 3D printed plug and the nest, and were escaping through there. I plugged it up with a lot of cotton this time so hopefully we're good now!

The colony is at roughly 400 workers now, and are about to double in size by the looks of their massive brood pile. Just last month they had a total of 17 workers and some brood! I don't think pictures will come out well in the mini hearth XL but I will try my best this afternoon!

[TennesseeAnts]

3-15-23

 

Solenopsis xyloni

 

My last estimate was very incorrect. It's hard to guess how many fire ants are in a test tube, especially when they won't sit still. They were probably about 150 or so total workers, quite a difference from 400. They've been doing great, and I've been power-feeding them constantly. They're up to 5-600 now, and they are ready for an upgrade from their current XL Mini Hearth, as the entire nest is covered with larvae and pupae about ready to eclose. Unfortunately, I cannot get any pictures of the colony, as the glass on their nest is extremely dirty. Once I get them into the new nest later this week, I will try to get some pictures!

 

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Pheidole dentata

 

These gals are definitely doing better than last year, since my rekindled interest in ants as a whole has allowed me to grow my colonies instead of just maintain them. They're up to about 1.3k workers, and just this last week or two have started producing dozens upon dozens of alates, both male and female. They're taking 5 large crickets a day (or 3 large superworms). I would not be surprised if I can somehow find a way to breed some of these alates in captivity, since all you need to induce their flights in captivity is to add water to their nest. At the start of the year, they actually started producing full sized majors finally, with the largest somewhere around 4-4.5mm. Will update with pictures later today. 

 

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Pheidole pilifera

 

This colony is also doing very well, with around 1,100 workers. Just like with the Ph. dentata, they've begun producing alates, and dozens of them. I'd estimate probably 40-50 alate pupae and larvae total so far. Their food intake has been crazy, and I love watching their very large majors (5-5.5mm) being recruited to help cut up crickets or crush seeds. Overall, they're a very entertaining and fast-growing colony, and I could not be any happier to keep them! So far, they've been primarily living off a combination of seeds, crickets, fruit flies and sugar water. Their majors don't usually come out of the nest, and they only have roughly ~125 or so at any given time. 

 

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Colobopsis impressa

 

This colony has begun producing their first round of alates this year. I estimate around 30 alates in total, around 25 of which are males, with the other 5 being females. They have a surprisingly good feeding response whenever I give them sugar water, apples or mealworm bits. They've done really well so far and have been fun to observe in their hollow grapevine setup. The queen is consistently 8-9mm long when laying eggs, which does not surprise me, given the fact that they lay so few eggs in the founding stages. I always wondered how the small queens could produce enough eggs to maintain a colony of several hundred, but up until recently it didn't occur to me that she'd simply become physogastric. When they fly during May/June/July, C. impressa queens are usually around 5.5-6mm long, which is a far cry from the 8-9mm this queen hovers at. I'll grab some pics of this colony soon!

 

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Pogonomyrmex barbatus

 

When originally purchased, this queen was supposed to be Pogonomyrmex occidentalis. It was not. The two look nothing alike, so I am unsure as to how they were mis-identified. I now have a thriving colony of P. barbatus, nearing 200 workers now with many more on the way by the looks of their large brood pile. The nest is literally 3/4 filled with their massive seed pile, with the other quarter being brood, ants and the occasional mealworm they refuse to throw away. They've been living off Kentucky bluegrass, chia, birdseed mix and whole oats for a while now and have been loving every bit of it.

[ANTdrew]

The Dude is back!

[TennesseeAnts]

I'd also like to share something... 

 

This journal now has over 130,000 views. I'm glad I could be of use to y'all, and hopefully taught you some stuff you didn't know! 

Edited by TennesseeAnts, March 15 2023 - 1:02 PM.

[TennesseeAnts]

The Dude is back!

Yessir, at least for a while! I plan on updating this again, whenever something interesting happens with the colonies I currently have. I don't have the numbers I used to, but the colonies I do have are large and doing very well.

[TennesseeAnts]

3-20-21

 

During the huge windstorm a few weeks ago, my 100-year Oak tree fell. As you can imagine, it is a very large tree. Before we started cutting it up it was 87ft from the root ball to the tallest branch. 

 

Well, there has been a Camponotus pennsylvanicus colony in that tree for as long as I can remember. The colony was in one of the highest branches of the tree, originally founded by a single queen years ago that found a dead section of that branch to be a decent home. Now, the colony is several thousand workers strong, with 17-18mm major workers, hundreds of alates and tons of tiny larvae. As I cut the tree up, I have been collecting as many workers and brood as possible while leaving the alates to be eaten by the birds and various skinks that come around. This morning as I was chopping some sections of the tree into quarters to throw in the fire (collecting the ants first, of course), a mostly wingless queen fell out of one of the galleries. She's missing all but one quarter of a wing, so I am not sure if she is the queen, but she is a queen and I will wait to see if she lays anything before deciding what to do with the colony. I still have about half of the massive tree to cut up, so there is a huge possibility that the egg laying queen is still in the tree. 

 

When (and if) I get the entire colony, I will attempt to relocate them further into the woods, on an abandoned C. chromaiodes nest that seems to have died out a year or two ago. I'll try to keep you guys updated on how this goes, since I'm really hoping I can save this wonderful colony and watch them working hard in their woodland habitat this summer! 

[ANTdrew]

Best of luck with the rescue!

[TennesseeAnts]

A short upload for now:

 

[TennesseeAnts]

We've decided to start up the TennesseeAnts Discord server again. This will have a more professional format than its predecessor, and hopefully with a new team of trusted Staff, we will keep this server active and beneficial to antkeepers new and old! 

 

Please consider helping us grow this community: https://discord.gg/rVQTq4CwQg

 

(bear with me here as I get everything streamlined; bots, welcome messages, integrations, roles, etc.)

[DRpepper]

We've decided to start up the TennesseeAnts Discord server again. This will have a more professional format than its predecessor, and hopefully with a new team of trusted Staff, we will keep this server active and beneficial to antkeepers new and old! 

 

Please consider helping us grow this community: https://discord.gg/rVQTq4CwQg

 

(bear with me here as I get everything streamlined; bots, welcome messages, integrations, roles, etc.)

should i join again ant man   

[TennesseeAnts]

Here's some pictures of one of my founding Trachymyrmex queens:

 

 

 

 

 

[Flu1d]

Here's some pictures of one of my founding Trachymyrmex queens:

So beautiful.. I hope I can catch some of the local Trachymyrmex septentrionalis queens around here.

[ANTdrew]

When did you collect these?

[TennesseeAnts]

When did you collect these?

I got them off a friend in a trade a while ago. I've also got two established colonies in my collection, both of which were collected from my neighbor's property. One is larger, with between 60 and 70 workers, and the second is probably 20-30 workers strong. I suspect this smaller colony is a younger one, probably founded last year. All my T. septentrionalis have been taking oats and Oak catkins without fail, but the catkins have been the best for growth so far. As soon as I drop some into the enclosure the workers start cutting them up and carrying them to the fungus.

[TennesseeAnts]

4/28/23

 

Pogonomyrmex badius

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Got a small colony of these super cool ants from Anthony a few days ago. Really great condition, they arrived with twelve workers, a major worker and a healthy-looking queen. They have several larvae, and the queen has already laid a small batch of ten or so eggs. So far they've taken a mealworm, a few chia and dandelion seeds and some Kentucky bluegrass seeds. Their major worker seems to be doing most of the work as far as cutting up and gathering food, which is interesting. The minor workers are far more timid than my P. barbatus are, but that colony also has several hundred workers, so my sample size is skewed. I will update with some decent pictures of the P. badius tomorrow, once I get the lid of their Formisquarium cleaned. 

[TennesseeAnts]

As promised, I got pictures of the P. badius colony:

 

 

 

 

 

(I don't think they like chia seeds very much)

Edited by TennesseeAnts, April 30 2023 - 5:28 PM.

[TennesseeAnts]

The Trachymyrmex situation: 

 

 

 

 

[TennesseeAnts]

Pogonomyrmex barbatus growth so far: 

 

[TennesseeAnts]

Pheidole bicarinata with their first major larva: