107 replies to this topic

[Antkeeper01]

How had I not found this journal until now? Also keep up the great work!!!

[JAnt]

July Update:

This colony has been very active and doing well.

I decided on adding a mini hearth xl as a new nest expansion for them.


Here are some close-up photos of each nest in order:
Mini hearth 1 (Difficult to take a picture of the nest within, enjoy. lol)


Mini hearth 2


Mini hearth xl filling up already


I was moving a small colony of my Tetramorium Immigrans from a test tube for a new one, and I took the few pupae left and put them in the outworld of my Pheidole colony; after two weeks. I found one of them walking around inside the nest! See if you can find it!


I washed the mini hearth xl but didn’t let it completely dry…so these little ones probably found a soft spot to dig and made a mound around 2 centimeters in height with an entrance and tunnels on their outworld, which I thought was very cool! I hope the digging is over.



Thanks for checking out this journal!

[ANTdrew]

You’re crushing it with the Myrmicines!

[ZTYguy]

Dang! that's one impressive colony. I can only hope my Californica queens have colonies half that size.

[ANTdrew]

Lone Tetramorium worker thoughts: “Why am I so much bigger than my sisters? Why do I have this powerful urge to battle other colonies?”

[JAnt]

Lone Tetramorium worker thoughts: “Why am I so much bigger than my sisters? Why do I have this powerful urge to battle other colonies?”

The lone elite soldier “Teradorium” lol

[JAnt]

Dang! That's one impressive colony. I can only hope my Californica queens have colonies half that size.

Hopefully, my journal can help you along the wayGood luck!

[ZTYguy]

I’ve definitely been taking notes.

[AlexLebedev]

I've just seen this and read this after collecting a wild colony of them. 7 queens and having a die off rn. Is bluegrass seeds ok? Those are the only seeds i have and they seem to like it.

[JAnt]

I've just seen this and read this after collecting a wild colony of them. 7 queens and having a die-off rn. Is bluegrass seeds ok? Those are the only seeds i have, and they seem to like it.

My colony also accepts bluegrass seeds, but I mainly give mine chia seeds most of the time; I save bluegrass for Pogonomyrmex.

Die-offs were common for me in their first year, and I also fed them protein once a week, but after increasing their protein by providing them (super worms/Dubia roach/ fruit fly) every other day, it’s not as expected now. (Byformica Sunburst ant nectar is always present)

Moving them to a mini hearth also improved their condition; try not to check as often for now since the colony might also be stressed out from being collected from the wild, and let them settle down and adapt to their new home without as much disturbance just like any other pets. Just feed and refill water.

Congrats on collecting a colony of this species! I hope this helps.

[bullyfan]

Any update on the alates? If they havent mated its best to remove them so they aren't a drain on colony resources

[JAnt]

Any update on the alates? If they havent mated its best to remove them so they aren't a drain on colony resources

I still have both male and female alates; removing them would be difficult since they stay inside most of the time. I’ll leave it up to the colony to decide; unless it will cause the colony harm.

[ANTdrew]

It was the same way with my Pheidole bicarinata. Their alates never left the nest, so there was no easy way to remove them without all holy heck breaking loose. The colony ended up culling and eating every last one, though.

[NotAxo]

Oh... That escalated quickly

[JAnt]

It was the same way with my Pheidole bicarinata. Their alates never left the nest, so there was no easy way to remove them without all holy heck breaking loose. The colony ended up culling and eating every last one, though.

Could there be a chance they could mistakenly cull the original queen with the alates?

Edited by JAnt, July 19 2022 - 10:22 PM.

[JAnt]

Any update on the alates? If they havent mated, its best to remove them, so they aren't a drain on colony resources

There are times the alates will help out with the workers when I give them dubias and fruit flies.

Edited by JAnt, July 19 2022 - 10:29 PM.

[JAnt]

August update:

This colony is still going strong they recently had some mass escape. They lost about 200-300 workers/majors and a few alates due to the THA plug popping out that simultaneously happened with another species I'm keeping, which I thought was too good to be a coincidence. (I’ve made a more secure blocker now). Lol

Due to the loss, they have increased brood production as they were probably hitting max. However, even though they’ve lost many workers. It felt like they didn’t lose any by looking at these photos.

- All their brood are in MH1, where it's heated.

It isn't easy to take a clear photo, so I wanted to show XL how populated it is instead ...


I’ve stopped doing them a favor of cutting up their food besides killing it first. It's pretty awesome to see them swarm their meal and fascinatingly observe how they eat a whole Dubia/mealworm.

Pros:
-It saves me a lot of time feeding. I have more time to watch them.

- They are busier and have something else to do besides looking after the brood and hanging around. (more purpose).

- Majors get to do more stuff besides cracking chia seeds.

- It took them 2-3/4 days to entirely consume a fully grown roach/ 2 days for superworm/mealworm. I can feed less often.

- It is easier to clean up since the exoskeleton of the superworm is intact for my forceps to pick up.

Cons:
- There will be hitchhikers, but I don't see it as a problem considering the colony's size.


As everyone can see, only the cleaned-up head of the roach was left, and the rest was gone🫣, and as for the superworm, only the exoskeleton was there to see.


I’m considering giving them another extension of a mini hearth/XL, but I doubt it won’t be long till they fill that too. I’d appreciate any tips and recommendations!

I’m also considering a bigger outworld attachment; I’m just planning how I’ll do it (No promises).

Once again,
Thanks for checking out my journal!!!

[JAnt]

Journal Update:

Surprisingly this colony still hasn't culled any of the alates, and both male and female production hasn't ended yet. I decided to give them a THA XL as another extension; it provided them space, but I realized not much.



This is what it looks like after a few minutes, then filled it the next day.


Thanks for checking out the journal!

[AntsCali098]

that's a massive colony. Great work!

[TacticalHandleGaming]

Wow! That's some crazy growth. Time for a much larger home.