26 replies to this topic

[Lillyrose]

I tried to put my acorn colony into their new home and I made so many mistakes. Now they're in a place that's too big for them and I don't think there is a queen and I accidently slaughtered so many thinking I was gently brushing them off my fingers and stuff.

I killed them! It wasn't gentle! Zooming in with my camera I see I broke so many of them.

I am horrible! I maybe shouldn't have something like this as a pet :-( I thought I did things right and instead... oh man

I feel so bad.

[Lillyrose]

http://imgur.com/a/XWbZoIi

[KitsAntVa]

we all make mistakes, I did this with my ants when I first started. Give it around 3 months of keeping ants when you've bought a colony or caught a queen that you are proud to keep.

[Pumpkin_Loves_Ants]

Ah don’t worry about it dude. Obviously you should try to be more gentle and/or prepared in the future but as the age old saying goes, everyone makes mistakes. Next time when transporting a large colony it might be worth it to stick them in the fridge for a few minutes to make them more docile and less mobile.

[steelplant]

Nature is red in tooth and claw and this is another order of magnitude for insects. This is the world they live in so don't beat yourself up. If we're lucky we live and learn. A wandering deer might have squashed them all by now if you'd left them in the field.

I also learned the hard way to always have a tiny soft brush to hand when dealing with ants.

Good luck in the future. It's great that you care so much, and that'll make you a great antkeeper.

[Lillyrose]

I just realized that a lot of them are in the water tube .. they def like it better cause it's smaller ... I'm not going to mess with them anymore right now lol.


Thanks guys .. I just feel so bad lol I wanna be a good keeper

[MinigunL5]

I also killed a Temnothorax when I started ant-keeping. I tried moving them out of a acorn into a container but the baby powder barrier was corn starch based and They were to small to get into a test tube. My mom killed the queen when she was was trying to help me and I almost cried.

[gs5248]

Don't sweat it. I accidentally killed my first tetramorium colony. Don't give up.

[TennesseeAnts]

Not to be annoying, but those are actually Tapinoma sessile, or the "Odorous House Ant", a member of Dolichorderinae.

 

They should be fine, as they grow extremely quickly, are polgyne and will accept virtually anything you feed them. If you keep them warm, dark and fed, they will likely outgrow that nest within a year or two at most. 

Btw, there probably is a queen in that colony, but they are very similar in size to workers and so are hard to spot without a trained eye. 

[Manitobant]

Don’t worry it happens. I accidentally killed my large polyergus Mexicanus colony last year when the glass came off of their nest and crushed the queen when I put it back on. Tapinoma sessile are a very common species anyways, so it shouldn’t be hard to find more.

[ANTdrew]

Flip some rocks and logs when it gets a bit warmer and you’ll find so many colonies of these. Add them to this colony like copy and paste.

[Lillyrose]

Not to be annoying, but those are actually Tapinoma sessile, or the "Odorous House Ant", a member of Dolichorderinae.

They should be fine, as they grow extremely quickly, are polgyne and will accept virtually anything you feed them. If you keep them warm, dark and fed, they will likely outgrow that nest within a year or two at most.
Btw, there probably is a queen in that colony, but they are very similar in size to workers and so are hard to spot without a trained eye.

Not annoying! I did find out that they weren't acorn ants .. buy they did live in an acorn so I keep calling them that by mistake.

I actually have another 3 acorns still in hibernation and all are the odorous ants. I keep trying to find the acorn ants but so far no luck.

[Lillyrose]

Flip some rocks and logs when it gets a bit warmer and you’ll find so many colonies of these. Add them to this colony like copy and paste.

I can add? I have 3 more colonies in hibernation. .. will they kill each other if I were to put them together?

[Lillyrose]

.
Btw, there probably is a queen in that colony, but they are very similar in size to workers and so are hard to spot without a trained eye.

Oh I saw one with a wasp butt like that and thought it was a male ... maybe it's a queen

[ANTdrew]

You can combine these. They are basically off-brand Argentine ants. If the wasp-like one you saw doesn’t have wings, it’s not a male.

[Manitobant]

You can combine these. They are basically off-brand Argentine ants. If the wasp-like one you saw doesn’t have wings, it’s not a male.

in my experience it really depends on the location. In some places they will combine and make supercolonies while in other places, like where I live, they won’t.

[ANTdrew]

In our area, they form huge supercolonies that take over everything, including your kitchen.

[Lillyrose]

In our area, they form huge supercolonies that take over everything, including your kitchen.

Ughhh nooooo

Don't tell my husband that. He doesn't want me to keep them for fear of that

[Lillyrose]

One interesting thing. . Since they felt scared and stuff they all crammed together into the water tube. They grabbed some of the little pebbles and blocked the entrance.

[Scherme]

I'll be grabbing a small cheap paintbrush because of this story. I have been pretty good at not crushing so far, but paintbrushes are cheap enough. 

 

Also thanks for the share. I guarantee you are not the only one, so don't feel too bad.

 

I once thought it wouldn't be too big of deal to remove the glass real quick from my  THA minihearth so I could wipe it down while a colony was still inside. It was a mess. Then I couldn't stand the thought of looking at their squished little bodies every time i wanted to watch so I spent like an hour carefully picking them out from between the glass. I didn't lose as much as I could of and tetra rebound quickly. 

Edited by Scherme, February 4 2021 - 3:43 AM.