40 replies to this topic

[antwall]

Nope.

[antwall]

How do I edit the journal title?

[ANTdrew]

Go to the very first post and choose Use Full Editor

[Kaban_Kabanus]

Very interesting photos! It will be great if you can make them even better and in more numbers

[Kaelwizard]

Like did you do anything special to make sure it was safe for the ants? Like to avoid pesticides, or a way to disinfect it?

Why would he need to? There were ants already living in it so it is probably pretty safe.

[antwall]

Go to the very first post and choose Use Full Editor

Thanks!

[ponerinecat]

Is the hypoponera alive? they can eat sugars, but soak it into paper first

[antwall]

Yes, they are alive.

[antwall]

The Nylanderia brood room

[antwall]

Update 11/10/19

Most of my ants are now in hibernation, and there will be much shorter updates now. Pictures will be back soon.

Ants

Brachymyrmex patagonicus

One queen has died. The other has a few eggs.

Hypoponera opacior

The queen took in a few more fruit flies, but ate her egg.

Tetramorium immigrans

They are now in diapause.

Nylanderia vividula

The colony is growing way too fast. They have dug out new brood rooms an all of the rooms are filled with pupae, large larvae, and eggs. They are never satisfied with the amount of fruit flies I give them, and they are very good hunters, just swarming everything that moves.

Solenopsis xyloni

This young super colony has been going crazy trying to escape. They are now being fed on a mixed diet of crickets, fruit flies, and mealworms. The majors seem to be very shy, and run away when I open the jar.

Pogonomyrmex rugosus

Only one of my two queens still has a big bundle of eggs, and they have started hatching into small larvae. The other queen has a small bundle of eggs.

Camponotus vicinus

They are now in diapause.

Camponotus fragilis

I gave them a whole box of large carry out crickets from Petco, and they are dragging in the crickets to the nest for processing. They process the food in their waste chamber, and only occupy one side of the nest.

Camponotus clarithorax

They are now in diapause.

Camponotus us-ca02

All the ants have moved into one chamber, and they have a fresh batch of mini larvae and a couple cocoons.

Camponotus maritimus

They are now in diapause.

Camponotus cf. hyatti

They are now in diapause.

Novomessor cockereli

I bought this one queen, three worker colony from drew, and they have been move into a sand jar setup. The queen has just laid ten egg, has a large larva and a medium larva.

Feeders

Mealworms/Beetles(Tenebrio molitor)

I have been splitting them up into many bins for selling and to prevent overpopulation of the original container.

Springtails(Collembola)

They have an insane growth rate. Too many springs. I opened the jar, and they are all over my table, and most are still in the jar.

Fruit Flies(Drosophila melanogaster)

I now have three jars, and still cannot have them produce enough for the Nylanderia.

[ponerinecat]

the hypoponera queen eating her egg is to be expected, they routinely eat larvae as well. You can try brood boosting, as they readily accept it and colonies are very common.

[antwall]

Where can I find me some hypoponera colonies?

[ponerinecat]

look under rocks and in semi rotten wood, generally half buried. They like damp places so gardens are great, as are flowerpots. You can find them right under rocks, but may need to dig an inch or 3 to find the brood chambers.

[antwall]

Argentine ants are the majority of the ants in my area, I live in San Jose, know any good spots?

[YsTheAnt]

Any of the Hillier areas away from the city have loads of ants.

[antwall]

Would hypoponera be hibernating now?

Any of the Hillier areas away from the city have loads of ants.

Should I be worried about ticks?

[YsTheAnt]

Yes, there are a lot of ticks in the hills. I would wear light colored clothing and full sleeves and pants.

[ponerinecat]

generally hypoponera are not affected by srgentine populations. Anywhere damp and sheltered is a good place to look.

[antwall]

Update 12/3/19

I won’t post too much around Christmas time, but will do a big update afterwards.

Ants

Brachymyrmex patagonicus

One of the two queens died, but then I got a four queen, two hundred worker super colony from lehawk, and tried to merge the queen with the colony. I don’t know if they merged successfully. The queens and brood are hiding in their straw test tube entrance. They are living in a tubs and tubes setup.



Tetramorium immigrans

I got another colony of these from lehawk, which is housed in a tubs and tubes setup. They have around thirty workers with one queen, all cramming themselves in that little straw with a mountain of brood.




Nylanderia vividula

All the larvae from before have pupated and eclosed, as did the pupae from before. They now have one hundred pupae, about three hundred larvae, and five hundred eggs. They have a worker count of at least three hundred, and soon I will have to move them into a new setup. I got pictures of only a small portion of their brood.

The tunnels


A little bit of brood



Solenopsis xyloni

They have died from mites, buying some hypoaspis mites soon.

Pogonomyrmex rugosus

One of the queens has eaten all her brood, and the other has only twenty eggs left.

Camponotus vicinus

The smaller vicinus colony was getting crowded in their tube, so I moved them into a plaster nest.



Camponotus fragilis

All of the cocoons have eclosed, and they are now at a population of 400-500, and the queen has produced loads of mini larvae and eggs.

Quintuple trophallaxis!


Camponotus clarithorax

I gave the smaller colony in the plaster nest to lehawk, and the bigger colony in the Empire of the Ants PH nest has been given some sand to mess around with.

Camponotus us-ca02

The cocoon has eclosed, bringing their population up to 18. The queen is sometimes too fat to go through some tunnels! The larva pile is up to 30 small larvae!

Camponotus cf. hyatti

Well, apparently these are clarithorax.

Novomessor cockereli

I promise I will get a photo with the queen and brood soon, hopefully tomorrow. The two larvae became pupae and eclosed, then I found a dead worker in the outworld with a crushed gaster. The population is now 4, and there is a fresh batch of mid-sized larvae eating a piece of roach now.

Monomorium ergatogyna

I got this thirty worker, one queen colony from lehawk. They are currently housed in a test tube setup, with a piece of tubing on the end for feeding. I plan on moving them into a mini hearth soon, since it is getting to be tough to feed them.



Feeders

I will no longer be updating this section here, maybe on an off topic journal in the future.

Edited by antwall, December 3 2019 - 8:18 AM.

[antwall]

Oh no! Another novomessor worker died! It had no symptoms of being crushed, it is sitting there, with a small little antenna movement every now and then. And they ate most of their larvae!