116 replies to this topic

[ANTdrew]

Keep freshly killed insects and a nectar source available to her at all times. That way she can decide when to feed and when not to. Fat ants are happy ants.

[P0rcelain]

roger that

[Da_NewAntOnTheBlock]

Keep freshly killed insects and a nectar source available to her at all times. That way she can decide when to feed and when not to. Fat ants are happy ants.

If only humans were like ants sometimes. Choose your food given to you by some god, no cost, feast yourself, etc. Seems like a good life some ants got... 

[P0rcelain]

cannot find any insects outside atm
there is a ton of smoke from wildfires in my area

so what has happened outside, it looks like

is that the wild ants have all gone out to forage

but the smoke is covering up their chem trails

so they are just scattered all over the place, lost

and killing anything that they come across in the confusion

on top of the smoke sort of just being really discouraging for any insects that were thinking of coming out today

[ANTdrew]

Damn. Climate change bearing it’s claws, I guess. If you want your colonies to thrive, though, you’ll need to pay out for some kind of feeder insect. Fruit-flies, roaches, crickets, and mealworms are the easiest. There are tutorials on this forum on how to raise your own.

[P0rcelain]

it is fine, i will go insect hunting when the smoke clears this afternoon

it is from a huge fire (100,000 ha) 40 km away, so just a slight change in the wind will clear it up

hopefully, anyway

Edited by P0rcelain, December 8 2019 - 3:05 PM.

[P0rcelain]

the smog stayed around all day but i have managed to catch and kill a tiny insect regardless

Edited by P0rcelain, December 8 2019 - 11:55 PM.

[P0rcelain]

should i stop posting here and start a journal? we are up to 5 pages and this is starting to get messy

[Formicoidea]

Nice dude! Good to see those eggs are hatching.
Hope those fires don't spread to you man. We've had some close but thankfully nothing that big.
For those who haven't heard we are getting terrible bushfires this year.

If you want to start a journal go for it. I don't mind this, it's pretty chill.

Sent from my motorola one macro using Tapatalk

[P0rcelain]

ok, i will consider starting one

for the time being, i will say that the little insect i put outside her tube disappeared this morning

so suspicions have been confirmed

she is definitely semiclaustral

and she might be nocturnal too, or alternatively she just acts early in the morning

who knows

i am trying to get my hands on something bigger

but a lot of nicely sized beetles are surprisingly hard to catch

they are very fast

i might need a mug or something as opposed to just catching them in my tweezers

[P0rcelain]

well, it was messy af

and not the fast, humane kill i wanted it to be

but i caught a small flying beetle in a mug

tried to kill it with tweezers several time

decided it was faster than me, so drowned it

then crushed it with the tweezers while it was immobilized from the water

i really need to get better at killing things

but the good news is

that i have a nicely sized bit of food for my queen that should last her longer than just one night

[ANTdrew]

Placing insects in the freezer for a while is an easy humane way to kill them.

[P0rcelain]

*facepalms*
 

i really should had thought of that

[P0rcelain]

caught some tiny little flies from a huge swarm of them which were congregating around dog poop

i am freezing them now

i also checked on the queen and she has actually broken up my last meal and has it mingling with the pile of larvae

she has not touched the beetle yet

which could mean the larvae do not need feeding (likely, since there is still food in there)

or it could mean they do not eat beetles

i will have to wait to find out

 

edit: i must say i am a big fan of this freezing technique

even if it is not proven to totally get rid of mites, it seems like it would be quite effective and it is an easy way to store insects for later use too

Edited by P0rcelain, December 11 2019 - 3:13 PM.

[P0rcelain]

i just checked the fully claustral queen for the first time in a while and she is out of water

i will attach a fresh test tube to her current one and hope she moves in

also her eggs have not hatched but that is not a surprise considering the  moisture is basically gone

[P0rcelain]

she is quite confused and she does not look too well

hopefully she decides to move her brood into the new tube

the old one actually still looks a little moist so she could take a while

and she is probably still drinking

she might actually just be fine and it is my human emotions reading way too into things

Edited by P0rcelain, December 11 2019 - 3:31 PM.

[P0rcelain]

she has moved her eggs

...just a tiny bit further down her old tube

i am beginning to think i could be waiting for some time

should i be worried about her running out of air in there?

[P0rcelain]

for now i am going to be a little bit more forceful

i will put the setup in direct light (it was in my closet) and see if she moves her eggs into the shade of the new tube

[P0rcelain]

a while ago the fully claustral queen had her first batch of worker ants

when should i be feeding them? atm they are very inactive and lethargic. probably reserving energy, i think.

[Formicoidea]

a while ago the fully claustral queen had her first batch of worker ants
when should i be feeding them? atm they are very inactive and lethargic. probably reserving energy, i think.

Congrats man! That's awesome!
Feed them as soon as they have workers, sugars for the workers and protein for the new brood.
Can we get pics?