19 replies to this topic

[dermy]

This will be a Journal on my newly caught Myrmica colony. I have decided to use this as my "Test" Colony so to speak, as I want to see how well they'd fair in one of my setups. I haven't attached an out world yet but I definitely have to here soon!

And yes my pictures suck! haha

 

 

Day#1-April 14/2015- I got this colony from a sandbox outside, it has 200+ Workers [I will get more tomorrow if the weather lets me] and 20+ Queen alates, and 6 for sure mated queens [could be more i just threw in all the queens/workers i could get.] They are in a Jar Setup, connected to another jar as the foraging area. I have been feeding them freshly killed meal-worms and syrup. They also have a big moist cotton pad in the nest. I will get pictures up when I can of the colony.
Quick Update: I did go back and get about 3 more queens and around 100+ more workers bringing the colony to around [I think] 300 Workers. I did get a good load of queens but left them in the wild nest. There was also 20+ Alates that I did not take, since I already took some the first day.

Edited by dermy, April 17 2015 - 11:30 AM.

[dermy]

Update: I got some more of the colony yesterday bringing up the total to 9-10 queens 20 Alates [I released a few back into the outside nest] and about 300+ Workers. I painted a queen and named it blue. They have both a nest and an outworld. I haven't done much but fed them a freshly killed mealworm and some syrup. They seem happy.

 

On another note here is how I stopped them from getting out of the jar: Rubbing alcohol and Vaseline. it worked fine for me They didn't escape at all!

[AntTeen804]

Do you just mix the rubbing alcohol and vasaline 1:1?

[dermy]

I don't know what i did haha I just rubbed them together, If you want i can do some tests with like 1:1 and 1:2 and all that. I think it was vasiline first then the rubbing alcohol. Just don't add substrate, because they make bridges!

[dermy]

Day#3-April 17/2015- The colony is still alive, and well. I haven't had any noticeable die-offs at all. They forage now, which they didn't do before much, because I think they were freaked out from being moved into Captivity. I think if I take really good care of the colony it will do fine. They do look like they might decide to out-grow this current setup so I will have to think of something more permanent. There is no brood that I can see [there wasn't even any in the nest outside] but I'm sure within the week they will settle down and begin laying eggs. There is a total of 9 Queens and about 15 Alates. I will try to get images up when I can.

[dermy]

Do you just mix the rubbing alcohol and vasaline 1:1?

I plan to make them a different Outworld that is easier for me to get into without 50 ants getting out haha that was fun! So I will test this out with the new Out-World. Will keep you updated!

[dermy]

I have added the foraging area.

[Crystals]

I have yet to find Myrmica that will cross olive oil.

Even the very faintest layer that you can even see works.

 

An upside down lip on a larger formicarium with the underside covered in olive oil works even better. 

[dermy]

Hmm I should see if we have that. Either way I'm not too worried. The new outworld is so much easier to get into and I really hope they like it!

[dermy]

Just looked in the nest today and we have Eggs!

[dermy]

They have begun laying lots of eggs, there is at least a pile three times as big as a queen ant [of this species] I'm super excited. They also make a garbage pile in the outworld.

[dermy]

Just a quick update, I've thrown in a food dish and swarms of workers have been in the foraging area lately bringing back food to the nest.

Is it too early to say that they have larvae? It's been about 2 weeks.

[AntTeen804]

I don't think so.

[dermy]

I think they might have first instar larvae. It's been 2 weeks at about 20-23C at least [my dad keeps leaving the heat on full blast and my room is just dead heat it's killer for me but the bugs sure like it! ]

[dermy]

oops multi-post sorry.

Edited by dermy, April 26 2015 - 3:29 PM.

[dermy]

I have thrown in an alive mealworm that i cut a bit and it made it into the nest! Should I be worried? [the ants look like they could care less, they didn't even move the queens/brood]

[Crystals]

If they are not worried, then I suspect that it isn't that close to the queen or brood.

It won't live long.

Mold might be an issue later if the ants don't do anything.

[dermy]

They seem very content and the queens even go and investigate it I've seen them drag garbage out so I'm assuming they can do the same with the mealworm. It's funny to see them not care.

[dermy]

I've been slacking off again with this colony, ever since I got my Larger Colony, but soon I will do another Slide-Show showing how they are doing. There is quite a bit of brood and foraging is increasing a lot.

 

An update on the Mealworm, not only did they kill it and eat it but they also took it out of the nest into the foraging area for me to clean out [which I need to do soon ]

 

Oh yeah another thing Canola Oil works for keeping them in the out-world

Edited by dermy, April 30 2015 - 8:37 AM.

[dermy]

This poor ant colony, I just finished remaking their enclosure, they had moved all queens and brood [that's a bad sign] to the Out-world and their nest was abandoned, and dry as rock! I kept the nest because it looks cool and gave them a new moist nest, Queens were the first to check it out. I bet if I waited even 1 more day they would have died.