311 replies to this topic

[ANTdrew]

Update 3-23-23
I fed them their first protein of the season last night, a chopped up dubia roach. They swarmed it immediately.

Did you deshell that roach for them? it looks like it has no exo on the underside there.

No, I just chopped it up for them.

[ANTdrew]

Update 4-13-2023

 

 In my last update on the Phatheads, I mentioned how quickly they would recover their wintertime population losses. Well, it's happening just as rapidly as I imagined. Here are some photos of their massive larvae and pupae piles. Our April has been way hotter than normal, plus all my ants are kept in my hot kitchen now, so that certainly helps speed up growth! 

 

 

 

Their new nest is working out great so far, but I still haven't gotten around to hooking up their new mega-outworld. I got over 100 large dubia roaches from an old ant customer of mine, so that has been their only source of protein to this point. I'll diversify soon with mealworm, crickets, and wild caught insects from my safe yard. 

 

 

 

[Ernteameise]

Oh wow!

That is a lot of brood!

[ANTdrew]

Update 5-15-2023

 

 The Phatheads continue to do very well. There has been steady brood growth, and I think I'm starting to spot some alate larvae. I continue feeding them mealworms, dubias, and I've recently added crickets back into the menu rotation. 

 

[AntsCali098]

Is the colony at full size?

[ANTdrew]

Yes, they won’t be getting any bigger than this.

[Ernteameise]

Love these big soldiers.
What do you think, do these soldiers make up 10% of the colony? I did read something along these lines and I wonder if this is also true for pet colonies. It surely depends on nutrition? What are your observations?

[ANTdrew]

Love these big soldiers.
What do you think, do these soldiers make up 10% of the colony? I did read something along these lines and I wonder if this is also true for pet colonies. It surely depends on nutrition? What are your observations?

I bet this colony is 20% majors, if not more.

[ANTdrew]

Update 8-11-2023

 

This is now my oldest and most successful colony, and the Phatheads continue to do amazingly well. They produced a big batch of queens for the third year in a row. Interestingly, I haven't spotted any males yet. I power feed the colony a large dubia roach or cricket almost daily. They also get fruit flies when I have them and random wild bugs like termites. I'm also very thankful their fluon barrier on the lip of the AC outworld they live in has held up as long as it has, but I better renew pretty soon. I've given up on cleaning it because thousands of workers cover everything, so it's not nice to look at, though. I'll give it a deep cleaning once they go down for diapause, though. 

 

Photos and a video:

 

Their custom UtahAnts Red Sand mAntsion continues to be a perfect home for them with great visibility. 

 

https://drive.google...ew?usp=sharing 

[TennesseeAnts]

They look great! I accidentally killed my oldest colony of Pheidole dentata this year, so I am working on bringing up my newer Ph. crassicornis colony to take their place. 

[ANTdrew]

Update 11-21-2023

 

It's been a good while since I updated this journal, but all has been going well for these tiny, teeming ants. They raised quite a few alates this season, and a few males were still around the last time I checked. Most alates have already been mercilessly culled, though. High fall humidity ruined their fluon barrier a few weeks ago, and they staged a big escape as a result. I was able to renew the fluon, though, and all is good now. I put the colony into hibernation mode in my parents' unheated basement last week. I'll leave them there until March at the earliest. It's good to have a break!

[dspdrew]

That's a pretty big colony. How old is it?

[ANTdrew]

That's a pretty big colony. How old is it?

The queen was collected in June 2020.

[ANTdrew]

5-28-2024
Welcome to the fourth year of this journal. I’m happy to report that the Phatheads are alive and kicking gaster even after all these years. They had pretty big die backs over the winter, but they have huge brood piles now, so they’ll bounce back in no time. I’m glad I was able to do a deep vacuuming of all the trash and frass in their AC Outworld, even though I had to sacrifice many of the workers to do so. Dealing with the craziness of huge colonies changes your mindset on that sort of thing.

Brood pile 1:

[ANTdrew]

Brood pile 2:

[ANTdrew]

Update 7-15-24
This colony is four years old now, and not showing any signs of slowing down. They have fully recovered their population, but I don’t see signs of alates just yet. They staged a massive jailbreak about a month ago when they managed to chew through a rubber plug. Several hundred were lost at that point, but they have since been replaced. Here are some photos of the adobe chambers in their UtahAnts nest.

imagehost

[Zzz]

Wow they are so awesome! How many times a week do you feed them?

[ANTdrew]

They are a lot of fun, except when they do mischief. I feed them about three times a week with constant access to hummingbird nectar.

[Zzz]

They are a lot of fun, except when they do mischief. I feed them about three times a week with constant access to hummingbird nectar.

Great!

[ANTdrew]

Here’s the plug they chewed through. Let this be a warning PSA.