130 replies to this topic

[OhNoNotAgain]

Previous post cont'd.

 

So basically, I separated the satellite colony out on 5.21. I've occasionally added other ants from the main colony to the satellite without problems.

The dying queen I added got attacked. 

But now, 7.9, about 1.5 months after the separation, the satellite ants are no longer recognized as sisters. Could be in part because I've fed some fruit flies, sugar water, and dubia to the main colony but not the satellite (hence they've had different food)? Either way 6-7 weeks apart and the scent recognition is gone.

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, July 9 2020 - 6:14 PM.

[ANTdrew]

Dang. You should be able to glue the magnets on a replacement piece of glass. Hopefully that’s not the museum glass.

[OhNoNotAgain]

Dang. You should be able to glue the magnets on a replacement piece of glass. Hopefully that’s not the museum glass.

 

Yup it is. 

I've ordered some clear plexiglass that is hopefully flat enough. In the meantime finding 3.75 inch x 3.75 inch replacement glass is NOT EASY.

[OhNoNotAgain]

2020.7.11

 

Notes on VP3 and VA1:

 

VP3: 5 queen poly Veromessor pergandei group: Was found by nurbs in Barstow in 2020. They were already in a group of 6 when he found them.

It's interesting to watch them - I get the vague impression three of them are absolutely addicted to chewing cotton into wet rope. One seems to be more interested in foraging among the seeds. One other seems more interested in cotton, but I have seen her foraging. I could be wrong and they could be just rotating their roles for all I know.

 

VA1: 1 queen Veromessor andrei: Was found by nurbs in Santa Anita back in 2019.

 

VP1: The solo queen with the 500+ worker colony, was *probably* found by Ant Guy, last year (2019). I'm not quite sure where in SoCal. She passed through another owner before coming to me so it's a little vague.

 

VP2: The colony that died, was found by Ant Guy last year (2019) in SoCal.

[OhNoNotAgain]

2020.7.14

I got a small piece of the plexiglass I ordered and used it to replace the glass of the Fallen Fortress. Used the glass' magnets to hold it down. (You can pry them off as the glue is malleable.) I did not glue them in place on the plexiglass - I got the impression Mack of THA doesn't glue down his own either.

Today I dumped out the 5 queen VP3 from their short test tube and into the Fallen Fortress outworld. Now, some hours later, they are simply clustered in the outworld corner. One of the nanitics did go in the nest, but they don't seem excited about moving in. I'm a little concerned maybe they don't like plexiglass? We shall see.

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, July 14 2020 - 2:11 PM.

[ANTdrew]

Myrmy’s Law: ants will always do the opposite of what you want or expect.

[OhNoNotAgain]

2020.7.14 One more update from earlier.

I stole some brood from VP3 (heck, they still haven't moved into the nest, aside from two workers and a few larvae) and gave it to the sadly decimated VP1-satellite mini-hearth. It's just a little experiment.

The brood has magically appeared in the nest and some of the few remaining nursery ants seem to be interested in the brood.

 

EDIT:

2020.7.15

The VP3 queens have moved into the nest. They are all over the water tower with the brood.

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, July 15 2020 - 9:11 AM.

[OhNoNotAgain]

2020.8.6

 

Are your Veromessors bored? Do they long to take on an epic challenge? Are they lounging around with nothing to do?

For a real ant challenge, give your bored Veromessors a fresh, unpeeled, unhulled, unsprayed sunflower seed.

 

This pic is from yesterday but they were still going at it this morning. Here's the weird thing. I cracked one seed open to expose the kernel and offered it at the same time. They were MUCH more interested in the whole seed. Apparently they like a challenge? Go figure. The seed made it into the nest yesterday, but now it's out of the nest. They haven't opened it. The one I pre-opened is already in the trash (haven't checked to see if they took all the kernel out).

 

 

And just for fun, here's the Vero1 colony today. The outworld is unusually quiet (I guess desert noon is Veromessor nap time).

But they are uh ... definitely in the hundreds.

 

[ANTdrew]

Ants make no sense. That’s Myrmy’s Law for you right there.
Awesome colony, though.

[OhNoNotAgain]

2020.8.27 

Fast update.

 

(1) I moved VP1, the big colony overflowing its Labyrinth, into a different room - I need to gradually move all the ants out of the dining room. They still need a bigger formicarium but not doing that for a while.

(2) VP3 lost another queen. Found her dead in the trash pile. Down to 4 queens from original 6. About 50 workers, barely filling one chamber of the Fallen Fortress, with no extra heat.

(3) VA, the andrei colony, is now occupying two test tubes. I put in a spare tube because the first one is running out of water. The first tube has a big seed repository. The cotton in both is SO black and gross I can't find the queen.    The tub's Fluon is no longer holding them back, so I have to watch out for escapees.

[OhNoNotAgain]

2020.7.14 Nother fast update.

Houston, we have a problem with VP1. It's too crowded. 

Remember the Fluon went? Yeah. What Fluon.

Also, if you give V. pergandei a bit of food, for some reason everyone apparently decides it's a perfect time to go foraging, and it triggers a massive outflow of ants from the nest and they TRY to go foraging in their little outworld. A massive river of black ants all trying to forage at once.

Net result: they are escaping. Apparently the lid has to be completely firmly totally in place.

 

This is why I'm starting to think about culinary adventures in pergandei workers....

 

How many ants do you think are here? Yeah I may need that Labyrinth XXL or Nucleus, or ant cookbook.

 

[M_Ants]

So I have a 3 queen colony that's growing pretty fast. The more I read your journal the more I fear their future. Should I ditch them before it's too late?

[TechAnt]

Woah...that's a lot of damage ants.

 

what's Vero nap time like? Still crowded?

Edited by TechAnt, September 14 2020 - 9:06 PM.

[ANTdrew]

This colony looks really amazing. Seems like you have plenty of nest space, but they definitely need more foraging area. My two cents is that it’ll be a lot cheaper to make your own big outworld and attach it with tubing to the current set up. Watching ants traverse long tubing is really entertaining in its own right.
This box would work nicely: https://www.amazon.c...ob_b_asin_title

Edited by ANTdrew, September 15 2020 - 2:36 AM.

[OhNoNotAgain]

What's funny is I went to check on them, and on the desk they're on, I see an escaped worker from last night painstakingly trying to drag back some ancient crumb of something possibly edible (I have no idea what, because I don't use this desk except for storage and I haven't seriously used it in over a decade).

It would be kind of cool to have (non-venomous non-spraying) ants patrolling the house, if only they didn't have the bad habit of deciding to move the queen and brood out.

 

ANTDrew: Yeah, I have to clear out more space on the desk AND their outworld doesn't have any connector holes, so I would have to drill something in the outworld (or possibly take out their THA nestmate from the side of the nest and use that hole instead, which would sort of suck as it's one of their primary sources of water). I do have a spare outworld that I used for fraggles a while ago. 

Yeah it is fun having tubing running around the room, except of course the movement constantly makes me think "ARGENTINE INVASION!" or "ESCAPEES!" ... both of which raise my blood pressure. lol

 

So I have a 3 queen colony that's growing pretty fast. The more I read your journal the more I fear their future. Should I ditch them before it's too late?

 

Haha uh ... up to you. If you don't heat them and don't feed them a lot maybe it won't go too badly? Or break out the ant cookbooks like I'm considering....

This is why I'm not heating my 4 queen group at ALL.

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, September 15 2020 - 11:38 AM.

[OhNoNotAgain]

Woah...that's a lot of damage ants.

 

what's Vero nap time like? Still crowded?

 

Yeah. I'd say the numbers go down to about 20-30% of that pic at the lowest ebb. If I put in food, though, it triggers some kind of "it's raining meatballs in the desert!" reaction and everyone comes out to go foraging. 

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, September 15 2020 - 11:36 AM.

[OhNoNotAgain]

2020.10.2

 

VP1: They are kind of "check every few days and give food/water as needed"; I will say the trash mountain in the main colony (VP1) is getting absolutely ridiculous. I need an aspirator stat so I can start cleaning that outworld.

 

VP3: Had to move the 4-queen group to the same storage room as the massive colony.

 

VA: The two test tubes in the bin are so dirty I can't see anything. I only know there are massive groups of ants, brood, and a mess of Kentucky bluegrass seed. I need to move the andrei into something else at LEAST long enough to clean up some trash.

 

Another messor: Recently I acquired a Novomessor cockerelli. I had been avoiding them because they are more insectivorous than granivorous, but once I realized they are THE famous ants that like to plug up their rival Pogonomyrmex' nests with sand in the early morning (I mean how cool is that), I had to get them. I got 2 queens, but unfortunately only one has been laying eggs, and the brood pile is really really tiny so far. I will say they are super aggressive, large, alert queens, with long legs and antennae. We'll see how it goes.

 

Will update with photos at some point.

[OhNoNotAgain]

Here are a couple photos to go with the above post.

 

You've seen lots of the Veromessor pergandei lately, so here are some other species.

 

Veromessor andrei crowd:

 

 

 

 

A Novomessor cockerelli queen. Look at that big leggy aggressive "HI THERE! I WILL BITE YOU!" look in the first photo lol

 

 

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, October 2 2020 - 7:32 PM.

[ANTdrew]

Make an aspirator. It will change your life as an ant keeper.

[OhNoNotAgain]

Make an aspirator. It will change your life as an ant keeper.

 

I'm actually going to see if I can get a miniature electric vacuum + aspirator set up.

Having used an infant nasal aspirator and gotten sick as a result (at least that's what I remember lol) I must admit I'm a little unpsyched about using an inhalation aspirator lolol

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, October 2 2020 - 7:35 PM.