148 replies to this topic

[OhNoNotAgain]

2020.7.14

Very quick update. Pink tube lost a queen  (I think the one with the smallest gaster.) She was at the entrance of the tube. At least one of the two nanitics appears to be properly on garbage duty....

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, July 14 2020 - 1:42 PM.

[TheMicroPlanet]

Aw    is it possible to introduce those workers to another queen?

[OhNoNotAgain]

Aw    is it possible to introduce those workers to another queen?

They still have two queens. So pink tube = 2 queens 2 nanitics and small brood pile, and black tube = 3 queens and 5-6 nanitics and healthy brood pile.

But that does bring me to a crazzzzyyyyyy experiment.

 

Today, after receiving a bunch of ants from someone who has too many, I decided I don't have enough space. So I put pink tube in the same tub as black tube.

I'm going to see if the two groups tolerate each other. This is step 1 to hopefully combining them all in one formicarium later.

 

I also discovered pink tube Preno's sugar water dispenser was blocked with crystallized sugar. This COULD help explain why they haven't been doing well (aside from the horrible pink cyanobacteria water).

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, July 15 2020 - 10:28 PM.

[OhNoNotAgain]

2020.7.16 update

Preno black tube (3 queens) is doing much better than Preno pink tube (down to 2 queens). The nanitics' gasters are swollen in black tube but NOT in pink tube. I got new mealworms today and offered some to almost everyone except the Pogonomyrmex.

Guess what. Black tube ate, pink tube ... didn't. GrrrrRRRR. They are still in the new set up where they share their tub. I also swiped one of the sugar water dispensers and gave it to a new colony.

 

Here is a pic of black tube. Oh, and because I don't have anywhere else to put it, below is a picture of my last new colony. They are kinda similar in size but their shapes are quite different.

 

Prenolepis imparis (black tube) with metric ruler for scale.

 

 

 

Liometopum occidentale. Sort of almost similar in size, but gaster shape totally different.

 

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, July 16 2020 - 11:10 PM.

[OhNoNotAgain]

2020.7.17

 

Lio: one dying nanitic in outworld. Nooooo.

 

Preno-pink: gasters shrunken. Sigh.

 

Preno-black: Doing okay.

[MinigunL5]

2020.7.17

 

Lio: one dying nanitic in outworld. Nooooo.

 

Preno-pink: gasters shrunken. Sigh.

 

Preno-black: Doing okay.

Should I start a journal on my Formica subsericea and my Camponotus novaeboracensis?

[Antkid12]

 

2020.7.17

 

Lio: one dying nanitic in outworld. Nooooo.

 

Preno-pink: gasters shrunken. Sigh.

 

Preno-black: Doing okay.

Should I start a journal on my Formica subsericea and my Camponotus novaeboracensis?

 

Why not?

[OhNoNotAgain]

2020.8.12
Lios: kinda same old. One more dead nanitic but otherwise seems okay.

Prenos: Wow, where to start. Today I was feeding the carnivorous ants and noticed Pink Tube (not so pink any more) was really NOT doing well. Only three nanitics and NO brood. Black tube was meh, with ten nanitics and some scattered brood. Then I looked closer.

MITES. In BOTH tubes. Crawling all around. NOOOOOO.

Commence operation Forced Move. I used a wooden skewer to kick the Pink Tube ants out (accidentally killed one of the three nanitics). (I had thought Black Tube had no mites but I was wrong.) No brood = no fuss.

So I made a new clean tube and got them in.
Then worked on getting Black Tube ants out and into same new tube.

Yup, they got along just fine.

After an hour of painstaking work, including once having to find larvae I dropped on the carpet (amazed I found them at all), I had in new tube:

5 queens
12-ish nanitics
Small amount of brood
No visibly moving mites
New white cotton.

The old pink and black tubes are literally chilling in the freezer. I washed the outworld and nectar dispenser, put on new byFormica Fluon, and put new Velcro on the new tube and stuck it in.

I have no idea where the mites came from. Hopefully not the new mealworms because that means everyone else will get them too. And I know people say the white grain mites are pretty harmless, but none of my colonies have done well with them around and I just can’t stand them..,,

Will post a pic.

[OhNoNotAgain]

So I didn’t move them into the Casita because if there are mites still, having them infesting a Casita sucks a lot more than a tube. So we will see how it goes. The rise of mites and the loss of brood is an interesting “coincidence.”

I am glad this proves that these California Prenolepis WILL move in peacefully with their long lost siblings.

[TechAnt]

I mean they are classified as “Highly polygonus” by most people.

[OhNoNotAgain]

I mean they are classified as “Highly polygonus” by most people.

Yeah it's nice to confirm! Beats having a Game of Thrones moment.

[ANTdrew]

Just came across this really useful guide to mite control:
http://antkeepingfor...opic.php?t=1399

[cmiller]

Going a bit backwards here, but are you successfully using fluon with the pimps or are they successfully scaling it?

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

[OhNoNotAgain]

Going a bit backwards here, but are you successfully using fluon with the pimps or are they successfully scaling it?

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

You mean the Prenos? They have generally not YET been trying to get out - the nanitics are young and there's only about 10 of them.

I have heard they go over Fluon but I was hoping to increase their numbers before trying to move them into new quarters (something THA probably).

 

ANTdrew: thanks! Checking it out.

[OhNoNotAgain]

2020.8.27

Quick update.

 

Prenos: Lost another queen and a bunch of workers, some for unknown reasons, some may have drowned in something (not sure what ...). Some dead roach I gave them was also molding. Cleaned much of it up. Thinking of moving them to a mini-hearth or something else like that. Their cotton in the new tube is both black AND kinda pink, yuck. So down to 4 queens and a few workers and a small brood pile.

 

Lios: Well, I put their tub+tube halfway onto a heat mat and next thing I knew, all of them were on the mat. They seem to be hanging in there okay.

[MinigunL5]

 

 

2020.7.17

 

Lio: one dying nanitic in outworld. Nooooo.

 

Preno-pink: gasters shrunken. Sigh.

 

Preno-black: Doing okay.

Should I start a journal on my Formica subsericea and my Camponotus novaeboracensis?

 

Why not?

 

I havn't been on formiculture in months lol, the Camponotus novaeboracensis already have over 30 workers

[OhNoNotAgain]

New: Myrmecocystus mexicanus (honeypots)

 

Soooooooo I have been meaning to, but haven't, added stuff about Myrmecocystus mexicanus, which I'm lumping in here because I hate maintaining too many journals. And hey, Myrmecocystus mexicanus (which are real honeypot ants) have a reputation just as bad as Prenolepis imparis (false honeypot ants / winter ants) in terms of dying for no reason. The stats I've heard say about 1 in 4 or 1 in 5 queens in captivity make it to having a colony.

 

I ordered 5 from one seller in SoCal and 1 from another seller (later) back in around late August of 2020. The 5 from the first seller are still alive as of this writing while the 1 from the other turned into a totally deceased mold statue within a few days. Oh well. Probably the last time I'll mention that 6th one.

 

2020.8.26 The M. mexicanus 5 queens arrived. I put them in a dark drawer on towel to reduce vibrations. Three were given fine red silica-based reptisand for pupal substrate and two were given excess outworld sand from some THA formicaria. (Apparently they need sand for their pupae.)

 

2020.10.2 Unfortunately I didn't have a spare heating mat (story of my antkeeping life I guess) for a while. They need to be heated: I'm told between 80-85ish Fahrenheit. So they only got heat recently and that's another reason my pots are running late. Other queens from the same batch (kept by other people) already have workers as of this writing. Not only that, but some of the tubes were already running out of water. So something needed to be done.

 

I had a long conversation with Mack from Tar Heel Ants. Contrary to what a lot of people say, Myrmecocystus mexicanus apparently do just fine founding in a mini-hearth. A mini-hearth is NOT too big a space for founding queens. So today, I transferred 4 of the 5 queens to new mini-hearths (2 XLs and 2 normal size mini-hearths). Mack has a great technique of putting a queen in the outworld for safekeeping (cotton temporarily blocking the nest entrance), THEN putting extra sand and the brood into the nest, THEN letting queen move into nest. Last step is hydrating the nest. In my case, the queens acted completely befuddled and half-asleep in the outworld, so I picked them up with a bit of cardboard and dumped them into the nest before carefully closing them in. There, all 4 were soon taking care of their brood. (Speaking of which I have never seen ant brood so wiggly as M. mexicanus ... some of them move like maggots....) I put in some nectar feeders and later I may put in some protein.

 

So now I have 4 mini-hearths housing 4 pot queens all with their mini-hearths half-heated. The last queen, the 5th one, does not seem to have any brood at all. She has pale substrate so I'm not 100% sure, but I don't see any eggs or larvae. Not only that, but one of her front legs is permanently folded. I have left her in a test tube.

 

Prenolepis imparis:

 

And update on the false honeypots (Prenolepis): still 4 queens. A few workers. Their test tube is really disgustingly gross. No brood and hasn't been any brood in weeks.

 

Liometopum occidentale: I found out they LOVE putting their brood on heat, and that they have massive brood piles. Even the Tetramorium did not have brood piles as big as the Lios. With one queen they have been giving Veromessor pergandei a run for the money in terms of brood piles. No wonder Liometopum brood is considered a delicacy (escamol / escamole - see my post about ants as food). Also, the Lio workers are getting big. The workers are now LARGER THAN TETRAMORIUM woohooo!!!!! Their middles are now noticeably paler than head and gaster, just like wild Lios I've seen. They are also busy and active and paranoid. Not only that, but they are the LEAST picky ants ever, enjoying even dried out bugs. Possibly they are even less picky than Tetramorium. This explains why I found a colony of Lios in my own yard, which is overrun by Argentines. The Lios were living in the wood of a dying tree. I also found some at a nearby park, apparently doing well despite being in Argentine territory. Liometopum appear to be survivors.

 

 

I might update with pics later!

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, October 2 2020 - 4:54 PM.

[OhNoNotAgain]

Since honeypots are rockstars of the antkeeping world, I will throw in a couple queen pics to go along with the above post, although everyone else has much more interesting/healthy colonies at this point.

 

In the second photo, there were a couple loose larvae in the foreground, one of which was squirming around like a maggot. It was kind of weird to see after so many larvae that sit around doing nothing.

 

 

 

[ANTdrew]

Do you still have Tetramorium?

[OhNoNotAgain]

Do you still have Tetramorium?

Yes, I do. I still have one colony. I estimate 600-700 plus, maybe over a thousand, but it’s really hard to see them in the plastic formicarium they are in.

 

EDIT: I discovered if I shine a light INTO the plastic I can see the ants better (otherwise it's so dirty and dark I can't see). It's probably not 1000.

And a quick update on the pots... I found brood in the last tube, so into a mini-hearth went the lame ant queen.

3/5 seem to be caring for brood. 2/5 (including lame queen) seem not to be doing a great job.

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, October 3 2020 - 5:55 PM.