472 replies to this topic

[Vendayn]

65q24g4g5f

Edited by Vendayn, March 9 2018 - 7:07 PM.

[Subverted]

I think feeding A. versicolor almost anything that contains cellulose and/or lignin would be acceptable to the fungus. The ants themselves don't actually eat any of the plant matter...as far as I know anyway. You could probably give them cardboard to feed their fungus! (don't do that.)

[Vendayn]

65q24g4g5f

Edited by Vendayn, March 9 2018 - 7:07 PM.

[Chall]

Drew, I think this is amazing I started from the first page in 2014 and read everything up to now. And I love how no matter what you kept going and wouldn't give up trying to keep these ants.


RIP for the ants in the civil war

[dspdrew]

Walnut just seems a bit of a weird food for the fungus to consume, since I think of typical things that are leafy or have petals (and is "consume" that the word for what the fungus does to the stuff?

 

Take some soggy walnuts, put them in a bag and let them sit around for a few weeks. It won't seem so weird then.

 

 

Drew, I think this is amazing I started from the first page in 2014 and read everything up to now. And I love how no matter what you kept going and wouldn't give up trying to keep these ants.


RIP for the ants in the civil war

 

 Thanks. Yeah, I'm pretty stubborn and determined.

[Sisyphe]

Here's a pretty cool before and after picture [...]
 

 
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but is there one outworld for 4 different colonies?

[dspdrew]

No that's one colony.
 

 

[Sisyphe]

Oh ok. Awesome setup. Were these separate boxes at first? What did you use to make the connections? It looks real nice.

[dspdrew]

Thanks. They are 3D printed connectors. This thread (http://www.formicult...ted-10-26-2015/) shows everything about these formicariums.

[dspdrew]

Update 1-31-2016
 
The colony that was my first large colony and the one that had the civil war a while back desperately needs a new formicarium. The experimental one they were in was ready to be breached at any time, so I dismantled it and put everything in a tub until I finish making a new formicarium for them. Interestingly, the colony didn't break out into a civil war this time, and this was much more invasive than what I did the first time. This is why I think it's hard to say what really caused that to happen.
 

 

 

 
 
A colony I had about six months ago lost its queen, so I have kept them just as a fungus supply. The crazy thing is, they still have brood in their nest. They have a pile of larvae, that have been in there for six months! One of them was huge and I gave it to one of my new colonies to see if they would maybe raise it into a worker.
 

 
 
Within a couple days they killed it. There was a crowd of workers all around it looking as if they were feeding on it. This wasn't the first time I've seen what looked like worker feeding on larvae. I don't know that they would eat anything but fungus, but these workers were clearly draining the larva with their mouths, as it eventually was completely deflated.
 
Workers sucking fluids from a larva.
 

[klawfran3]

Do you think the colony that lost its queen would accept a new one when the nuptial flights come around? It would be a shame to see the colony slowly collapse from that.

[dspdrew]

It's possible. I think I was going to try putting one of my new queens from last season in there, but never got around to it. The colony is almost completely died off now though. It's been six months. I supplied all the queens I got last season with fungus from that colony, so it wasn't a waste at all.

[Here for the honeypots]

so cool.

[klawfran3]

It's possible. I think I was going to try putting one of my new queens from last season in there, but never got around to it. The colony is almost completely died off now though. It's been six months. I supplied all the queens I got last season with fungus from that colony, so it wasn't a waste at all.

Oh that's good at least. Once all the workers die off I guess you can just hand the remaining fungus to another queen.

[Vendayn]

65q24g4g5f

Edited by Vendayn, March 9 2018 - 7:07 PM.

[Barristan]

Great idea with the small boxes as fungus chambers. But you'll have to build a lot of them to house a mature colony

[dspdrew]

I'm going to add on vertically, so this thing will hold quite a bit in a small footprint.

[drtrmiller]

Acromyrmex Apartments. Interestingly enough, the prefix Acromyrmex approximately means "height." You should make a little sign to their apartment complex and call it "Acromyrmex Heights," which would be about as redundant as saying "ATM machine."

[dermy]

I can't believe how large this colony is getting, look at all that food they eat too

[Alza]

Those photos looking photogenic...