40 replies to this topic

[antwall]

I have been keeping ants for a few months now, and I finally decided to make a journal on them!

10/8/19 Update
Hypoponera opacior


I caught a winged queen of this species on 10/7/19 in San Jose, CA on the sidewalk, and she has shed her wings in the dirt covered test tube setup I gave her. I am later going to connect a foraging container to the tube and feed springtails today. Do they like sugary foods, or do they only want protein?

Tetramorium immigrans

I caught two queens of this species during early June, and one of them is living in a homemade sand jar ant farm with thirty workers, while the other one produces and eats lots of her brood, for unknown reasons.

Nylanderia vividula
The colony a few months ago.


The ants in their jar.


I found a queen of this species in a massive multi-species nuptial flight of Solenopsis molesta, Linepithema humile males, and Nylanderia vividula in July. The queen has ten workers, with many more soon to come, and they are also housed in a sand jar ant farm like the Tetras and Pogonomyrmex.

Solenopsis xyloni
A dead queen.


Sand Jar Setup


I purchased two different two queen colonies of S. xyloni from AntPhycho a while back, and when one of the queens died from mites that came from invading argentine ants that were held off by the majors, I combined the two colonies in an attempt to have at least two healthy queens survive. One of the other queens died from argentine ants invading, and now they are in another homemade sand jar ant farm.

Pogonomyrmex rugosus
The tubes setup.


The jar setup.


I purchased four P. rugosus queens from AntPhycho, and they arrived a few days ago, and all of them had eggs. I also purchased a seed mix from him, and they love it! I moved the most successful queen into a sand jar ant farm, and the queen dug a claustral chamber, and hid away.

Edited by antwall, December 3 2019 - 12:39 AM.

[AntPhycho]

Best of luck my friend    I'll be following this 

[antwall]

10/12/19 Update

All the ants now have heated setups for faster growth. The local argentine ants are really getting on my nerves, and they have attacked many colonies. My ants however, are very well defended.

Ants

Hypoponera opacior

The queen has laid a single egg and has accepted mealworm pupae. She is also very nervous all the time.

Tetramorium immigrans

Nom Nom Nom



The sand jar colony is eating a small chunk of mealworm and has 35 workers now, while the one queen has been hiding in the sand within her test tube. The jar colony has been defended well by the workers, and not a single worker has died.

Nylanderia vividula

They are now up to 20 workers and have dug extensive tunnels in the whole jar. They have very potent formic acid, to the point where a hundred argentine ants were defeated in an hour. I probably do not have to worry about this colony dying very soon.

Solenopsis xyloni

The workers don't exit the nest through the main hole anymore, and they just dig tunnels to wherever the feeders and food pieces are. The worker count is now 40, and counting. The workers are fully sized as well, so they are doing better against the invasion of argentine ants. They have also been producing a lot of major pupae, probably to easily defend their jar from future raids. I saw that the majors were gaster flagging the argentine ants. The argentine ants seem to be paralyzed when they get gaster flagged, and the workers then rip up the argentine ants with ease. I knew that fire ants were fighters, but this is just ridiculous!

Pogonomyrmex rugosus

I put another queen into a sand jar, and she has also dug a chamber. Strangely, all four P. rugosus queens were not attacked, and all but one have eggs.

Feeders

Mealworms(Tenebrio molitor)

I have a few thousand mealworms and beetles in a critter keeper, and the eat a carrot daily. I have found that the beetles will drink from test tube setups, so I don't feed them carrots too much anymore. They have bran bedding.

Springtails(Collembola)

The springtail culture I started is doing okay, and there are a few in a jar with some moldy food, and they have swarmed the mold. The substrate used is charcoal.

Edited by antwall, October 15 2019 - 7:21 AM.

[ANTdrew]

A tray filled with vinegar helped stop Tapinoma sessile ants from getting in my set ups. They could walk right over plain water though. Maybe something like that could help?

[Major]

pics?

[NickAnter]

Interesting. The nylanderia here in the wild are ultra passive towards argentines. They do hunt Cardiocondyla though. They are slowly gaining territory in our neighborhood, bit by bit. Oh, and a tip on the Nylanderia; feed them a lot, even if it seems too much. That is the secret to success with them.

Edited by NickAnter, October 13 2019 - 3:16 PM.

[antwall]

Can someone help me post photos on iPad? When I figure out, I will use photos in all my updates.

[AntPhycho]

1. Make an account on Imgur (https://imgur.com/)

2. Press "New Post"

3. It will allow you to select a picture from your device.

4. Imgur will bring you to a page where you can see the image you uploaded and (if you want) it will allow you to add a title to the post.

-Hover over the picture you uploaded until it shows you 3 dots ( ... ). Click on those three dots

5. Press "Get Share Links"

6. It will show you four different links. Copy the one that says "BBCode (Forums)"

7. Paste that link anywhere on your post. The image will be embedded. 

[antwall]

It says it can’t do BBCodes on the app or the mobile site.

[DDD101DDD]

I think you can do it like you normally would on a computer on an Ipad.

[Da_NewAntOnTheBlock]

A tray filled with vinegar helped stop Tapinoma sessile ants from getting in my set ups. They could walk right over plain water though. Maybe something like that could help?

My colonies have never been attacked. A pharaoh ant hasn't come into the room I house my ants yet, which is kind of bizarre, but also why I house they in that specific room.

[AntPhycho]

It says it can’t do BBCodes on the app or the mobile site.

 It should be able to generate them on the website.  

[antwall]

It works now.

Edited by antwall, October 14 2019 - 6:18 PM.

[antwall]

I will now update the posts.

Edited by antwall, October 14 2019 - 6:18 PM.

[antwall]

Update 10/15/19

The argentine ants have finally stopped attacking, and now are in hibernation


Pogonomyrmex rugosus

That is a lot of eggs...


The P. rugosus have all produced big balls of eggs but one, which is probably infertile.

Camponotus cf.vicinus

The two queens


The nest


The outworld


I was busy collecting bark for my new outworld setup, and this massive 2+ queen colony was living inside! They are currently in diapause until next year.
Feeders

Mealworms(Tenebrio molitor)

Appetite is increasing, now they need to eat carrots and potatoes with a side of jelly.

Springtails(Collembola)

They have eaten all the mold.

[AntPhycho]

Update 10/15/19


I was busy collecting bark for my new outworld setup, and this massive 2+ queen colony was living inside! They are currently in diapause until next year.
 

You are very lucky!   Being able to collect established, developed colonies is a very scarce treat in California.

[antwall]

Update 10/22/19

I did some trading with JenC and bought a few queens from him. I also got a colony of ants from RobertJ. Almost all my ants will be going into diapause.

Ants

Brachymyrmex patagonicus

I caught two of these queens and have them in the same test tube setup. They have laid eggs and are very inactive.

So tiny.


Hypoponera opacior

The queen has accepted a single fruit fly and has hidden in the dirt. Do they hibernate like other ants?

Tetramorium immigrans

Only around two workers are outside of the nest at a time, and they are almost always idle. When I gave them fruit flies, they went into a feeding frenzy and took them all.

Nylanderia vividula

This colony has a brood pile of sixty pupae, a pile of eggs the same size, and a couple of large larvae. They have eaten many fruit flies and will not stop.The worker count is twenty.

Solenopsis xyloni

There must have been an underground population boom, since they keep sending out more and more workers, trying to escape. They don’t eat too much, and they dig even more tunnels now.

Pogonomyrmex rugosus

I traded away two on these queens, which were in test tubes, to JenC for some Camponotus clarithorax, vicinus, and maritimus. The remaining two queens are in sand jar setups with at least a hundred eggs.

Camponotus vicinus

The big colony of these is inactive in their piece of wood, and seem to be preparing for hibernation. The small colony is very active with around eight workers and a pile of larvae.



Camponotus fragilis

I bought a colony of these from RobertJ for a good price, and they were in a THA Nucleus with around 400 workers. They ate a box of thirty crickets in one feeding, and it was fun to watch the majors cut up the food. I also gave them a little bit of bloodworms. They are normally fed on mealworm pieces and Sunburst Ant Nectar colored blue. They have many cocoons, and lots of majors. The blue color has made their gasters blue.

The nest


The outworld


Camponotus clarithorax

I have two one queen colonies, got them from trading with JenC, one of them has fourty workers, and fourty mini larvae. The other has around ten workers and three large larvae. They are entering pre-hibernation.

Big colony


Small colony


Camponotus us-ca02

I bought one of these queens with workers from JenC, and the colony is now in a AntsCanada Hybrid Nest Mini. They have one cocoon and a pile of eggs and larvae.



Camponotus maritimus

I also got this queen from trading with JenC, she has a decent brood pile, and a few workers. She is very fat and lays a lot of eggs.



Camponotus cf. hyatti

I bought this two queen colony from JenC, and they have a couple workers with some larvae. They are very irritable, and bite whatever enters their tube(including my finger).



Feeders

Mealworms/Beetles(Tenebrio molitor)

I finally have pictures of the beetles!



Springtails(Collembola)

I dropped in some rotten grape tomatoes, and they ate mold that grew on it. Their numbers are rapidly increasing.



Fruit Flies(Drosophila melanogaster)

I got a few to feed to ants, and they are an ant miracle food! All ants love it!

Edited by antwall, October 22 2019 - 2:15 PM.

[Kalidas]

Hey Antwall how did you treat the bark you found to make sure it was safe? I had a similar idea

Edited by Kalidas, October 22 2019 - 3:52 PM.

[antwall]

I was, but there were ants inside.

[Kalidas]

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?