154 replies to this topic

[TechAnt]

When do you think they will end up filling the formicarium? If so, what will you move them in/attach to their set-up.

Edited by TechAnt, July 6 2020 - 10:04 PM.

[OhNoNotAgain]

When do you think they will end up filling the formicarium? If so, what will you move them in/attach to their set-up.

 

I think by the end of summer they will fill up the formicarium, but if we get to winter, last year they devoured their brood when it got a bit cool, so that will help.

I am thinking of getting another Labyrinth or using my Nucleus from THA... just comes down to finances.

[TechAnt]

When do you think they will end up filling the formicarium? If so, what will you move them in/attach to their set-up.

 
I think by the end of summer they will fill up the formicarium, but if we get to winter, last year they devoured their brood when it got a bit cool, so that will help.
I am thinking of getting another Labyrinth or using my Nucleus from THA... just comes down to finances.

Ah, I see. Thanks for the info!

[OhNoNotAgain]

2020.7.29

 

Took some pics today while checking on the ants. Yeah I occasionally feed them, make sure they have sugar water, lose some workers because they have worn through the Fluon and fly over the wall etc, etc, etc.

 

1. Fraggles are hanging out. Literally. They are sitting there like stalactites, some holding brood, and there's a major on the right side. Chillaxing. They definitely like the ceiling, possibly because it's darker.

 

 

 

2. Fraggles chilling under the penthouse skylights. (A ventilation nestmate)

 

 

3. I noticed the fraggles like being packed liked sardines in a can, EXCEPT the queen. She has a force field around her. A bit hard to see in this picture, but she has a clear ring around her while the other fraggles don't (at least, not nearly as obviously). It was actually pretty interesting. She's in the other penthouse room, the one without the skylight.

 

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, July 29 2020 - 5:09 PM.

[TechAnt]

Yay! Been waiting for a update on this. I still think that ‘major’ photo on a page or two ago looked like a queen seeing that Major on the side even more now.

[OhNoNotAgain]

Yay! Been waiting for a update on this. I still think that ‘major’ photo on a page or two ago looked like a queen seeing that Major on the side even more now.

 

Ah cool, glad you like the update. 

I honestly had a really hard time telling some of the majors from the queen until I noticed the queen has those wing scars on her thorax. That's how I figure it out now.

That and some majors have the much darker head.

The queen's gaster IS bigger but when the majors are bulging from over-indulging they start looking queenly. lol

[M_Ants]

I'm hoping to catch a queen this year. Not looking good due to latesoons aka no rain. Anyhow wondering what you think of fraggles. How do they compare to other camponotus species? Also how fast do they grow?

[ANTdrew]

This seems like one of the only Camponotus species that thrives in captivity. I’d only be interested in these or C. floridanus. Ain’t wasting my time with any of the east coast species.

[TechAnt]

This seems like one of the only Camponotus species that thrives in captivity. I’d only be interested in these or C. floridanus. Ain’t wasting my time with any of the east coast species.

Not going to lie, FRAGGLES ARE ONE OF THE BEST Camponotus SPECIES. They don’t grow superrrr slow, they still are pretty big, they don’t freak out when you place food in their outworld or hydrate their nest (I’m looking at you Camponotus vicinus in my signature)

Edited by TechAnt, July 30 2020 - 8:27 AM.

[RushmoreAnts]

3. I noticed the fraggles like being packed liked sardines in a can, EXCEPT the queen. She has a force field around her. A bit hard to see in this picture, but she has a clear ring around her while the other fraggles don't (at least, not nearly as obviously). It was actually pretty interesting. She's in the other penthouse room, the one without the skylight.

Interesting. Usually most ants will surround and crowd around their queens more than anyone else. 

[M_Ants]

I found a C. festinatus queen and was wondering what nocturnal ants are like? Do they do much during the day?

Edited by M_Ants, July 31 2020 - 10:15 AM.

[OhNoNotAgain]

I found a C. festinatus queen and was wondering what nocturnal ants are like? Do they do much during the day?

My C sansabeanus is boring during the day. However, fraggles are active in the day as well as night. They are theoretically nocturnal but are fun around the clock.

[OhNoNotAgain]

2020.8.18 Just retroactively noting that I finally had enough and have set up the fraggles to move to my spare Nucleus.

The fraggles had begun living not only in the nest of the Fortress, but also in the outworld. There was no longer any time when there were just a few in the outworld (when I could plug the nest with cotton and do some maintenance). Every time I opened the outworld, I would get fraggles doing their usual escape routines and then have to spend half an hour collecting lost fraggles and wondering how to return them to the nest.

 

It was to the point where their ant nectar dispenser was lying sideways on their trash piles and I was unable to feed them.

 

So I rinsed off the Nucleus to get rid of loose sand, and I applied lots of Fluon to the outworld. I dumped my various containers of loose fraggles into the outworld, then hooked it up to the Fortress.

 

2020.8.19 Fraggles looooove running around their new territory, but they aren't moving yet.

I flooded the Fortress by tilting it so the water tower sloshed its water, hopefully hastening the Fortress drying out totally.

 

I also fed the fraggles in the Nucleus outworld and watched them have a massive traffic jam at the entrance tube. It was so crowded, with ants coming out and trying to go in, it looked like a volcano bubbling with yellow lava. I got some pics and hope to update later.

 

It was interesting watching them kill fruit flies. There were definitely workers that just killed fruit flies and seemed clueless about their edibility. Eventually they piled up the dead fruit flies in one spot in the outworld, and some workers started hauling the fruit flies into the Nucleus nest (and boy did they have trouble with the traffic jam at the opening). They seemed to have a processing center inside, and watching the tube going back to the Fortress, I didn't see any whole fruit flies being moved - but apparently little edible pieces that workers coming the other way seemed to want to sample.

 

I also gave them bloodworm soup, and that was another seething mass of yellow.

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, August 20 2020 - 7:12 AM.

[RushmoreAnts]

I found a C. festinatus queen and was wondering what nocturnal ants are like? Do they do much during the day?

From what I've heard, nocturnal Camponotus are inactive during the day when the colony is small, yet once the colony grows larger, they will become active during the day as well. I believe this occurs once a colony exceeds 50-100 workers.

[TheAntGuy]

Yeah, one thing I have always had fraggles love is bloodworm soup. You can tell when they eat it too because their gasters are all a gross brown poo looking color, but at least I know they have protein available.

[OhNoNotAgain]

2020.8.24

Sorry about lack of pics. The fraggles are almost moved out. There's still a straggler group of 20ish that insists on staying in the Fortress. Yesterday or the day before, I plugged the path from the nest to the outworld with cotton when there were only a few workers outside. They still think they can run out, though. I bother them a lot in the Fortress, and they keep trying to run into the outworld. Guess old habits die hard.

 

A couple people have brought up using ice packs to encourage moving. I don't have any obvious evidence it works, but I tried that earlier. AFTER I removed the ice pack there was some extra movement, but that could just be from having afternoon light on them.

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, August 24 2020 - 6:49 PM.

[OhNoNotAgain]

Here are some photos from the last week. This is the MESS in the Fortress outworld that I couldn't clean because the barrier had failed. Those ants on the wall were permanently in the outworld, day and night, ready to rush out and freak out everywhere they shouldn't.

 

 

Next up: ant transfer in process from Fortress to Nucleus! By the way this soon reduced the outworld overflow so in theory I COULD have cleaned the outworld... but why bother til the Fortress was empty.

 

 

Yellow lava fraggle traffic jam at Nucleus nest entrance, as described in an earlier post.

 

 

This is a dead worker that someone was hauling around as trash in the Nucleus. I got it out and used the opp to take a photo with the "microscope" attachment.

 

 

The last 10% takes 90% of the work ... well not quite, but today I got tired of waiting for stragglers and dumped the Fortress holdouts into the Nucleus outworld (amazing what a good barrier will do). There were TWO holdouts (I sorta nicknamed them "Thelma and Louise") who hid in the tube connecting nest to outworld. It took a lot of work to get them out. This major was the LAST one ("Thelma"? "Louise"?). Here she is with a smaller worker for size/shape comparison, finally in the Nucleus.

 

 

End product: Fraggles in Nucleus. You can't see their numbers very well from this angle, but there's a good number in there.

 

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, August 25 2020 - 12:09 PM.

[TechAnt]

Yay I have been waiting for a update
Awesome!

[OhNoNotAgain]

Yay I have been waiting for a update
Awesome!

 

I finally got around to uploading pics. I mean I have a ton more but I don't want to use up all my photo quota lol....

[TheAntGuy]

Also, just so its easier to tell...
Majors are a separate caste and they will be the ones with the different body proportions, ie. the wider head, bigger jaws, etc.

Medians, as far as I know, are essentially just Larger standard workers. They don't constitute a separate caste, because their proportions are still the same as the minors.

Hope this helps!

Also if anyone knows something I don't, feel free to correct me. I'm pretty good at doing the keeping of the ants, I am not an expert taxonomist or myrmecologist lol.