34 replies to this topic

[AntBoi3030]

Small Update 2/21/2025:

There was a bit of an issue earlier this week with the power shutting off for a few days. Thankfully, I put the queen on one of the generator outlets, and that kept her nice and warm. It must be very, very warm in her insolated box because...we have pupae! Good thing, too, she looks a lot thinner. I checked up on her earlier today, and it looks like she has 12 pupae and mature larvae, this species's queens are so impressive. One of the pupae even has eyes, so I will check up on her later this week. Hopefully, she'll have workers by then!

The power outage setup:

The Queen and her brood pile:

Edited by AntBoi3030, February 21 2025 - 7:34 PM.

[ANTdrew]

Excellent work! You’ll have workers very soon then! I just started heating a new cerasi queen in an insulator box about ten days ago myself.

[AntBoi3030]

Excellent work! You’ll have workers very soon then! I just started heating a new cerasi queen in an insulator box about ten days ago myself.

Expect workers in a week then, haha.

Edited by AntBoi3030, February 22 2025 - 5:51 AM.

[AntBoi3030]

Update 2/27/2024

Workers! This queen was heated with no eggs on 2/2/2025 and then had workers on the morning of 2/26/2025. That's a crazy 24 days for workers, insane. I checked up on them yesterday morning to find two callows walking around! I fed them some Sunburst Ant Nectar, and they immediately took to it. The queen herself was drinking for a solid 20 minutes. I finally got to observe some of that gaster bobbing action! Later, once they had a few more workers, I fed them a crushed fruit fly, which they made sure to spray and bite before eating them. I fed them a few more flies, and the queen herself brought them back to the few larvae that they have. Glad the queen is finally fattening up and laying eggs. Super excited to have a colony of these!

The queen getting her fill

The colony in the morning

The colony a few hours later

[ANTdrew]

Wow! That is fast! 

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

Update 2/27/2024

Workers! This queen was heated with no eggs on 2/2/2025 and then had workers on the morning of 2/26/2025. That's a crazy 24 days for workers, insane. I checked up on them yesterday morning to find two callows walking around! I fed them some Sunburst Ant Nectar, and they immediately took to it. The queen herself was drinking for a solid 20 minutes. I finally got to observe some of that gaster bobbing action! Later, once they had a few more workers, I fed them a crushed fruit fly, which they made sure to spray and bite before eating them. I fed them a few more flies, and the queen herself brought them back to the few larvae that they have. Glad the queen is finally fattening up and laying eggs. Super excited to have a colony of these!

Dang, I wish my colony produced workers at a rate that fast.   my colony that I bought was in a situation where they only had 6 workers and they all ended up dying out, luckily AntDrew advised that I should keep them going for the winter and I got 3 workers to replace all of those nanitics, but now I have kept them going all winter and their productivity is not the best, mostly laying in small batches where only 4-6 workers emerge from. But anyway I can’t wait to see how far they will go!

Edited by OwlThatLikesAnts, February 27 2025 - 3:18 PM.

[AntBoi3030]

Definitely make sure to heat and feed them a lot; that'll help.

[AntBoi3030]

Here are some photos of the growing colony! I counted around 15 mature brood items. For some reason, the queen seems physogastric in one of these pictures.

Edited by AntBoi3030, March 11 2025 - 6:11 PM.

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

That is very physogastric looking, unlike my flat looking one…

 

Also what are you feeding your Cremas? I want to know because they don’t accept food that often, (especially with all that has happened with mine…  )

 

EDIT: I see a fruit fly in the background, I know that my colony loves them, is there any other soft bodied insect you feed them?

Edited by OwlThatLikesAnts, March 11 2025 - 8:06 PM.

[ANTdrew]

That queen is thicc!

[AntBoi3030]

That is very physogastric looking, unlike my flat looking one…
 
Also what are you feeding your Cremas? I want to know because they don’t accept food that often, (especially with all that has happened with mine…  )
 
EDIT: I see a fruit fly in the background, I know that my colony loves them, is there any other soft bodied insect you feed them?

I give them fruit flies, small thawed crickets cut in half, and occasionally chicken or egg yolk. They always accept food even if they still have some in the nest.

[AntBoi3030]

Update 3/22/2024:

The colony is continuing to expand at a quick rate. They now have 20 workers give or take a few as well as a large brood pile including lots of eggs. I've really been enjoying keeping this colony. They are super energetic and take lots of food. Speaking of food, the one thing that they didn't eat was, surprisingly, termites. They initially brought them into their nest but then later threw them out completely untouched. This was strange as all of my other colonies covet termites. Their tube is moldy so I'll move them into a new tube in a little. For future expansion, I have a modified Discus on the way that I plan to move these gals in.

 

Chicken Crazy! I can attest, it's damn good chicken.

https://youtu.be/4ttidgKzYi8

 

Edited by AntBoi3030, March 22 2025 - 9:03 AM.

[ANTdrew]

Looking great! My newest colony are doing well, too. I gave them an outworld earlier this week.

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

I have also noticed Crematogaster’s behaviour with food they do not like, most ants would not touch the food if they do not like it and throw it into the trash pile after it dries up, Crematogaster on the other hand loves to throw out food immediately if they do not like it, almost like they don’t want it to “stink up the place”

my colony is doing sort of good? They hidden their brood and a worker died, so I do not know their progress.

[Entomologyants]

Nice journal! I love the pictures! (I love all pictures)