113 replies to this topic

[mantisgal]

She would've been FRESH

[mantisgal]

First official death in the colony, found the Littlest Body on the food dish that still held dehydrated crumbs today.

The Imp'risarios ste still laying as far as I can tell, all are fat and apparently happy. My only thing is learning their feeding schedule. How often should I be offering protein-based foods to a young colony of 3 queens and perhaps up to 40 workers, with the caveat that they are false honeypots

[AntBoi3030]

Really depends on how much larvae they have. If they only have eggs and pupae if feed them protein every week or so.

[mantisgal]

They've been given an experimental dish of ground up cat kibble made into a mush with water. Will report back, but note that they may not touch it because they have protein laden corpulents

[mantisgal]

Kibble mush is a success. They definitely ate some. This is excellent news for us all, because kibble is easier than mealworms (sorry mealie keepers, it's nothing personal).

Another body was seen today in the tubes: I believe the first generation is succumbing to age. If this belief is wrong please correct me, because if I am wrong g then Something Is Wrong In The Chambers and I hafta fix it.

Followers of this journal know that I am blessed with like, supernatural numbers of local prennies. Well, they had a second (third? Dunno, didn't move here til March) flight and I caught many even though I had to leave them during the peak of the flight. Stupid needing to do stuff after work! Boo! Boo, I say!

But! Wow, so many.

Like, 30? 40? I know some of you are laughing at this pitiful number but it is a lot for me. Basically, if you are in the GTA and can pick em up, I has queens available in sets of 5, most appear fertile. Probably. I'm pretty sure.

[Kaelwizard]

The ants flying now are for sure Prenolepis, right? Not Lasius or something? If they really are Prennies I didn't know they flew this late.

[mantisgal]

For sure prenolepis. They have fall flights in some areas depending on conditions. I marked the nests in my yard earlier this year

[mantisgal]

Ok, Something Weird is going on.

It looks like the queens are getting stuck to the grout on the inside of the chamber. Daughters are pulling them free just about every day. How worried should I be about this?

[ANTdrew]

Is there condensation on the grout?

[mantisgal]

Uhhhhh maybe?

[mantisgal]

Ok we got a Queen down. I Has A Concern.

[m99]

Oh no! I hope it's not a problem with the Por Amor formicariums, it's so strange they'd get getting what like gooey or something?

[mantisgal]

Something like. Looks like they accidentally broke her trying to free her. Whoops.

I'm hoping to get through this tragedy with a queen intact, though it won't be entirely tragic if the orphaned workers will accept a batch of the new queens who are in brooding tubes at the moment

[mantisgal]

The Imp'risarios are officially a duo and the new face of War Amps: I do believe there's at least one leg missing.

Whoops.

In other news I did a count and have 35 queens in 7 tubes, some already laying.