130 replies to this topic

[OhNoNotAgain]

I just went for it and dumped the Veromessor andrei into a new Fortress. I reaaaaaaally hope the queen is somewhere safe in this massive mess or messy mass.

These gals bite paintbrushes super hard and don’t let go!

[OhNoNotAgain]

Follow-up from last night: Yes, I saw the queen. Also, I couldn't figure out why the colony wasn't moving into the nest. Not a single ant went in! Turns out that when I had rinsed the Fortress out, water had plugged the nest tube. Once I cleared the water, workers almost immediately went inside, and within minutes the colony was moving in, workers running inside carrying the brood, and so on ... their excitement and the way the brood bobbed along as they were being carried was like a classic AC video lol. 

 

I still have some ants left behind in the old set-up (a Nurbs case), plus I discovered some young larvae pretty much glued to the side of a test tube. I was going to clean out the whole thing but now I've left the few remaining workers to tend to the larvae (if they can) and see what happens.

[TheAntGuy]

Have you tried the wet qtip method to get the larvae out?

[OhNoNotAgain]

Have you tried the wet qtip method to get the larvae out?

 

They were kind of glued on pretty well and I didn't feel like picking them off lol. I think some of the remaining workers pried them off. They don't have dedicated nursemaids but I might try dumping the last stragglers in soon when I feel less lazy, just so I can clean out their old container lol.

 

ETA: It's a Nurbs case and I might use it on Lios, since they are getting uh ... numerous.

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, October 5 2020 - 9:28 AM.

[ANTdrew]

I feel feathers are better than q-tips for moving brood. There’s no way a feather could damage the brood.

[OhNoNotAgain]

I feel feathers are better than q-tips for moving brood. There’s no way a feather could damage the brood.

 

Feathers? Which end of the feather? I lost my last feather factory but I might have a few leftover feathers. But iirc the feather tips are very springy and might SPROING the brood.

Actually my go-to is either wet wooden skewer or some damp paper towel if the skewer doesn't work.

And as a note, I did rescue the last of the brood and last few workers (except for one I squashed by accident). The ants did unglue the larvae so I could use the wet skewer to remove them.

 

AND today I got a new Novomessor cockerelli queen.

 

I have three now:

1. With no brood at all

2. One with 3 tiny eggs that aren't doing much.

3. New queen with some larvae and pupae.

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, October 7 2020 - 9:33 PM.

[ANTdrew]

I use a Canada goose feather pretty much daily to sweep ants off stuff I need to clean. The few times I’ve manually moved brood, I use a woodpecker feather. It’s a northern flicker feather, which are actually quite stiff so the bird can prop itself up on tree trunks. Basically, whenever I find a good feather outside I either save it for my ants or my collection.

[Kaelwizard]

I use a Canada goose feather pretty much daily to sweep ants off stuff I need to clean. The few times I’ve manually moved brood, I use a woodpecker feather. It’s a northern flicker feather, which are actually quite stiff so the bird can prop itself up on tree trunks. Basically, whenever I find a good feather outside I either save it for my ants or my collection.

Tail feathers of any bird are fairly stiff and would probably work fine.

[OhNoNotAgain]

2020.10.14

So, Novomessors.

A while ago I decided I didn't want Novomessors because they aren't as granivorous as Veromessors. But I had forgotten about this article:

https://pubmed.ncbi....h.gov/28311843/

• "Early in the morning, before P. barbatus' activity period, N. cockerelli fills the nest entrances of P. barbatus with sand. ... Nest-plugging shifts the typical daily sequence of P. barbatus activities, including the onset of foraging, forward towards midday, when high temperatures force the colony back inside the nest"

I mean, how cool and intelligent is that? An ant that messes with its competitors in a non-lethal manner? 

 

So I bought a couple Novomessor cockerelli queens. Unfortunately one was a dud and the other perpetually has very very small larvae that don't seem to be developing (I still have them and I haven't given up on the one with larvae). Finally, a friend sent me a Novo queen with a pupa and larvae (Novo queen #3)  . Here she is on October 11th, taking care of her almost-hatched first nanitic (who was just starting to wake up when I took this photo).

 

 

Yesterday, I dumped them into a mini-hearth because their test tube was almost out of water and they needed food anyway. The nanitic found the nest right away and stayed in there. The queen, meanwhile, took upon herself the task of taking all her babies downstairs. She took downstairs a fly pupa housewarming gift I'd given them. Then she brought up some trash. Then, babies safely in the nest, she went to the nectar feeder and plastered her face to the mesh and just sat there, apparently drinking, for ... I don't know how long. An hour? Two hours? A looooong time. Apparently she was very hungry.

 

Here they are today, in the mini-hearth (sorry, it's dark, and this isn't museum glass). They had brought the fly pupa up to the brood, probably to make it easier to feed them (one larva may have been directly eating from the pupa). Looks like they are all settled in.

 

(By the way, this is the mini-hearth that used to have the Veromessor pergandei satellite colony, the ones I couldn't expand easily because they had no colony scent so any newly introduced workers would be attacked, and which I couldn't reintroduce to their original colonies because wrong scent and they would be attacked. Their numbers had dwindled and then I accidentally didn't refill the water nestmate for a while, and they all died, so this mini-hearth was open and available.)

 

 

EDIT: I just took a closer look inside the nest. The fly pupa has been reduced to black specks. One of the larva is BULGING like a shiny white water balloon and has a fat black streak, showing it gorged itself on fly. It's gratifying to see large ants take advantage of food, unlike some ants who are annoyingly picky (I'm looking at YOU, Camponotus...).

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, October 14 2020 - 9:41 AM.

[OhNoNotAgain]

2020.10.18

 

VP1: Doing fine. Temps are cooling a bit so I think that's why the brood is smaller. I still can't open the outworld long enough to clean up their trash mountain. They've moved part of the mountain over to a corner, as if they are trying to escape out that corner.... 

 

Lost another V. pergandei queen in VP3 (found her in the trash). They are down to 3 queens. I haven't been heating them so their growth isn't as explosive as VP1 was last year.

 

VA: Still going.

 

Novos: Queen and her nanitic are so efficient with the dead bugs I've given them, I'm amazed. The larvae look like big fat white grubs. I've never seen ant larvae so BIG and PLUMP. Just to see I put some home-grown sunflower seeds (with shells) in the outworld, but so far no interest. I doubt one nanitic will want to take on hard shelled sunflower seeds by herself, esp. when occasional dead bugs magically show up. These guys ARE on heat, to help them grow in numbers. They are on the same heat as the honeypots.

 

Novo duds: Both still acting like duds. 

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, October 18 2020 - 7:45 PM.

[OhNoNotAgain]

2020.10.18 second update (written next day).

 

Novomessor update.

 

Finally got a pic of the fat brood. Not a great pic ... it was really late and lighting sucked.

 

 

Yup, phat grubs. Big fat chubby white grubs. In fact one is pupating, too.

 

 

And remember I had two dud Novos?

 

In fact, one I thought was not a dud, as she keeps having scattered eggs. (By the way, those scattered eggs have once again disappeared....)

The other I'd not seen any eggs. I was sure she was a dud.

 

Well, let this be a lesson: Do NOT give up on "dud" queens, even if 80% turn out to really be duds. As I was feeding her Sunburst I was using a macro lens to observe. WHAT IS THIS:

 

 

WHAAAAT. NOT A DUD!!!!

 

 

EDIT: Oh and 2020.10.19 update on the Novo with nanitic and pupa: The sunflower seeds MOVED. They went from the far reaches of the tiny outworld to right next to the entrance. The largest seed moved INTO the nest. Apparently they aren't interested in small bluegrass, poppy, dandelion seeds ... only the mega sunflower seeds. Thanks @Fried for the idea.

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, October 19 2020 - 2:35 PM.

[OhNoNotAgain]

2020.10.22

 

Just pictoral updates on the larger colonies.

 

Veromessor andrei are doing well in their new Fortress, despite no extra heat. They freak out at the slightest provocation. Nice big fat brood pile.

 

 

 

Veromessor pergandei 3 are ... hanging in there in the Fallen Fortress. I remember Vp1 did much better with heat, and I think these guys would prefer to have warmer temps (but I don't need rapid growth so I'm not). Here's the occupied corner with the remaining 3 queens. In the outworld, they have characteristically blown right through the Fluon barrier. 

 

 

 

Veromessor pergandei 1 .... Yeah I need to get them something bigger. Maybe a Nucleus.... 

Oh hey, I posted that I made an aspirator with a pill bottle and a keyboard vacuum. I used it to vacuum up loose pergandei while I cleaned out their mountain of trash. this is without their massive mountain of trash.

 

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, October 22 2020 - 12:20 PM.

[OhNoNotAgain]

2020.11.6

 

Veromessor pergandei 1: About the same:

 

 

 

 

Veromessor pergandei 3 (3 queen): About the same:

 

 

 

Veromessor andrei: I've noticed these guys are super easy to upset. If I walk into the room where they are, they freak. When I turn on the light, they are still freaking.

 

 

 

Novomessor cockerelli: Red in the sunlight. Who knew.

 

 

By the way, of the two "duds" ... the one that had a surprise egg pile? I can't find it any more

Here's the other sorta dud who has always had brood, but very small and not growing.

 

[OhNoNotAgain]

I've finally uploaded some videos to YouTube.

 

Here is Novomessor cockerelli queen with her first nanitic, back when they were in a test tube:

 

 

 

Next: Veromessor pergandei reverse waterfall. I mean uh ... foraging workers trying to forage after I add some food. "Meatballs raining in the desert!"

 

 

[OhNoNotAgain]

And by the way, here's the video I took a while ago of a worker rocking back and forth to process a seed.

 

[OhNoNotAgain]

2020.11.22 Today I was feeding ants when I noticed this behavior. Everyone probably already knew some ants do this, but I just figured it out ... I'm a bit slow sometimes.

I had wondered why foraging Veromessor pergandei love to reverse waterfall up a particular corner. Turns out, it's closest to the cheapo lamp I have near their nest.

 

So, just because people have posted videos of cute kittens following the light, here's one of a bunch of black harvester ants following the light.

 

[Ants_Dakota]

LOL! the ants are like what is going on with the sun!!! i wonder why they are going after it? do they do that in the wild?

[OhNoNotAgain]

LOL! the ants are like what is going on with the sun!!! i wonder why they are going after it? do they do that in the wild?

 

Today 2021.5.10

 

Novomessor: I noticed I have a dozen Novos doing the same thing as per quote above. Except they are huge and in a tiny mini-hearth so it's a bit scarier. These big, spider-leg ants desperately clawing and biting at the corner of their outworld. I guess the oldest workers have finally gone into "MUST FORAGE" mode. And they definitely seem to be going for the brightest corner.

Total count of Novos is over 50+ now. I had been heating them at mid-80's, but given how fast they grow I just took them off heat. Summer temps will be around 80 anyway. They should be fine.

 

VP1: I'll note too that my big Veromessor colony lost about half, if not more, of their workers over the winter. I didn't heat them so temps went down to low 70's (F obv), and the brood pile shrank and shrank. Now I think there's a tiny new brood pile. They had moved off the water tower because I got lazy and didn't fill it. I'm sorta relieved about the drop in numbers because although I have a larger XL Labyrinth now, I have no room to put it out anywhere. Right now they no longer totally fill the nest portion of the Labyrinth. When winter arrived they had filled the nest AND the outworld totally.

 

VP3: Still going with 3 queens.

 

Veromessor andrei: Still going. Still can't find the queen in the mass of ants.

 

Novo duds: ALL dead, including the winged one.

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, May 10 2021 - 2:19 PM.

[NPLT]

In your video they looked like they were on some kind of a pilgrimage to the lamp.

Edited by NPLT, May 10 2021 - 3:03 PM.

[OhNoNotAgain]

Ughghghgghhhhhhh looks like the Novo queen is in the trash. Noooooooo. The workers and brood are fine. Queen is toast. Noooooooooooo 😭😭😭😭😭😭