105 replies to this topic

[OhNoNotAgain]

2020.10.25

Old Sansa 1 is gone. My favorite "Mean Queen," who would march out and kill fruit flies and mealworms because her nanitics couldn't, acted very unsettled after the larva was lost. She kept wandering around the outworld and the tube. It was almost like she was unhappy, looking for it, or was otherwise restless. Today I found her dead. I guess the stress of getting knocked around and losing her one larva (though I do think it was donated) was too much for her.

 

Sansa 2 ... hanging in there. They haven't been too sure of their new test tube, sometimes moving out, but slowly getting acclimated to it. Today I looked in and saw some bits of remnant ant. Looks like a leg and a piece of gaster. Perhaps they cannibalized a worker? Obviously I am going to try to get them more food. Maybe they haven't liked the food I was giving them. Also, I thought they were slowing down due to cooler temps but maybe not.

 

 

C. vicinus 1 ... I found a pile of dead parts of workers and cleaned them out (see photo). Very weird. I also need them to move out of their old drying tube and to their new tube. On the theory they don't like the newer tube because they'd been putting some trash in it, I put in a NEW new tube.

 

 

C. vicinus 2 ... hanging in there with the 2 nanitics.

 

C. quercicola. Okay, so most of the other Camponotus have dismembered workers? What I saw today in the cola bin was more of a horror show of dead Tetramorium parts. Looks like they went around and ripped apart every single Tetramorium corpse they could find.

 

 

Yeah okay I'll be feeding them something new today.

 

[OhNoNotAgain]

2020.11.6

 

So. I was tired of mites. So I ordered Hypoaspis / Stratiolaelaps mites. This was my first idea of how to get the predatory mites into the test tubes.

 

 

Then I found this little guy, a hitchhiker with the predatory mites. Zeiss identified it as a rove beetle.

 

 

So I ditched that idea and started picking up bits of substrate with mites and shoving them into the test tube (this is what I didn't want to do but oh well). 

 

Then I discovered that the predatory mites are relatively huge compared to grain mites (here's a pic). Zeiss says grain mites are generally too small for the predatory mites. 

 

 

That would really suck. Or not suck, if you're a grain mite.

 

Anyway I might have to go with the dehydration route or rehoming route after all. But I have sealed off two C. vicinus tubes with some predatories in them and we will see what happens.

 

I also temporarily put some substrate in with the Tetramorium but I think more ants were going into the substrate than there were predatory mites leaving it.

 

In the meantime I have thousands of hungry Stratiolaelaps.... And definitely not enough food for them.  :facepalm:At least not with the ants.

I am sacrificing some springtails to them, though. I dumped some into a bin that used to have isopods in it, which still has some mites and springtails.

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, November 6 2020 - 6:26 PM.

[OhNoNotAgain]

The sansabeanus even had mites. Again. And I had JUST swapped tubes/cleaned bins for them due to mites... see last month's entries.

And the larger vicinus colony was out of water and NO sign of the predatory mites remaining (even though I plugged the tube with cotton) - only signs of the annoying mites. The lack of water was especially worrisome. I mean their test tube was completely dry.

Smaller vicinus colony had plenty of water but NO sign of predatory mites (despite cotton) and only little annoying white mites crawling around.

Only quercicola, the mighty titans who vanquished the Tetramorium without a single casualty, seemed mite-free... but they were way, way low on water.

 

And here I was thinking of sticking all the Camponotus test tubes in the garage for a cooling period.

Therefore, all the test tube Camponotus colonies (except for a dud queen) got Yet Another Rehoming. Again, ugh. I'll try to wait another week or two and see which ones develop mites again.

I hate mites.

 

Notice in the below some ants are faster on figuring out their new homes than others.

 

From left: Quercicola are doing a cola huddle in the corner except for one stubborn worker. I didn't even wash out their bin (because I didn't see any mites), but apparently the tube is too new and weird for them.

 

Next: The large vicinus colony figured it out pretty quickly.

 

Next: The small vicinus colony (with "unlucky" queen, with 3 workers) is clustered at a bit of velcro and won't leave, so I had to put their new tube on the other side and hope they find it.

 

Right side: The sansabeanus had one brilliant worker who put the brood in the right spot, but it was only after this photo the queen moved in (and even then, when I moved them last month they kept leaving, going back, leaving, going back...). 

 

Now that I know female grain mites lay up to 800 ... EIGHT HUNDRED ... eggs ... I wouldn't be surprised if the ant brood is now ferrying mite eggs around. (The 4 Preno queens do not have visible mites in their tube, even though I rehomed them the same time as the sansabeanus... they also have no brood.)

 

I did a lot of test tube boiling today, too.... 

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, November 7 2020 - 10:33 PM.

[ANTdrew]

I really hope the Hypoaspis ( That name’s way easier to spell) do the trick. Keep us posted.

[OhNoNotAgain]

I really hope the Hypoaspis ( That name’s way easier to spell) do the trick. Keep us posted.

 

Yeah I had big hopes, but it really does seem like the grain mites are too small for them (at least the adults). 

Of the other mites you purchased, were any of them much smaller than Hypoaspis?

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, November 8 2020 - 10:45 AM.

[ANTdrew]

In the mix I got, there were Phytoseilus persimilis, Neoseiulus californicus, Amblyseius andersoni, Amblyseius cucumeris, and Amblyseius swirskii. They all looked kind of the same to me, but they’re bigger and way faster than grain mites.

[OhNoNotAgain]

In the mix I got, there were Phytoseilus persimilis, Neoseiulus californicus, Amblyseius andersoni, Amblyseius cucumeris, and Amblyseius swirskii. They all looked kind of the same to me, but they’re bigger and way faster than grain mites.

 

Yeah I get they would all be faster, but I was hoping some would be small enough to catch and eat grain mites. I'm wondering if immature predatory mites would consider grain mites prey, but that would require getting a bunch of predatory mites breeding. I could theoretically do that, I guess, but finding them, picking them up, and getting them into a test tube isn't the easiest thing in the world lol....

Did you see them actively eating grain mites? I didn't see any of that happening. One tube may have had fewer grain mites the next day, but I also couldn't find any Hypoaspis (and the tubes were sealed with cotton!).

 

 

EDIT: Today I also put all the test tube Camponotus, plus one Camponotus dud and one Novomessor dud, into the garage. It's not that cold here, mid 50's F, and probably warmer in the garage.

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, November 8 2020 - 3:56 PM.

[OhNoNotAgain]

2020.11.20

 

Three updates.

1. Received a new Camponotus. I'm told it's either a semi or a sansabeanus. 1.5 cm queen, has 4 living nanitics (1 died in transit). 

 

2. Found a random dark-colored Camponotus wandering around in the Prenolepis bin. What. the. heck. I put all the Camponotus colonies (except fragilis) out into the garage on Nov. 8th (based on my journal entry ... yes I use these journals to track information). Today is the 20th, 12 days later. (Granted, I brought dud vicinus in again to look at, but she has no workers.) So I pull dark-colored lost Camponotus out, bring in all the Camponotus from the garage (which isn't very cold, sadly), and look to see which Camponotus it is. It's going to be either cola or vicinus because it's black.

 

Well, unfortunately it's vicinus. "Unfortunately" because I have two vicinus colonies, normal queen and "bad luck" queen, and I dunno which one she belongs to. Not sure which one to put her in, not remembering if "bad luck" queen is supposed to have 2 or 3 nanitics, I put her in with "bad luck" queen. Of course, re-reading the above, I may have chosen wrong. BUT, after a lot of the queen sniffing the newcomer suspiciously with mandibles open, they decided to accept each other and there was trophallaxis going on. (Which is good, because today (if you read my Preno/M. mexicanus journal) I just witnessed a small bloodbath with a honeypot queen killing off two orphan workers.)

 

Verrrryyyy interesting.

 

( A ) If I put her in the wrong colony, it's interesting she was accepted.

( B ) WHERE the heck was this lone worker living for the last 12 days?!? Was she camping out in an open, used test tube I left lying around with traces of water inside. ??? (Contrast with Prenolepis who die if they go like half a day without cuddling up to wet cotton.)

 

3. I put ALL the Camponotus in the garage again, except of course fragilis. New Camponotus, lost Camponotus worker, dud Camponotus I'd brought inside for a few days, and the other Camponotus.

 

Will update with pics when I get a chance.

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, November 20 2020 - 10:40 PM.

[OhNoNotAgain]

2020.11.22

 

Quick post of the new Camponotus queen (sansabeanus ???) engaging in some sticky-looking trophallaxis from a couple days ago.

 

[OhNoNotAgain]

20201.05.01

 

1. JenC gave me a C. modoc queen a few months ago when we met Dr. Tsutsui.

 

2. The C. sansa, C. vicinus, C. semi or small sansa, C. cola survived winter and all were doing well. Due to personal circumstances I dragged them out of the garage pretty late.

They were sitting around doing okay, though.

UNTIL TODAY

 

I went to feed the ants and THE TETRAMORIUM HAD ESCAPED AGAIN. The C. sansabeanus queen is badly injured and probably won't survive. All her workers are dead.  I AM SO ANNOYED.

 

Bad luck C. vicinus had 2 workers, including 1 that had made it to the C. sansa bin. I rescued the worker and all was fine. UNTIL TODAY. DOWN TO 1 WORKER.

 

Other C. vicinus lost some workers. C. cola appear to be okay at the moment - remember Tetramorium toxin seems to kill about 24-48 hours later.

 

The mystery C. semi/sansa is sealed in a tube so they are okay (aside from being down to 2 workers for no apparent reason). The C. modoc (with small brood pile) is also sealed in a tube so they are also okay.

 

GRRRR TETRAMORIUM.

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, May 1 2021 - 7:43 PM.

[Kaelwizard]

I think this calls for genocide.

[OhNoNotAgain]

2021.5.10

 

Wow so many Camponotus.

 

Fertile/proven queens:

 

* Sooooo the poor Sansabeanus queen is actually still ALIVE. She seems to be remembering how to take of brood by herself. Hopefully the larger larvae will pupate and she'll have workers again. (Recall this is a year 2 Sansa - my first Sansa, the Mean Queen, died. This Sansa is smaller and more nervous and more scaredy-cat than mean.)

 

* I have the semi/sansa mystery queen next to the Sansa queen. She is down to 1 worker that survived the winter. She also has brood. She looks almost identical to the Sansa, but just a smidge smaller.

 

* I bought some Camponotus CA02. They look remarkably similar to the Sansabeanus and the Semi/Sansa, just slightly bigger and gasters slightly darker. I have a two queen pleo set and a solo nervous queen, both with pupae. I also acquired two winged dud CA02s. One of them has 1 tiny tiny larva that she is ignoring. I'm not sure they are larger than my cola.

 

* Speaking of which, C. quercicola is doing fine. She and her massive workers are still unscathed from the multiple Tetramorium invasions, and they are literally sitting on their giant brown cocoons, waiting for them to hatch out. I'm thinking of moving them to a mini-hearth if I see no signs of mites in a couple weeks.

 

* Happy vicinus queen has survived the most recent Tetramorium attack well, and has a large brood pile and plenty of workers. I'd move them to a mini-hearth but I'm worried about mites.

 

* Bad luck vicinus queen still has 1 worker (having lost the other to the Tetramorium attack) and a small brood pile. She seems to be perpetually stuck with like 1-2 workers.

 

* New vicinus. I got sent an extra vicinus queen, with 4 nanitics. Today I dumped them into a mini-hearth previously occupied by Pogonomyrmex.

 

* C. fragilis are in their own journal, but I really can't see them well so I'm not sure I'll update the journal.

 

Duds until proven otherwise:

 

* As mentioned above, I now have 2 winged CA02s. One has a normal sized gaster and one tiny larva that she's ignoring. The other has a small gaster and ... nada.

 

* Camponotus sp. dud that was in the garage now has an incredibly fat gaster and a small brood pile, plus lost tiny larvae here and there through the test tube. She's still not winning any ant mother of the year awards.

That said, putting her in the garage seems to have helped.

 

* I was sent a freebie C. anthrax that keeps eating brood. I think she just did it again.

 

* The freebie C. modoc has like ... 0 - 1 brood. Meaning she might be eating them. I find her dark, metallic, banded, kind of Formica-like gaster to be a really interesting change of pace from all the other Camponotus gasters.

 

Yeah I've got a ton of Camponotus.

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, May 10 2021 - 3:11 PM.

[OhNoNotAgain]

Updating with some photos.

 

My new CA02. One of the winged queens started laying. She's on the far right:

 

 

CA02 side-by-side with sansabeanus (and/or possibly a semi or whatever). You can see the labeling on the test tubes. The CA02 are on the right side of the photo.

Far left C. sansabeanus is the queen that barely survived the Tetramorium attack, the one who lost ALL her workers. She was in such bad shape, dragging her legs, but now seems okay. She had forgotten how to take care of her brood but now seems to have sorta remembered a bit.

 

 

The last couple days, the C. modoc and the C. anthrax have started laying and NOT eating the eggs. See test tubes for species. Neither had shown any inclination to settle down and raise their brood, so this is kinda surprising that all three (modoc, anthrax, and one winged CA02) all settled down pretty much in the same time frame. I'm not sure what happened - maybe it was several warm days in a row?

 

 

The new C. vicinus that is in the mini-hearth seems to be adapting to it okay.

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, May 18 2021 - 10:10 AM.

[OhNoNotAgain]

I guess I was so busy adulting I missed my first CA02 worker eclosing.
I am thinking of boosting one of the winged CA02 with one of these pupae….

[OhNoNotAgain]

Follow-up: I stole a pupa and gave the two queens some Sunburst in apology. I then opened the bigger winged queen’s tube and tried putting in the pupa. Wow she went berserk! She stormed out of the tube, climbed all over me, and bit my thumb (right on a tough calloused part hahahahaha). I admired her courage then got her back in with the pupa. She was thinking of attacking it but eventually stopped, then discovered the Sunburst I put in to mollify her. Whew. Anyway we will see how that goes. I’m going to try to feed all the founding queens some Sunburst if I have time.
Pic of a now mollified winged queen with donated pupa.


Uh oh, she finished the drop and is still agitated. But I see with ants that sugar comes first, rage second.
Edited to add: Just watched her collect her tiny larvae and stick them onto the pupa! Unfortunately she’s a bit ungainly and I think she’s accidentally leaving or moving one or two with her fat gaster as she turns around. Still, interesting behavior.

Below is a pic of the two CA02 queens nicely sharing the Sunburst after one of them sucked the foil dry.

Wait, I thought it was dry, but now there’s a darker orange spot on the foil. Did one throw up on the foil or was I just confused??

ALSO: discovered just now the solo wingless queen has a bum front leg. Uh oh! The last time that happened (my M. mexicanus) she died pretty fast….

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, May 27 2021 - 9:07 PM.

[OhNoNotAgain]

Post 3 for today. The CA02 duo have some quirks. One is busy ripping up cotton and trying to plug up the test tube. The other I think got more Sunburst and seems more laid back. Now they’ve flipped their foil plate. Okay enough about CA02s for now.

Modoc: had brood but it’s gone. Again. Gave her sunburst she is ignoring.

Anthrax: has tiny brood pile but given she came to me with a brood eating reputation, I am leaving her alone.

Good vici: I was gonna steal a pupa, but though she has a big brood pile, not many pupae. Also she and her workers are completely covering the brood pile.

Bad luck vici: back up to two workers?! And a decent size brood pile.

Sad sansa: still no pupae. Her largest larva is probably hungry.

Semi/sansa: has pupae woohoo.

Cola: still chilling. She and her workers are hugging their huge pupae.

New 4 worker vici: hanging out in mini-hearth, small brood pile. Not heated.

Random vici did: gaster shrinking a bit and still Dudley.

[OhNoNotAgain]

Awww solo CA02 has a callow now 😊

[PetsNotPests]

Nice photo! Beautiful species. One of my C. Vicinus just got another worker, and its amazing to watch them take in their new world. Keep us updated! 

[OhNoNotAgain]

Gah, just found mystery semi/sansa dead. Her pupae might be dead too, but I put them in the tube with the bereaved sansabeanus .

[OhNoNotAgain]

2021.6.7 Just a quick note that after a crazy hectic week of neglect, I looked and saw the donated pupa had eclosed for the winged CA02. Her other larvae are looking bigger, too.

I must must must feed them all soon.