354 replies to this topic

[SYUTEO]

Here's a picture of S. geminata eating a piece of chicken, the ant circled in green is a major (the picture is bad, I know, it's quite hard to get a picture of the majors). Unedited picture available in the gallery.

 

And here's just some pictures of Anochetus and Cardiocondyla.

And also I'm planning on giving an outworld to Trichomyrmex and Paratopula. I might give Paratopula a more verticle outworld since they're arboreal.

 

Edit: If you're wondering why it seems like there's very few workers in Cardiocondyla, it's because they are near the entrance of the test tube which is offscreen.

Edited by SYUTEO, April 24 2022 - 7:26 PM.

[SYUTEO]

Paratopula started eating their brood.

 

I gave Trichomyrmex an outworld as it's getting harder to feed them, they HATED it and escaped by squeezing between the lid and moved their brood to another test tube that I forgot to clean. Luckily though the queen can't squeeze through (free roaming ant colony?).

[SYUTEO]

Two days ago I caught two Camponotus albosparsus colonies! Both have shed their wings and laid one egg, one of the eggs is pink.

[SYUTEO]

So, the fire ants' test tube and outworld flooded... I quickly moved them to new test tube but since the outworld isn't big enough to fit a second test tube (25mm x 150mm) , I had to use a smaller one (15mm x 126mm).

 

Three days ago I caught a Carebara affinis alate.

[SYUTEO]

My dad found an O. smaragdina queen! Really hope this one makes it. She currently has a pile of eggs and they should be hatching soon.

 

So I've been away for two days and S. geminata has some mass die offs... Hope they recover soon.

 

Both C. albosparsus queens have larvae.

[SYUTEO]

Oecophylla has larvae but hasn't started building her silk tent yet.

 

Gnamptogenys (Stictoponera) has a lot of larvae.

[SYUTEO]

Caught an unexpected Tetraponera alate today!

[SYUTEO]

Tetraponera is sadly infertile.

 

Gnamptogenys (Stictoponera) is at 12 workers.

 

Oecophylla has three pupae.

[SYUTEO]

 

Tetraponera is sadly infertile.
 
Gnamptogenys (Stictoponera) is at 12 workers.
 
Oecophylla has three pupae.

I am unfamiliar with weaver ant survival rate in small colonies and care. Also, do you keep them in a leaf nest or some acrylic nest? (Test tube?) I do know queens found on the underside of leaves(Apparently)

 

I keep her in small plastic container with some wet tissue paper for humidity, however I did read online that they don't do so well in setups with high humidity and the humidity in the tissue paper could potentially kill her, mine is alright for now as the tissue paper has dried up and she seemed to like it and would sometimes hide in the pocket she (somehow) made herself, I would still water it so she wouldn't dry out. Keeping them in test tubes is possible but for me the queens mortality rate is higher since in a test tube there is less ventilation and the queen can kill herself by releasing formic acid (gaseus form).

[SYUTEO]

Oecophylla and C. albosparsus has their first nanitics! 

[ANTdrew]

Congrats! Need pics of that.

[Idontexist]

Oecophylla and C. albosparsus has their first nanitics!

the nanatics

[SYUTEO]

Oecophylla has new eggs.

 

Tetraponera laid eggs!

 

I will post pictures soon.

[ANTS_KL]

Bravo! Is this one of the times you FINALLY raise Oecophylla to the nanitic stage?
By the way, I've found a good substitute to the wet clump of tissue, which is to mist their setup once every 2 weeks. But I only did this because my queen did in fact spin a massive waterproof silk chamber around herself. I think it's because my Oecophylla queen shed her wings and laid eggs in her container of capture, which was much much bigger than herself. This probably left her a lot of space to build a silk tent. Previously, I found that in smaller containers, the queen would not build a proper tent, but instead make random walls of silk all over the place around herself. Also slightly moving prey is fun to watch them attack.

[SYUTEO]

Bravo! Is this one of the times you FINALLY raise Oecophylla to the nanitic stage?
By the way, I've found a good substitute to the wet clump of tissue, which is to mist their setup once every 2 weeks. But I only did this because my queen did in fact spin a massive waterproof silk chamber around herself. I think it's because my Oecophylla queen shed her wings and laid eggs in her container of capture, which was much much bigger than herself. This probably left her a lot of space to build a silk tent. Previously, I found that in smaller containers, the queen would not build a proper tent, but instead make random walls of silk all over the place around herself. Also slightly moving prey is fun to watch them attack.

This is my first time I managed to raise them to nanitics. They did spin silk but only a tiny bit on the tissue.

 

Tetraponera ate one of her eggs 

 

I'm quite busy recently which is why you're not seeing me post pictures but I will post some very soon.

[SYUTEO]

I'm the dumbest antkeeper alive...

 

So uh, Anochetus has the cocoon spinning problem again...

 

I didn't notice that the Oecophylla nanitics can fit through the ventilation holes in the lid and two of the three nanitics are gone. Not too far away is a very fat cellar spider and two medium sized orange ants wrapped up by it. I guess you probably know what happened... Here's the queen together with her brood (her last worker is offscreen).

Here's the two C. albosparsus colonies. If you see more pictures of these ants in the future it's most likely from colony #1

 

Colony #1

Colony #2

And here's Tetraponera. Seriously though, do you have to trash up your test tube this quickly??

[FloridaAnts]

I'm the dumbest antkeeper alive...
 
So uh, Anochetus has the cocoon spinning problem again...
 
I didn't notice that the Oecophylla nanitics can fit through the ventilation holes in the lid and two of the three nanitics are gone. Not too far away is a very fat cellar spider and two medium sized orange ants wrapped up by it. I guess you probably know what happened... Here's the queen together with her brood (her last worker is offscreen).

Here's the two C. albosparsus colonies. If you see more pictures of these ants in the future it's most likely from colony #1
 
Colony #1

Colony #2

And here's Tetraponera. Seriously though, do you have to trash up your test tube this quickly??

The tetroponera trashing her nest, ah sounds like Psedumyrmex, one reason why I have stopped trying with them and they get a nice clutch of eggs… then they rot, or the queen dies.

[SYUTEO]

I came back from school and saw a catastrophic disaster.    

 

M. monomorium test tube flooded and they produced alates.

 

C. albosparsus colony #2 died from me feeding them sugar water dyed with red food colouring. It turns out that the red food colouring is dangerous to my ants. I feed colony #1 with blue food colouring and they are just fine. Both food colourings are produce by the same manufacturer so they must have added something to the red colouring that kills ants but not the blue one, I also have yellow and brown food colouring but after seeing what the red food colouring has done, I'm scared to feed them the others.

 

Lepisiota also has deaths from red food colouring.

 

Ghost ants everywhere, luckily no colony is killed by them but I caught them attempting to invade Cardiocondyla. And also Ghost ants (Tapinoma melanocephalum) used to be my least favourite ant species until the Pharaoh ants came. Now they are my second least favourite ants. But seriously, do wild ants have to come in my ant room every few weeks?

 

Oecophylla has two worker deaths.

 

The only good update is that Tetraponera has about 5 eggs now.

[Leptomyrmx]

I came back from school and saw a catastrophic disaster.    

 

M. monomorium test tube flooded and they produced alates.

 

C. albosparsus colony #2 died from me feeding them sugar water dyed with red food colouring. It turns out that the red food colouring is dangerous to my ants. I feed colony #1 with blue food colouring and they are just fine. Both food colourings are produce by the same manufacturer so they must have added something to the red colouring that kills ants but not the blue one, I also have yellow and brown food colouring but after seeing what the red food colouring has done, I'm scared to feed them the others.

 

Lepisiota also has deaths from red food colouring.

 

Ghost ants everywhere, luckily no colony is killed by them but I caught them attempting to invade Cardiocondyla. And also Ghost ants (Tapinoma melanocephalum) used to be my least favourite ant species until the Pharaoh ants came. Now they are my second least favourite ants. But seriously, do wild ants have to come in my ant room every few weeks?

 

Oecophylla has two worker deaths.

 

The only good update is that Tetraponera has about 5 eggs now.

 

Oh no

If wild ants are a problem, you could try surrounding their nests and outworlds with a 'moat' of some sort? Not sure exactly how you'd do it, maybe just putting them in a large dish on elevated platforms.

I'd 3d print you some moats if shipping wasn't so expensive (and slow).