56 replies to this topic

[Broncos]

no pics inside the nest?

Not yet. They are still digging like crazy and I can't quite get a good photo.

[Broncos]

Wow... just wow. These ants have to be growing about 5x faster than my formica francoeuri colony. They are at about 200 workers. I know this because there are about 70 workers foraging 24/7 and about 100 workers after they have discovering food. I'll be getting a photo once I feed them. I can't get a good view on the brood because I think the rest of the colony is at the bottom of the terrarium.

[Broncos]

These guys are at around 220 workers strong. Queen is still alive and there has only been 2-3 deaths

[Broncos]

I would say this colony is at about 250 workers. They are still doing great and nothing has really changed.

[Broncos]

Again nothing has really changed. I havent seen a huge boom in population but there still is a steady growth.

[Broncos]

This colony definitely has more than 500 workers. My novomessor colony was so cramped in their formicarium. So I needed the 5 gallon terrarium. But I had a 40 gallon terrarium after my bearded dragon died. So I went to palm desert and got 40 gallons of dirt. When I came home, I dumped 30 gallons of dirt into the 40 gallon tank and added some plants and dumped some water in until all of the dirt was moist. Then I added the ants after aspirating the whole colony. They are excavating like crazy nonstop! Most of the heated area of the nest is a bunch of mounds. Photo coming soon

[Broncos]

Still more than 500 workers. Lots of brood and they are looking for food a lot more for some reason. Maybe because winter is coming or they have more larva.

[Broncos]

I would say about 600 workers by now. I don't see the brood at all because of the formicarium size but they are always hungry for sweets and protein!

[Broncos]

I need to get some sort of heating for these ants. The queen hasent died but production is slow and there is only about 30 workers foraging at a time. When I give them food that thirty turns into about 100 really quick so I know they still have large numbers.

Edited by Broncos, May 11 2021 - 9:12 AM.

[Broncos]

This colony probably has more than a thousand workers. Every Tuesday i give em some pizza and they go crazy for it. I might need to start giving them more as they are growing extremely quickly. I've also seen some male and female alates.

Edited by Broncos, October 6 2021 - 3:03 PM.

[DaAnt]

What seeds are you feeding them?

[Antkeeper01]

Pizza? what kind?

[Dumpling]

Pizza? what kind?

I sure hope it doesn't have pinapples. Pinapples aren't good on pizza for ants and humans alike.

[Broncos]

What seeds are you feeding them?

Normally amaranth but I've been feeding them walnuts as well

 

Pizza? what kind?

I sure hope it doesn't have pinapples. Pinapples aren't good on pizza for ants and humans alike.

 

No it was just pepperoni

[Broncos]

1500+ workers by now They've also been digging A LOT more as well. Buried one of my test tubes overnight lol. They've taken about 10-20 walnuts easily over the past couple days. I'm expecting a major population boost. I just don't know what I'm going to do if they somehow outgrow the terrarium. I think they have plenty of digging room because they haven't dug up too much against the glass.

[Broncos]

2000 workers easily now. They're eating anything I give them. I was giving them dspdrews seed mixture but at the rate they were eating them, I would have run out in a couple weeks. So I'm sticking to crushed walnuts and almonds. There are several hundred alates that keep trying to fly in the formicarium. I accidentally left one of the lids off overnight and I woke up to several taking off on my floor and desk... it wasn't fun collecting them up.

[Broncos]

Still some crazy progress on this colony. 2,500 workers by now. Absorbing as much food as they can.