147 replies to this topic

[azzaaazzzz00]

sooo, how are the colonies doing?

[ColAnt735]

sooo, how are the colonies doing?

Very well I'll put together an update when I get home from school.

[ColAnt735]

Update 20/5/22

 

Tetramorium immigrans- I hope this queen slows down child production because she has pumped out eggs like crazy. The Camara nest from Canada Ant Colony is filled to the BRIM with Tetramorium brood so much so that workers can barely get in and out. Sadly the 3D printed ant nest was not escape proof so around twenty workers escaped before I noticed these girls escaping. I have been creating another nest for this colony this time out of firebrick. This colony has at least 1000 workers and has been eating as much as ever. I haven't seen the queen since the last time I updated this journal and I don't think I'll see her for quite a while.

Photo (This photo was taken a long time ago):

 

Crematogaster cerasi- This queen has increased her colonies worker count by quite a bit and is now sitting at  a pretty impressive twenty six workers. I feed them everyday and they are by far the most active ants in the outworld compared to their colony size out of every ant colony I have. I moved this colony into a Buckeye Myrmecology Stick Nest and have been filling it up quite quickly.

Photo:

Temnothorax curvispinosus- Nothing to update. This colony is so incredibly eventful.

Photo:

 

Camponotus pennsylvanicus- I recently collected a colony of Camponotus pennsylvanicus. They have four workers and around twenty eggs. I really hope that this colony will thrive under my care.

 

 

Photo:

Formica incerta- This colony has a MOUNTAIN  of brood with around thirty cocoons and many larvae. The queen continues to produce eggs and I hope she continues to produce eggs because this is such a cool species.

Photo:

Lasius neoniger- Surprisingly this queen hasn't gotten any other workers since the last update. I hope everything is okay with this queen.

Photo:

Prenolepis imparis- Nothing new, except my first and oldest queen turned two!

Photo:

[lazyant]

looks at my tetramorium queen  tetramorium queens for sale....  For real though the formica is really cool

[ColAnt735]

Update 15/6/22

 

Tetramorium immigrans- I saw the queen for the first time in a really long time she isn't looking physogastric at all which amazes me. At the moment I'd estimate there are twelve hundred workers present in this colony with so many more on the way. The pupa pile on its own fills up the entire Camara nest from Canada Ant Colony. I am continuing to work on the Firebrick nest and it is going very well so far with most of the chambers carved out. 

Photo of a small portion of the pupae pile:

Temnothorax curvispinosus: These ants keep their test tube so clean so I can get really good photos of them ( by really good I mean the best you can do with a twenty dollar digital microscope). But as always their is nothing new to update.

Photo of the queen and brood:

Formica incerta: At the moment the queen is taking a little break from laying eggs. Other than this the colony has around fifty workers now with many more on the way.

Terrible photo (these ants move so fast almost all the photos I take of them are terrible):

Lasius neoniger: Finally these ants got another cocoon I can't wait for this colony to explode in population as they are one of the top species on my Canadian ant list to keep a flourishing colony of.

Photo of the queen and brood:

Camponotus pennsylvanicus: This colony has a very large brood pile and a few cocoons and have been eating like crazy always hungry for sugar and protein. Because they are so big I can take some very nice photos of them.

Photo of the brood and queen:

Prenolepis imparis: Both colonies are doing well but I have noticed that my older queen's gaster is a lot more physogastric than the younger queen's gaster.

Photos of both colonies:

 

 

This is the final update for the next seven weeks as I have a large family vacation coming up plus final exams.

[ColAnt735]

Sadly I lost two ant colonies over my vacation. The Lasius neoniger and Temnothorax curvispinosus.
Update coming in three days.

Edited by ColAnt735, July 29 2022 - 3:14 PM.

[ColAnt735]

It's update time!

 

Update 31/7/22

 

Tetramorium immigrans- Honestly this colony hasn't grown much. After like three hours of watching this colony I saw the queen for the first time in a very long time (sadly the photo is terrible though).

photos:

Camponotus pennsylvanicus- This colony got big. Well not big, but larger than when I left. The queen has been rather busy creating the third generation of workers with lots of eggs and small larvae in the colony at the moment.

photo:

 

Camponotrus novaeboracensis- I found this queen in a log a couple of days ago she has larvae and smaller larvae.

photo:

Formica cf. neogagates- This queen was found two days ago running along the concrete. She has laid six eggs. I hope she will create a successful colony.

photo:

Sorry for the blurry photo she wasn't cooperating.

Formica incerta- This colony got SO much larger than I thought they would. At the moment I'd say they easily number at around 110 workers. I moved this colony into a Tar Heel Ants Fortress and they have been doing rather well in it.

photo:

 

 

Prenolepis imparis- Eggs! Larvae! Pupae! Come on down to ColAnt735's Ant roo- no to unoriginal,Pismire Pala- that sounds weird, Prenolepis Palace  (Perfect!) to marvel at the once a year Prenolepis imparis brood that has been created! Both these colonies have gotten brood for the second and third time. 

photos:

 

[ColAnt735]

I caught a few Solenopsis molesta queens, like only a few. Only thirty two...

I caught two colour variants though!

Photos:

 

[TacticalHandleGaming]

I've had zero luck finding those. Great job!

[Leptomyrmx]

I caught a few Solenopsis molesta queens, like only a few. Only thirty two...

I caught two colour variants though!

Photos:

 

 

That's... that's... 32 Solenopsis molesta queens. Wow.

Once I caught 10 or so Solenopsis sp. queens and tried putting them but they all decided to lay some eggs, and die. I'm interested to see how they go.

[AntsCali098]

I have caught 8 in one night but that's about it. Nice job!

[NancyZamora4991]

I have caught over 200 in one night. Most were unmated sadly.

This was my kitchen that day. I left the door open, lol.

All queens

Edited by NancyZamora4991, August 7 2022 - 1:08 PM.

[ColAnt735]

I caught 32 in 20 minutes.

[ColAnt735]

Welp I haven’t updated this in a while and I swear I will soon. Anyway I’ve been busy catching queens so I guess I’ll list what I’ve caught:
Twelve Lasius brevicornis queens
One Lasius neoniger queen
One Crematogaster queen
Nineteen Myrmica queens
One Formica fusca group queen

Typing this out just made me realize how incredibly dumb I am.

[DRpepper]

Amazing journal keep it up

[ColAnt735]

Sorry I haven't updated.

Diapause Update 28/9/22

Tetramorium immigrans- This colony thrives and has at least fifteen hundred workers I have moved them into a THA Fallen Fortress. They take up around 4/5's of the nest and have a little bit of brood. I have seen the queen from time to time and she seems to be doing well. As of yesterday this colony was put into diapause so I hope all goes well for them.

 

Camponotus novaeboracensis- This beautiful queen raised her first batch of workers as of today she has five workers with a batch of larvae and eggs still waiting to enclose. I have high hopes for this colony and I hope that they survive diapause.

 

Camponotus pennsylvanicus- My first and biggest colony has at least sixty workers and around twenty cocoons still waiting to enclose. The second colony has 7 workers and around three cocoons waiting to enclose. I'm going to wait for the cocoons to enclose before putting them in diapause.

 

Formica incerta- I put this colony in diapause and they are all huddled in the bottom right chamber where the water tower is.

 

Formica neogagates- This queen got workers around a month ago there are 7 workers present and no brood. I really like this species and hope they survive diapause.

 

Prenolepis imparis- Nothing new to update.

 

Sorry for not having pictures.

[ANTdrew]

That’s cool, but what about Crematogaster?

[ColAnt735]

Don’t worry, they’ve been thriving.

[ColAnt735]

Sadly this diapause season was a disaster. The fridge the ants were in started to fluctuate in temperature and it killed six maybe seven of my ant colonies and two of my founding queens . Including:

My Crematogaster colony

Both Prenolepis colonies 

Myrmica queens

Crematogaster queen

Formica neogagates colony

Solenopsis molesta colony

Camponotus pennsylvanicus  large colony (maybe).

 

It reduced the Tetramorium to around fifty workers, lowered the Formica incerta colony to around sixty workers, killed all but one of the Camponotus novaeboracensis workers. The second smaller pennsylvanicus colony had all but two workers and the queen died.

Edited by ColAnt735, January 22 2023 - 7:43 AM.

[TacticalHandleGaming]

Oh no, that's horrible!