48 replies to this topic

[dspdrew]

No.

[Foogoo]

Interesting thing happened with one of my colonies, they were getting antsy in the tube so I moved them to an acrylic nest that used a PVA sponge about 1 1/2 week ago. I kept the sponge hydrated and fed Blue and insects as I did with my other colonies. Workers began to die and all (ten or so) were dead by yesterday so I moved the queen back to a tube. Only reasons I can think of is either too dry or some sort of bacteria?

[dspdrew]

That is usually a very hard question to answer, even if I know everything about the setup. I have had many mysteries like that. All you can do is speculate unless you have lots of colonies and the time to do testing. I did find out once that uncured Plasti-dip caused the death of a lot of my ants, but I actually did some testing to verify it.

[dspdrew]

Update 6-24-2015
 

The colony I put in the ant farm box finally got a nest dug and moved in without my help. Yesterday I put another colony in another one of these small ant farm boxes that just became available. This one already had tunnels dug by the Pogonomyrmex that was in it before, so it didn't take them long to move in.

[dspdrew]

Update 8-5-2015
 

Most of the queens in test tubes have not done very well. I think part of the problem was that I sort of neglected them for a while. I'm now left with five colonies. Two of them are in test tubes inside foraging containers and are not doing that well. Both have just a few workers, and not much brood at all. The other three are in dirt boxes and doing well. All three have quite a few workers and lots of brood. The largest colony is in a large dirt box, and the two smaller colonies are still in the small dirt boxes I put them in before the last update.

[dspdrew]

Update 1-15-2016
 
I'm now down to just three colonies of these left. One is still in a test tube inside a foraging container, and not doing very well. That one only has a few workers, and doesn't seem to be growing at this point. The other two are still in my "dirt boxes", one large and one small. One of the colonies living in one of the small "dirt boxes" died a while back. The colony in the large "dirt box" is doing really well, and has close to 150 workers.
 
I just put all three colonies into hibernation in my new "hibernation cabinet".
 

 
 
This is a video of the large colony just before being put into hibernation.
 

[dspdrew]

I added a video to the last update that I forgot to add at the time I made it.

[dspdrew]

Update 4-4-2016
 
I just took these out of hibernation last week. Both colonies in the dirt boxes still look like they are doing well. The small colony still in the test tube I gave away. It didn't look like it was going to grow anymore.

[dspdrew]

Update 4-7-2016
 
Just the other day the queen of the large colony laid a huge pile of eggs.

 

The queen of the smaller colony has laid a small pile of eggs too.

 

[Alexant]

This is good to hear

[dspdrew]

Update 11-22-2016

 

I only have my older, larger colony of these left. The colony is doing well. I'm not sure if the population has grown or shrunk, because it still looks about the same, and I can't really count them in the "dirt box" they're in. They put so much dirt on the sides of the tunnels and chambers, that you can hardly see anything anymore. I just put them into hibernation today.

[dspdrew]

Update 3-16-2017

 

I just took this colony out of hibernation today, and they seem to be doing just fine. I gave them some fresh sugar water and a few termites.

[dspdrew]

Update 4-1-2017
 
Just checked the colony and they have a massive pile of new eggs and small larvae. The queen must have laid a lot of these eggs within days of taking them out of hibernation.
 
They started grabbing them all and scattering as Formica always does the second any light hits them.
 

 

 

[YsTheAnt]

How are they doing?

[dspdrew]

Update 10-9-2017

 

This colony is still producing like crazy. I estimate approximately 400 workers.

[MegaMyrmex]

Pics pics pics pics!

[FeedTheAnts]

Yes, please post pics if you can. I love Formica and was not aware that you had any current colonies of this Genus.

[TennesseeAnts]

These look similar to my F.pacifica.

[dspdrew]

Update 1-13-2018

 

Not much has changed with this colony. They are still in a large Dirt Box, and still doing well. I just now put them into hibernation for the winter.

[dspdrew]

Update 6-8-2018

I just took these out of hibernation about a week ago. The colony looks like it's still doing great. I already see clumps of new eggs as well.

 

I also just found a bunch more of these queens in Cajon, CA on 5-28-2018, during a slight heatwave.