157 replies to this topic

[Kalidas]

Just fill a plant pot with Orbeez, some fertilizer and the plant. Then see if it grows without water. People at the store are going to be looking at me like I'm crazy when they see me with a giant pack of Orbeez

Well it is what they were orginally invented for. Should be fun to see if they work well with ants or not

[Da_NewAntOnTheBlock]

yeah, I might just scoop up some pharoah ants and see what they do

[Da_NewAntOnTheBlock]

Hello fellow Camponotus Keepers- it's Febuary which means sadly (or happily), diapause is winding down to a close. I will see, but I'm planning on taking my colony out around the end of March depending on how things go.

[TennesseeAnts]

Mine have been out for a month now.

[Serafine]

I have 4 Camponotus colonies. I have realized only one of them eat the dead workers. Is that common? I was told they don’t waste the protein. My other Camponotus colony leaves their dead in the outworld. Both are c chromaiodes.

 

My C. barbaricus (species from southern Europe) sometimes eat their dead but not regularly. There are species well-known for eating their dead though like the asian C. nicobarensis.
 

Camponotus generally need a broad diet, always eating the same stuff isn't good for them (well, that's true for most ants).

 

You can also try feeding them pee (don't if you use any medicine or drink a lot of caffein) or urea (you can get clean urea from the pharmacy, just use a TINY amount like the tip of a knife and mix some sugar into the water as well) - Camponotus have an endosymbiont called Blochmannia which can break down urea and use it to create a number of vital amino acids (they're mostly important for brood development).

[Da_NewAntOnTheBlock]

I don't want to know how you found that one out... lol

[ForestDragon]

I don't want to know how you found that one out... lol

it was a hot topic last year, its so weird

[Da_NewAntOnTheBlock]

wow lol

[Serafine]

It's actually official now, at least for one australian Camponotus species: https://www.research...nd_for_nitrogen

[NickAnter]

Yeah, the whole urine thing was a very common topic last year.  Was in quite a few journals, and was mentioned a lot in the chat.

[Da_NewAntOnTheBlock]

there must have been some very interesting conversations last year lol

[ANTdrew]

Time to edit the title of this thread, too. Change Camponoutous to Camponotus

[ForestDragon]

Time to edit the title of this thread, too. Change Camponoutous to Camponotus

oh wow just noticed that and I'm going nuts

[Da_NewAntOnTheBlock]

You can stop being my Formica queen when I check on her lol. I changed it

[Acutus]

 

I have 4 Camponotus colonies. I have realized only one of them eat the dead workers. Is that common? I was told they don’t waste the protein. My other Camponotus colony leaves their dead in the outworld. Both are c chromaiodes.

 

My C. barbaricus (species from southern Europe) sometimes eat their dead but not regularly. There are species well-known for eating their dead though like the asian C. nicobarensis.
 

Camponotus generally need a broad diet, always eating the same stuff isn't good for them (well, that's true for most ants).

 

You can also try feeding them pee (don't if you use any medicine or drink a lot of caffein) or urea (you can get clean urea from the pharmacy, just use a TINY amount like the tip of a knife and mix some sugar into the water as well) - Camponotus have an endosymbiont called Blochmannia which can break down urea and use it to create a number of vital amino acids (they're mostly important for brood development).

 

 

Hmmmmmmm I may try adding bird mutes to the diet. I keep Raptors so I have a plentiful supply!     

I have C. chromaiodes and C. castaneus. You think this would apply?

Edited by Acutus, February 14 2020 - 1:10 PM.

[Da_NewAntOnTheBlock]

I read a article on bird mute (sadly, and now I wish I didn't), and I don't know personally. Unless the bird mute is extremely close to human urine, I wouldn't risk it. But that's just me.

[RushmoreAnts]

National Geographic would have a great time putting this into one of their "Weird But True" kids' books.

[Da_NewAntOnTheBlock]

"Weird, But Extremely Disturbing and We Don't Even know If We Should Be Selling This to Kids"

[Acutus]

Well since I have such access to the Urates of owls I decided to take some dried flakes of it and put it in 2 C. chromaiodes colonies and my C. castaneus colony. All 3 originally showed interest. The castaneus almost just as quickly lost interest. The Chromaiodes on the other hand continued to try and manipulate, carry, move or whatever the rather largeish flakes I put in.

 

I will next crush the dried urates into powder and offer it that way. I could also rehydrate the powder.

 

I read a article on bird mute (sadly, and now I wish I didn't), and I don't know personally. Unless the bird mute is extremely close to human urine, I wouldn't risk it. But that's just me.

Could you summarize what you read and how that pertains? I believe much of this study was started by observing species of ant actually using bird droppings as a nutrient source. (am I correct on this anyone)

[Da_NewAntOnTheBlock]

It was just on what bird mutes were, (after that I didn't want to read more), but I suppose if there was a lab analysis of bird mutes compared to human urine, you would get a definitive answer... I'm just not the guy for this lol. Maybe you could conduct an experiment on this yourself...