56 replies to this topic

[ZTYguy]

I would have to disagree with this species temperment. From what I know these girls are less explorative when young but get super agressive when they get around 20-30 workers and around that time you'll start to see your first repletes. They are one of the most agressive ants I've kept besides my one S. xyloni (probably invicta, i was like 10 and knew nothing about ants besides what Antscanada put up on youtube) colony and weirdly my current Acromyrmex colony.

[Swirlysnowflake]

I would have to disagree with this species temperment. From what I know these girls are less explorative when young but get super agressive when they get around 20-30 workers and around that time you'll start to see your first repletes. They are one of the most agressive ants I've kept besides my one S. xyloni (probably invicta, i was like 10 and knew nothing about ants besides what Antscanada put up on youtube) colony and weirdly my current Acromyrmex colony.

Hopefully they can get to 20-30 workers soon. When they get that many workers, I'm going to move them into the fortress. They do seem to be growing pretty fast, even without heat. In spring, I'll give them heat and see if they'll grow faster. 

I just saw one worker in the outworld, picking up some sand and taking it inside. At least they are venturing out now, lol

[ZTYguy]

lol, that's an improvement oh and if you feed them daily or just keep them packed with sugar water them once they get to the 30  worker mark they hit the ground running in the brood department. It was crazy whhen that happened to me.

[Swirlysnowflake]

lol, that's an improvement oh and if you feed them daily or just keep them packed with sugar water them once they get to the 30  worker mark they hit the ground running in the brood department. It was crazy whhen that happened to me.

I'm feeding protein every 2 days, and they constantly have a honey water feeder in their outworld. When I give them protein, I also give them a smear of honey.

[ZTYguy]

that's perfecto

[Swirlysnowflake]

.

Edited by Swirlysnowflake, December 7 2020 - 1:06 PM.

[YsTheAnt]

They’ll grow super fast if you heat them to 80-85F. My 1.5yr old colony has thousands of workers now, and I don’t even feed them much.

[Swirlysnowflake]

They’ll grow super fast if you heat them to 80-85F. My 1.5yr old colony has thousands of workers now, and I don’t even feed them much.

Ooh! Should I put them on heat now, or wait until spring?

[YsTheAnt]

I heated mine all through the winter and they did fine. Ambient temp was lower but the hottest area stayed around that temperature, but your experience might be different.

[Swirlysnowflake]

So I put the test tube on heat, and foolishly put the heating on the side with the water so the test tube was filled with fog/condensation on the walls. I just switched the heat to the other side for now, and the workers placed all the cocoons on the heated side, but the queen and the larvae stayed near the water. Maybe because they need the extra humidity? But I might just order a mini hearth to move them into, because they are on sale rn. 

Sorry for the lack of pictures, they freak out so much when exposed to light. I don't want to stress them out, and besides, it's quite hard to get any pictures when there are 15 frantic ants zooming around inside the test tube lol. 

Edited by Swirlysnowflake, December 11 2020 - 9:24 AM.

[Devi]

Looking great.  Nice journal so far, I just read through it again.  Looking forward to seeing progress!

[Swirlysnowflake]

I completely forgot to update this. A little over a week ago the mini hearth arrived and I moved the honeypots inside. So far they are doing well. I’ll get pics soon

[ZTYguy]

Yay!!!

Edited by ZTYguy, December 28 2020 - 1:02 PM.

[Swirlysnowflake]

The queen finally isn't skinny anymore!  I counted, and they're currently at 15 workers, 1 queen, 7 pupae, a pile of larvae (some large, some tiny) and a little pile of eggs. 

I tried taking pictures but my phone camera refused to focus at all... How do you take pictures in a mini hearth without the glass reflecting the camera and completely blocking the ants from view?

Edited by Swirlysnowflake, January 6 2021 - 9:51 AM.

[Kaelwizard]

The queen finally isn't skinny anymore!  I counted, and they're currently at 15 workers, 1 queen, 7 pupae, a pile of larvae (some large, some tiny) and a little pile of eggs. 

I tried taking pictures but my phone camera refused to focus at all... How do you take pictures in a mini hearth without the glass reflecting the camera and completely blocking the ants from view?

Museum glass.

[antsandmore]

Myrmecocystus mexicanus are a dream for me, hopefully next year I can catch some, or even buy if I have to. And then again, I am excited for acromyrmex(hopefully I can become more experienced), but Myrmecocystus spp would be a dream come true. They're basically the reason I started the hobby