42 replies to this topic

[United-Ants]

Dang that sucks I hope the messors are going to be ok

[Ants.co]

... 12 hours later and half their egg pile has disappeared 

Dang that sucks I hope the messors are going to be ok

Thanks for the support man

[Leptomyrmx]

Ooof.

 

Bad news here as well, the younger kids in my next door dorm took the Messors out for a joy ride while I was in class, gave them some LIVE spiders, a massive poisonous beetle, and a earwig, which chewed one of the queens to bits before chomping a few larvae and then being butchered by me... And those kids were next   I'd better lock my closet with a 10-digit combination lock next time 

I thought you meant you gave the kids some live spiders, a massive poisonous beetle, and a earwig XD

[Ants.co]

Great idea! I will    Just kidding, I'm letting them look at my ants again today under my STRICT SUPERVISION, after all they are kids and their curiosity needs to be fed...

[Ants.co]

A massive and sudden cold spell hit our school yesterday, and completely wiped out my YCAs because I didn't get their heating pad set up in time   I will miss them. The other two colonies being native to Yunnan survived just fine, the Messor Aciculatus laid a ton of eggs   Pics:

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[ANTdrew]

You don’t have heating in your dorm?

[Ants.co]

You don’t have heating in your dorm?

Nope 

[Ants.co]

AAARGH 

 

The Carebara have been stuck at the P.O. box for 4 days now, our school still hasn't collected them, this is the longest any parcel has stayed in there without being collected (normally it is 2 days at most), they are goners for sure   

[ANTdrew]

You don’t have heating in your dorm?

Nope

But it gets cold enough to kill ants? That’s inhumane for you kids. Order a space heater instead of any more colonies.

[United-Ants]

I aggre I think a heater will be Best fot the ants

[Ants.co]

Anoplolepis die at like 5 degrees celsius while for humans, there is nothing a down jacket and ultra-thick quilts can't solve... which we have plenty of. We can't use heaters because of the fire hazard.

Well the cold spell is over now and I got my remaining ants a heating pad just in case. (not that it will arrive any time soon considering the speed of Mid-Covid postage )

 

Btw still no sign of the Carebara 

[Ants.co]

Carebara Diversa/Affinis miraculously arrived alive and well   They have been stuck in the post for more than a week with very little food, yet here they are

Though they literally have no brood whatsoever 

[Ants.co]

A pic of one of my injured T.Bicarinatum queens (missing 2 legs)

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Edited by Ants.co, April 11 2022 - 5:46 PM.

[United-Ants]

Carebara Diversa/Affinis miraculously arrived alive and well   They have been stuck in the post for more than a week with very little food, yet here they are

Though they literally have no brood whatsoever 

 i am happy that the Carebara Diversa or Affinis came alive 

[Ants.co]

The C.Affinis went from being my dream species to my monster-under-the-bed (literally) in one day... They do look epic with their polymorphism and whatnot but here are the downsides:

- They LOVE trashing up their outworld (shredding cotton and scattering it everywhere, using capillary action to move sugar water from feeders into the substrate below, etc)

- It is PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE to clean out trash because hundreds of ants will be crawling over it, a huge downside for an OCD guy like me (and this does not square well with the first point)

- They smell... Yucky. (Probably because of the two-day-old sugar water they've spilled everywhere that I can't clean  )

- And much, much more.

 

But I still love them, and many people on this forum and on Youtube do too (especially if they can just look at pictures or videos and don't have to keep these little devils themselves   ), so I'll try my best to care for them and take quality pictures

 

BTW pics on Sunday when I get my phone back

[Ants.co]

Just successfully merged another founding colony of C. Affinis/Diversa, now they have 4 queens 4000+ workers and a dozen supermajors   I've given them a ton of substrate (enough for them to nest in) since they don't like the acrylic nest, but will them burying their food in it cause mites? Any other tips will be appreciated, it is my first time keeping carebara, thanks 

[ANTS_KL]

Just successfully merged another founding colony of C. Affinis/Diversa, now they have 4 queens 4000+ workers and a dozen supermajors   I've given them a ton of substrate (enough for them to nest in) since they don't like the acrylic nest, but will them burying their food in it cause mites? Any other tips will be appreciated, it is my first time keeping carebara, thanks 

They bury food to avoid getting stuck in any liquid iirc. 

[Ants.co]

As promised, Carebara Diversa pictures!

 

Pic 1: their full nest (a bit too big for them), notice one of the queens surrounded by workers on the left-hand side

Pic 2: bad pic of that queen close up, silhouetted against torch light underneath 

Pic 3: a pic of that same queen with better lighting

Pic 4: medium-sized major with workers, love that reddish-brown translucent exoskeleton 

Pic 5: super-major (I think), 1.4 cm, about two-thirds of the queen's size

Pic 6: here you can really see the size differences between castes

Pic 7: double post of pic 6, sorry

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Edited by Ants.co, April 17 2022 - 4:40 AM.

[United-Ants]

Beautiful pics

[Ants.co]

https://www.bilibili...o/BV1xa411v7Ca/

Links to my latest video on the Carebara Diversa for Youtube and Bilibili (for Chinese viewers who can't access Youtube), enjoy