22 replies to this topic

[Kowal]

This journal was originally posted on a small Polish forum. I've decided to rewrite it in here due to rarity of prospering colonies of Camponotus fallax in captivity. I'd like to show how I keep my colony for future keepers of Camponotus fallax - and also to show off on an international board.

The journey began on 27.04.2019. The day before was first warm day of that year, so local ant keepers speculated that this species is going to fly. At the time I believed they fly late in the evening, spend the cold night hidden and venture to found a nest in the morning. I started searching for queens climbing up trees on sunrise with a friend. He has found two queens, but I wasn't lucky. We decided that it is not worth searching anymore at around 10:00 and I started heading home, still looking at the trees I was passing. On 10:35 I've found a queen climbing up a tree, around 1 meter above the ground. 
In 2021 I have witnessed C. fallax flight and it wasn't really in the evening, they were flying at around 16:00-17:00. 

First season

2019.04.27:


I have placed her in a regular test tube setup. I have seen many people trying more sophisticated setups with cork/bark/wood placed inside the tube, but I do not think those are needed. What's actually important is to keep the tube warm - if I recall correctly she was in 27-30°C range at all times. She was also placed in complete darkness and wasn't disturbed much - I checked on her once a week at most. 

2019.06.17


2019.07.16

 

2019.08.14


In their first season 11 workers were born, none of which died prematurely. I think that this is an amount that is in upper range of first season numbers, as the queen was caught very early in the year - C. fallax flights happen up to the first half of June. At some point during this season I have either moved them to a tube with cork divider or added one to original tube - frankly speaking I do not remember.

I couldn't overwinter them in a fridge in that year, so they have spent a long time in diapause just under my window, in around 15°C. When the temperatures outside dropped to around 0-5°C I have placed them on my balcony, packed in some insulation and covered from the sun. After 1,5 months, around New Year, I took them back under the window for a week and then placed them in room temperature until they went out of diapause. 

Second season

In the second season they started growing much more quickly compared to the first season, but it still wasn't a rapid tempo in general ants world. They're from Myrmentoma subgenus, after all.

2020.02.02 


2020.02.17 


2020.03.08 First major worker appeared. Much sooner than I expected.


2020.03.10 Another one appeared. Just look how ridiculously small does the nanitic look next to them.


2020.04.19 They started using the tube leading to the outworld as another chamber of the nest.


Soon after this photo I moved them to a formicarium with cork nest. It's called "Brand" and is quite popular in Poland. It has huge issues with poor ventillation and I wouldn't recommend copying my exact formicarium choice, however a cork nest seems to be a very good choice for them. I haven't taken too many photos in that time. By June 2020 they were already in stagnation and on 23.06.2020 I have placed them in a fridge. Before you shake your head thinking "but it's far from winter!" - keep in mind that ants kept in apartments get unnaturally constant and high temperatures all year long, with artificial lightning as well. I am convinced they do not know what is the time of year outside.

Third season

I have decided to experiment and take them out after just a month. Shortly speaking, it was a mistake, the colony wasn't ready yet and they have stayed in diapause for 3 more months, eventually starting their third season on 23.10.2020.
They quickly dug some chambers which were not visible from both sides even though the cork is just 10 mm thick.

2020.11.18


2021.01.02 New year is welcomed with a massive amount of pupae.


2021.02.04 They are slowly slowing down with the amount of brood. Or they have moved more of it out of my sight. I can't tell.


2021.03.25 Diapause time. Part of the colony lives now in a piece of cork bark I have placed as a decoration in their outworld.


The colony went into the fridge on 10.04.2021.

Fourth season

I have given them a proper time in the cold his time, taking them out after full 3 months. It definitely was better for the ants, as they went out of diapause much sooner this time. The first pupa appeared 3 weeks after they were taken out of the fridge - quite a difference from 3 months last season.

2021.07.24


2021.08.11 A lot of large pupae appeared. Can you guess what's about to happen?


2021.08.23 Yup, alates! I was honestly surprised, because they come from overwintering larvae. This would mean that a gyne spends actually TWO winters within the nest before flying - once as a larva and once as a winged adult. These large pupae appeared too soon to hatch from this seasons eggs.
And a new nest. This time it's a nest I highly recommend (Zwierzyniec from Anthillshop - unfortunately that's a small, Polish only shop).


At this time the colony was still occupying the old nest and the piece of cork bark. In the next photos they were all forced to move to the new nest - yes, by brute force of tearing the old nest and bark into shreds. I was really surprised to learn they were using almost all of the area of the old nest, but they could skillfully chew tunnels in such manner that you couldn't spot a single missing grain of cork from any side. And I remind you, it was just 10 mm thick piece of it. It goes well with my observation of wild colonies - that Camponotus fallax nests mostly in the bark of trees unless the wood is quite rotten already. They are adapted to making thin nests.

2021.08.28 Lots of alates. All of them are female.


2021.08.28 An overview of whole colony.


2021.10.19 The colony is preparing for winter rest. Few pupae are still present, but no eggs in sight.


2021.11.01 I have spotted a single male alate. I suspect he could hatch from one of the last pupae of the season - unlike the females, which came from first ones.


The colony has finished their fourth season and was placed in the fridge at the beginning of December 2021. I have roughly counted them: there is around 400 workers, 40 alates and 850 larvae. My plan for their fifth season is to place them on my balcony in early spring, allowing them to wake up at the same time as the wild colonies do. I hope to witness the alates flying off to mate with wild colonies. I currently live about 500 meters from the place I caught the queen, so I am not worried that I'm about to introduce some foreign genes into the pool. 


Some general tips I have for other keepers:
1. Give them a good source of heat. In their first two seasons, when they were still in the test tube they were constantly kept in 27-30°C. In their third and fourth seasons I was strongly heating part of their nest and they didn't move away from it until the temperature reached around 37°C. But never heat the whole nest, allow them to run away if the heat is too strong. That's why I didn't go with such high temperatures while they were in a test tube - they had nowhere to run.
2. They can live in quite dry nests, but they don't mind high humidity. I have overwatered their new nest when I first attached it and they happily moved part of the brood in chambers with droplets of condensed water as soon as the new nest was heated more than the old one. Nevertheless, always give them access to fresh water, so they could water the nest if they need to. 
3. Don't check on them too often when they are still small. They seem to be sensitive to light - which also is consistent with my observation of wild colonies, they are the most active right after sunset. 
4. Don't catch queens walking near trails of workers, even if they are wingless. They seem to drop their wings and take on duty of worker/freeloader easily. None of queens caught in such situations even tried to start a colony, not even when broodboosted. 
5. There is nothing wrong with hibernating ants as soon as they hit diapause, but hibernate them for 3 months. 

Feel free to ask any questions! I'll be happy to answer them. 

Edited by Kowal, August 8 2023 - 2:21 PM.

[antsriondel]

This journal was originally posted on a small Polish forum. I've decided to rewrite it in here due to rarity of prospering colonies of Camponotus fallax in captivity. I'd like to show how I keep my colony for future keepers of Camponotus fallax - and also to show off on an international board.

The journey began on 27.04.2019. The day before was first warm day of that year, so local ant keepers speculated that this species is going to fly. At the time I believed they fly late in the evening, spend the cold night hidden and venture to found a nest in the morning. I started searching for queens climbing up trees on sunrise with a friend. He has found two queens, but I wasn't lucky. We decided that it is not worth searching anymore at around 10:00 and I started heading home, still looking at the trees I was passing. On 10:25 I've found a queen climbing up a tree, around 1 meter above the ground. 
At the moment of writing this post I have witnessed C. fallax flight and it wasn't really in the evening, they were flying at around 16:00-17:00. 

First season

2019.04.27:
IMG_20190427_103500.jpg

I have placed her in a regular test tube setup. I have seen many people trying more sophisticated setups with cork/bark/wood placed inside the tube, but I do not think those are needed. What's actually important is to keep the tube warm - if I recall correctly she was in 27-30°C range at all times. She was also placed in complete darkness and wasn't disturbed much - I checked on her once a week at most. 

2019.06.17
IMG_20190617.jpg

2019.07.16
IMG_20190716_3.jpg

 

2019.08.14
IMG_20190814_2.jpg

In their first season 11 workers were born, none of which died prematurely. I think that this is an amount that is in upper range of first season numbers, as the queen was caught very early in the year - C. fallax flights happen up to the first half of June. At some point during this season I have either moved them to a tube with cork divider or added one to original tube - frankly speaking I do not remember.

I couldn't overwinter them in a fridge in that year, so they have spent a long time in diapause just under my window, in around 15°C. When the temperatures outside dropped to around 0-5°C I have placed them on my balcony, packed in some insulation and covered from the sun. After 1,5 months, around New Year, I took them back under the window for a week and then placed them in room temperature until they went out of diapause. 

Second season

In the second season they started growing much more quickly compared to the first season, but it still wasn't a rapid tempo in general ants world. They're from Myrmentoma subgenus, after all.

2020.02.02 
IMG_20200202_183927.jpg

2020.02.17 
IMG_20200217_105401.jpg

2020.03.08 First major worker appeared. Much sooner than I expected.
IMG_20200308_173544.jpg

2020.03.10 Another one appeared. Just look how ridiculously small does the nanitic look next to them.
IMG_20200310_231315.jpg

2020.04.19 They started using the tube leading to the outworld as another chamber of the nest.
IMG_20200419_225516.jpg

Soon after this photo I moved them to a formicarium with cork nest. It's called "Brand" and is quite popular in Poland. It has huge issues with poor ventillation and I wouldn't recommend copying my exact formicarium choice, however a cork nest seems to be a very good choice for them. I haven't taken too many photos in that time. By June 2020 they were already in stagnation and on 23.06.2020 I have placed them in a fridge. Before you shake your head thinking "but it's far from winter!" - keep in mind that ants kept in apartments get unnaturally constant and high temperatures all year long, with artificial lightning as well. I am convinced they do not know what is the time of year outside.

Third season

I have decided to experiment and take them out after just a month. Shortly speaking, it was a mistake, the colony wasn't ready yet and they have stayed in diapause for 3 more months, eventually starting their third season on 23.10.2020.
They quickly dug some chambers which were not visible from both sides even though the cork is just 10 mm thick.

2020.11.18
IMG_20201118_003646_1.jpg

2021.01.02 New year is welcomed with a massive amount of pupae.
IMG_20210102.jpg

2021.02.04 They are slowly slowing down with the amount of brood. Or they have moved more of it out of my sight. I can't tell.
IMG_20210204_134320_edited.jpg

2021.03.25 Diapause time. Part of the colony lives now in a piece of cork bark I have placed as a decoration in their outworld.
IMG_20210325.jpg

The colony went into the fridge on 10.04.2021.

Fourth season

I have given them a proper time in the cold his time, taking them out after full 3 months. It definitely was better for the ants, as they went out of diapause much sooner this time. The first pupa appeared 3 weeks after they were taken out of the fridge - quite a difference from 3 months last season.

2021.07.24
IMG_20210724_151532.jpg

2021.08.11 A lot of large pupae appeared. Can you guess what's about to happen?
IMG_20210811_114554.jpg

2021.08.23 Yup, alates! I was honestly surprised, because they come from overwintering larvae. This would mean that a gyne spends actually TWO winters within the nest before flying - once as a larva and once as a winged adult. These large pupae appeared too soon to hatch from this seasons eggs.
And a new nest. This time it's a nest I highly recommend (Zwierzyniec from Anthillshop - unfortunately that's a small, Polish only shop).
IMG_20210823_220718_1.jpg

At this time the colony was still occupying the old nest and the piece of cork bark. In the next photos they were all forced to move to the new nest - yes, by brute force of tearing the old nest and bark into shreds. I was really surprised to learn they were using almost all of the area of the old nest, but they could skillfully chew tunnels in such manner that you couldn't spot a single missing grain of cork from any side. And I remind you, it was just 10 mm thick piece of it. It goes well with my observation of wild colonies - that Camponotus fallax nests mostly in the bark of trees unless the wood is quite rotten already. They are adapted to making thin nests.

2021.08.28 Lots of alates. All of them are female.
IMG_20210828_130526.jpg

2021.08.28 An overview of whole colony.
IMG_20210828_140249.jpg

2021.10.19 The colony is preparing for winter rest. Few pupae are still present, but no eggs in sight.
IMG_20211019_155537_1.jpg

2021.11.01 I have spotted a single male alate. I suspect he could hatch from one of the last pupae of the season - unlike the females, which came from first ones.
IMG_20211101_173906_1.jpg

The colony has finished their fourth season and was placed in the fridge at the beginning of December 2021. I have roughly counted them: there is around 400 workers, 40 alates and 850 larvae. My plan for their fifth season is to place them on my balcony in early spring, allowing them to wake up at the same time as the wild colonies do. I hope to witness the alates flying off to mate with wild colonies. I currently live about 500 meters from the place I caught the queen, so I am not worried that I'm about to introduce some foreign genes into the pool. 


Some general tips I have for other keepers:
1. Give them a good source of heat. In their first two seasons, when they were still in the test tube they were constantly kept in 27-30°C. In their third and fourth seasons I was strongly heating part of their nest and they didn't move away from it until the temperature reached around 37°C. But never heat the whole nest, allow them to run away if the heat is too strong. That's why I didn't go with such high temperatures while they were in a test tube - they had nowhere to run.
2. They can live in quite dry nests, but they don't mind high humidity. I have overwatered their new nest when I first attached it and they happily moved part of the brood in chambers with droplets of condensed water as soon as the new nest was heated more than the old one. Nevertheless, always give them access to fresh water, so they could water the nest if they need to. 
3. Don't check on them too often when they are still small. They seem to be sensitive to light - which also is consistent with my observation of wild colonies, they are the most active right after sunset. 
4. Don't catch queens walking near trails of workers, even if they are wingless. They seem to drop their wings and take on duty of worker/freeloader easily. None of queens caught in such situations even tried to start a colony, not even when broodboosted. 
5. There is nothing wrong with hibernating ants as soon as they hit diapause, but hibernate them for 3 months. 

Feel free to ask any questions! I'll be happy to answer them. 

that's an awesome colony!!!!!!  

[Kowal]

Fifth season

 

I took the colony out of the fridge on 2022.03.18. They quickly started being active - most importantly, winged queens tried to fly. I have decided to not let them fly with wild ones - there is risk of spreading diseases which are not able to kill colonies in home conditions, but could kill wild colonies. Hence all the queens were removed from outworld, killed and fed to other colonies. Only a bunch of them and the male were taken alive and given to a friend, who also has alates in his colony for attempts of mating them in home - last time I've heard anything about them there was just one queen alive left and there is little chance it has mated.
There were a lot more queens than I could count before winter. I guess they had already dug enough chambers invisible to me in the cork to hide a significant part of the colony. In total there were 81 queens and 1 male removed. 

Anyway, here are two pics to show progress of the colony.

2022.03.23: 

 

2022.05.05

 

2022.05.16

Edited by Kowal, March 22 2023 - 2:45 AM.

[Kowal]

2022.06.12

[Kowal]

Long time no update, I'll just throw it in form of words with no photos. 
Colony went into stagnation mid summer and was placed in the fridge on 2022.08.01. They have stayed there until 2022.11.02. A significant amount of workers died during overwintering, but that's usual for a mature colony - I think the amount of dead workers was 1/10 to 1/8 of remaining ones, but it's hard to tell. They have dug out chambers which are not visible for me (only small windows here and there indicating where they are) and are using the premade, visible ones less and less.

Sixth season

Alates started being present in the outworld almost the day I attached it. This time there's significantly more of them - to this day I have removed 214 females and 82 males and it's still not the end of the story. Males are much more eager to fly, I find dead bodies of them around my room. Now the outworld is covered with a net. I am trying to see if they would inbreed - I separated dozens of alates, did a trick to hopefully remove the scent from them and thrown them into a separate outworld. At first it was looking promising - I've seen two males forcing themselves onto females, but I think nothing came out of it. I'll keep them separate as long as they can survive without many workers caring for them - I am killing other alates, so it is not a huge difference in their fate. 

[Kowal]

The alate hunt is practically over. I can still spot a male or few in the nest, but these don't want to get out and attempt flight. 
Out of the ones which went out in the outworld I removed and counted 401 females and 589 males. Few males and 2 females were found in my room but I can't tell whether they got out of the main outworld or my (unsuccessful) 'breeding' boxes - so whether they've been counted or not. This makes the total of alates produced in 1 season about a thousand! This data is probably the first solid estimate of Campontous fallax colony size. Amount of workers is not known, but judging by ratio between workers and alates in Camponotus colonies these ants might be anywhere in 1000-5000 range now, with my personal guess leaning towards 2000 workers. This contradicts every single one shop I found, except the ones which didn't tell any maximum colony size. I've seen "few hundreds" as the most popular info, with "100-200" being popular and one source stating "up to 100". I also recall a youtuber making "care guide even though I never had the species and I just read stuff from the Internet for you" claiming the colonies can be as small as 50. Well they can, but these are not mature colonies of proper size On the other side of the spectrum there was one site (not shop) claiming they can grow to up to 20000 workers. My colony is definitely far from that but who knows, maybe they will grow even more - but I'm convinced my ants are going all in alate production now, merely sustaining worker count needed for it, so I doubt they would ever cross 5 digit number of individuals.
Thanks for reading my rant about shops making up their ant caresheets and/or stealing the info from other shops without seeking confirmation. I can add that temperature/humidity data is also made up in shop caresheets and very rarely has anything in common with actual species preferred environment. My fallax like access to warmth and don't care about humidity too much, it can be low, it can be high, warmth is the one to rule them all. 37°C seems to be their limit. 

Back to my colony journal: they are flooding the nest with pupae, I have seen lots of eggs being carried around too. Unfortunately in their last season "autumn" they have been busy digging in cork and now the nest itself looks far less impressive - there is lots of cork debris, even though they've been throwing it out in the outworld in large volume lots of visible space is still occupied by it. They also dug out corridors and chambers invisible from any side, just like in the old nest - so I bet again OG queen, eggs and fresh, small larvae will be kept outside of my view and just the excess of brood they can't hide there is being presented to me. 
I have hung the nest like I did with my Lasius fuliginosus. This implies heating from the back, through a shelf - it is far less effective and more importantly it causes water to condensate on the front glass. Ants started sticking debris to front glass... so I rearranged the heating and now there is some cabling going in front of the nest. It's ugly, but practical. As stated before, warmth is the only thing they care about and they cleaned most of debris close to cables

Some more info about Camponotus fallax flight behaviour. At first almost exclusively females came out of the nest and hanged near entrance. Note: at the moment of taking this photo (2022.11.12) the heating cable was off, so it wasn't related to temperature and basking in the heat.

Soon the males started going out too, but unlike females they didn't want to sit around - they attempted flying almost immediately. When many males were trying to fly there was some excitation of ants in the outworld - either frantic running of males alarmed workers and females, or the random situations when a male landed on some other ant and alarmed it, or it was like in description of Camponotus herculeanus flights¹ - females go out and wait ready for flight, males go out and fly, releasing substance from mandibular glands, which provokes the females to run up the tree and join the flight. The problem is - there is no tree in my setup. I've seen females run up but they never were able to take flight and they knew it, not even attempting it. I think act of flying is necessary for ants to unlock will to mate - I don't know if they HAVE to mate in flight or is it possible for them to mate on ground, but definitely only the males were trying to mate while females ignored or even attacked the attempting males.


I took lots of the alates and placed them in a separate container in hope of achieving what one Polish keeper achieved with Myrmica - he had some alates of both sexes and placed them in a bucket. After two weeks they grown bored of sitting and doing nothing and mated. Of course, Myrmica are wildly different ants, but since I was removing the alates I decided to give it a go. I attempted to remove scent from part of the alates, but to no avail. But! One of the setups contained a piece of root which was extending horizontally into the outworld. I have seen two attempts of flight by females which walked right to the tip of root and felt there is enough space to start - something they didn't do from just sides of the outworld. Of course the flight was more of a controlled descent at 45°, but apparently that's how female ants fly, only being able to sustain flight after freefalling to some critical speed.
I have also found out that when females get dehydrated they can drop their wings. At first they lose full control of them, so they often start sticking up, and then finally they manage to get rid of them. Other motoric functions are retained, although some lost control of a leg too.
That's important - a freshly caught queen which drops her wings after being caught might still not be a guarantee of fertility, she might just get dehydrated.
I am also fairly certain that all wingless queens (including the one from photo of pile of alates above) I removed are not fertile and lost wings for other reasons. One group of 5 such queens had two eggs, but it was obvious none of them cared for them and they are gone now - that's how infertile queens behave. They also aren't as photophobic as a queen which wants to found a colony.
Bonus: two males I removed failed to inflate their wings properly after enclosing. I have seen that previously in wild female Solenopsis fugax alates. I do not know what is the cause of this malfunction.

Current overview of the nest. There's lots of pupae and larvae in the top part, just under acryllic, but I am unable to take a good photo of these. 

 

I also took a timelapse of a larva spinning its cocoon. Later I realised there were few more of them around, hence just the most visible one is in the center of focus.

 

 

¹https://link.springe...1007/BF00355658

Edited by Kowal, December 15 2022 - 4:28 PM.

[Kowal]

Long time no update. 
The colony has entered diapause and is being overwintered in a fridge since 2023.03.27. I left the outworld for later cleaning and I've noticed some workers running around, this is normal in large colonies that some workers refuse to overwinter in the nest. Why? I'm not sure, probably they feel they are old and might not survive the winter, or maybe they hold onto some small satelite nests so nothing will enter them during cold season. The outworld was pretty barren, no water source, only leftovers of food, yet after 1,5 months there not only were still some workers, the intensity of foraging has increased! So I decided to finally clean it without waiting for the workers to die out, especially because they finaly wore down the oil barrier and started escaping. I wasn't ready for what I discovered - they found a thin chamber between clay and a rock and made a huge satelite nest in there! I rescued most of it to a nest and a test tube and placed it in the fridge. Now the overwintering cycle is messed up, so the main part of the colony will spend quite a long time in there.
2023.05.13

Edited by Kowal, May 30 2023 - 11:19 PM.

[Kowal]

Seventh season

 

2023.07.15 The colony was taken out of the fridge. State of the main nest and everything else I used to contain the rebelious ants who did not want to come back to the nest for the winter.

[BleepingBleepers]

Awesome journal man! Loved the read and since you had them for a few years, it's quite developed.

 

I'll give this another read and look through again later today, it's just so fascinating to read.

 

 

I just started keeping ants about three weeks ago so learning lots from you guys.

I live in CA, the ants I'm keeping (or about to keep) don't really hibernate as they just need a cool down of around mid 60F I think. Camponotus CA02 and a honeypot that I'm hoping to get in another week and a half.

I'm trying to learn to be like you guys and look for visual clues on when they want to rest (hibernate or cool down period) and when you take them out, what clues do you see that tells you it's too early. It's really nice you have that knowledge and how you mentioned that sometimes, in captivity, the ants don't really know what season it is and that sounds accurate, there's many inconsistencies in our keeping that just messes with their timing so we have to adapt based on visual clues. Super neat info.

 

I am going to try, however, to keep the temperature in the mid to lower range to maintain their population especially in the third year (wish me luck!) and not burn out my queen ant as much.

 

I am a bit weary of possible smells larger colony can have though, that's probably a deal breaker, especially with all the dead crickets, poo and whatnot that goes in there. People say tarantulas don't smell but in the end I notice it and couldn't handle it. So we'll have to see with the ants...

[Kowal]

The flight season of this colony is over. It's a bit tricky to count the alates this time, though. During last season I've been eliminating alates which I've assumed were even previous seasons while they were walking in the outworld - back then it did not occur to me they might be moving to a satelite nest rather than trying to fly. I think I stopped last season count at right time, when previous season alates had been all eliminated and just before the new alates started appearing. I then eliminated few dozen alates which were not counted in previous summary. Then I was opening the nest during winter for one reason (which turned out being unnecessary) and eliminated some more alates. Due to that this season of flying was not so impressive, nonetheness I did count every single eliminated alate. I am throwing all periods of counting since last big count together, resulting in 446 males and 378 females being eliminated since then. 

This season I am not keeping the colony heated to see how it will affect them and their production of alates. Nest is also covered with aluminum foil to prevent ants sticking debris to the front side. So far it works:

 

Edited by Kowal, August 20 2023 - 4:21 AM.

[Kowal]

This seasons peak production does not look as impressive, but keep in mind they have hidden chambers. Even though I cover the nest with aluminum foil they still avoid bringing smaller brood out of the hidden chambers. Cork nests are great for their wellbeing, but not so much for viewing. 

[100lols]

Looks like keeping them off the heat might be slowing them down a bit?

[Kowal]

Looks like keeping them off the heat might be slowing them down a bit?

Could be, but if they slow down on alate production while surviving as a colony, then it's desirable. While keeping this colony I discovered that after reaching maturity the satisfaction of keeping a colony declines, as there is no further growth to achieve and the reward for reaching this is having to deal with alates.

[100lols]

Looks like keeping them off the heat might be slowing them down a bit?

Could be, but if they slow down on alate production while surviving as a colony, then it's desirable. While keeping this colony I discovered that after reaching maturity the satisfaction of keeping a colony declines, as there is no further growth to achieve and the reward for reaching this is having to deal with alates.

Some of the positives of the alates in my opinion are a sure sign of a healthy thriving colony, increased activity during flight preparations, some variety aside from just your usually feed and maintenance, and I guess other incites into ant reproduction if you’re into that.

[Kowal]

The seventh season comes to an end. The colony was placed in the fridge on 2023.11.09. 

[Kowal]

Eighth season

 

 

5 years have passed since I caught this queen!  

 

They've been out of the fridge for a month now (since 2024.03.24). The colony has resumed growth, I see some large larvae and pupae in the nest. Unfortunately the nest now has many chambers not visible to me, since they love to dig in the cork. During winter I have not seen a single larva around, but they obviously had some overwintering, as those are now pupating.
The colony is still busy producing alates. I have not eliminated all alates from this years batch, but I made a total figure for all seasons so far. I have eliminated 1453 males and 1092 females.

 

You can notice more than one wingless queen in the nest. I bet none of the visible ones is the real queen - I have a lot of worker queens which lost their wings after failing to fly working around the nest. I have even seen some wander around in the outworld - not exactly sure whether they were foraging or trying to join the flights, even though they're wingless.

 

 

And yes, its their eighth season even though just 5 years have passed since I captured the queen. Normally it would be the sixth, but if you scroll up and look at the dates - I don't overwinter them only when it's cold outside, I overwinter them once they enter diapause. That's why I can have more than one season per one year.

Edited by Kowal, April 27 2024 - 1:09 AM.

[Nare]

Eighth season

 

 

5 years have passed since I caught this queen!  

 

They've been out of the fridge for a month now (since 2024.03.24). The colony has resumed growth, I see some large larvae and pupae in the nest. Unfortunately the nest now has many chambers not visible to me, since they love to dig in the cork. During winter I have not seen a single larva around, but they obviously had some overwintering, as those are now pupating.
The colony is still busy producing alates. I have not eliminated all alates from this years batch, but I made a total figure for all seasons so far. I have eliminated 1453 males and 1092 females.

 

You can notice more than one wingless queen in the nest. I bet none of the visible ones is the real queen - I have a lot of worker queens which lost their wings after failing to fly working around the nest. I have even seen some wander around in the outworld - not exactly sure whether they were foraging or trying to join the flights, even though they're wingless.

 

20240427_012712.jpg

 

And yes, its their eighth season even though just 5 years have passed since I captured the queen. Normally it would be the sixth, but if you scroll up and look at the dates - I don't overwinter them only when it's cold outside, I overwinter them once they enter diapause. That's why I can have more than one season per one year.

I'm curious about your last statement. How do you determine once they enter diapause? How do you differentiate that from just general colony inactivity (due to being full, or who knows what other reasons)? How long do you have them in diapause for? Have you tried this with any of your other species? Have you noticed any detrimental impacts from this?

I'd be curious to try this technique because in the past I've had colonies spend time doing nothing, but I wouldn't/didn't diapause them because it wasn't the right time of year. I wonder if internal temperature throw off their natural annual rhythm?

[Kowal]

I'm curious about your last statement. How do you determine once they enter diapause? How do you differentiate that from just general colony inactivity (due to being full, or who knows what other reasons)? How long do you have them in diapause for? Have you tried this with any of your other species? Have you noticed any detrimental impacts from this?

I'd be curious to try this technique because in the past I've had colonies spend time doing nothing, but I wouldn't/didn't diapause them because it wasn't the right time of year. I wonder if internal temperature throw off their natural annual rhythm?

 

 

Determining diapause in Formicines from temperate climate is very easy. There are no eggs, no pupae, the larvae are not growing, the colony is barely active. In case of Formicalike ants larvae are gone too. Also few months should have passed since the time they were taken out of the fridge. 

Period of lowered temperature should not be shorter than 2 months for any species. I tried to do 1 month for this colony and 1,5 month for my Camponotus herculeanus (no Formiculture journal yet, you can use google translate to read the Polish version https://forum.antsof...ead.php?tid=257 ), in first case the colony took 3 months to resume growth past being taken out of the fridge, in second case the colony was acting weird - the queen laid eggs but workers weren't too interested in feeding the larvae once they hatched, I have "reset" them by putting them into the fridge for 3 months, even though they had eggs. So being impatient should be avoided like fire, and can end up costing months of growth. 2 months seems to work for people, but after those two events for Camponotus I aim for at least 3 months in the fridge. Some time ago both of the Camponotus colonies became so desynchronised with the outside season that I keep them alternatively, when one is in diapause, the other has its season, so the latter determines length of winter for the former, which ends up being 4-5 months. This way I always have one colony out and active

I have not observed any detrimental effects (other than generally slower growth of unheated colonies during winter months due to my room temperature being lower). Bear in mind I have done this only with Camponotus for prolonged periods of time, my Lasius fuliginosus are roughly matching their activity with outside season, and other Lasius colonies I kept for too short to determine anything longterm.

Edited by Kowal, April 28 2024 - 8:45 AM.

[Kowal]

The season is ending. Just few last pupae here and there. This season I have eliminated 420 ( ) males and just 154 females. Not heating the colony at all seems to have more effect on female alate than male alate production.

[Stubyvast]

I bet that's because the males are possibly easier to produce than females? Very interesting! This colony is doing really well! Will they require another cork nest soon or is the current one enough?