123 replies to this topic

[Canadant]

Formica neorufibarbis

The Good Queen

This queen is a great queen. I mean just watching her traverse from chamber to chamber is a pleasure. You can really almost see her checking on workers, overseeing and delegating duties, and mingling with the staff. I mean she's just not stuffed in some nest corner as an egg laying vending machine. It's quite nice to see. Long live the Queen.

Here's a pic:


Crematogaster cerasi

This colony continues to grow but once again they reside in two nests - one their natural wood nest and the other their formicarium. In the future I will carve them an all wooden formicarium 'cause they just will not move out of the other one. I wanted to get them a THA Nucleus and place the two wooden logs in the top outworld and give them the option to either go underground to the heated formicarium or stay up top in the boards. I thought it would look cool. It's quit natural anyways as that's how I find them in the wild with some of the nest in a piece of wood and part of the nest dug underneath in soil. Right now they keep the brood in the heated moist formicarium and kinda dine on protein in the wooden board. You can see them in there with their stockpile munching away. The also swarm the entrance to their formicarium. I'm not sure why. They have a trail that runs from the formicarium to their little boards. It's a bow shape and you can't miss it in the pics. I mean the colony is growing so I'm not sure when they'll run out of space in the home but there is lots of room in the formicarium. I'd even say too much. I think this species likes tight spaces.

Here's some pics:

Protein storage


You can see the trail that bows around the little wooden branch from the formicarium to the natural home.




Swarming the entrance


Brood on ceiling brood everywhere


Flies are welcome in my house muhahaha (evil laugh). Ants love them! Bums wagging here.


Cheers everyone

Canadant

Edited by Canadant, June 3 2021 - 3:06 PM.

[ANTdrew]

Awesome!!! I think after my colony, your Crematogaster are the largest. I think a range of nest options like you have is really ideal.

[Canadant]

Crematogaster cerasi

I highly recommend wasp nests. If you can find them at a young enough stage, wait for the queen to leave and just pluck them off using a broom or net. Lots of juicy soft grubs and eggs inside plus nectar. My Crematogaster love them. They hauled the larvae out in no time. Gonna try and carve these guys a wood nest!





Formica neorufibarbis

I didn't get to see my Formica go at their nest but it was cleaned out eventually. Here's a worker making the discovery.



Things progressing well. After I switched out their old formicarium with a new one they started a garbage pile. They cleaned up the entire outworld and piled it all neatly in a corner. My Crematogaster are filthy - no trash pile whatsoever. Garbage strewn all over. A pain to pick up piece by piece.

I'm really liking the new omni nest as a home for my Formica. They just look good in there. Although I've noticed they've been picking at the sponge.

Happy anting!

Cheers 🍻

Edited by Canadant, June 14 2021 - 3:32 PM.

[Kaelwizard]

That poor wasp queen. She must be so devastated.