5 replies to this topic

[VenomousBeast]

Hello everyone! I wanted to make a journal to show the progress of my currently queen less Trachymyrmex septentrionalis colony, as well as detail what I've been doing to keep them thriving and well! I do plan on introducing a queen when I find one but currently, that's impossible without digging up an established colony which I don't want to do since they are super rare here in Northern VA.
Here's the materials I used to keep them:
-grout
-Plaster of paris
-a tight airlock container
-tubing
-an outworld
-small deli cup
-various fungus growing mediums (which I'll get into in a bit)

So the bottom hydrating part of the airlock container is a combination of Plaster and grout in a 3:1 ratio. It looks similar to regular Plaster with just being a bit gray but it keeps mold under control to some degree and that's what I wanted. After adding the Plaster, I quickly added in a deli cup that I had precut a small entrance to. This creates an even more stable environment to get their fungus back growing. Also, the airlock container is to prevent more bacteria, fungi, and other micro organisms from intruding into this area.
I drilled a hole into the container added tubing to the other container which will act as the outworld. I added a bit of sand for decoration but it's not as important🤷‍♂️.
Fungus growing mediums:
I've used the following and the top ones have had the most reactions while going down have less of an effect
-oatmeal
-dried rose petals
-dried blackberry leaves
-dried catkins
^(these above are the best for growth and easily accept them without fail)
-dried plantain (plant not the fruit)
-dried clover
^ (these get some notice and use, but not as much as the ones above)

I plan on doing more with experimenting with mediums soon, but I just wanted to increase their fungus as quickly as possible since it started out as almost nothing as you'll see in pictures below.

Now to the actual journal part!!

I collected these workers on April 2,2022.
They had 3-4 small specks the size of grains of sand. I collected about 125 workers.




As you can (barely) see, not much fungus.This picture was taken on April 5th and the fungus had grow a tiny bit from the oatmeal and petals I added.
(also, I apologize for the poor photo quality😅)

April 22th,2022



Here there is significant changes in the growth of the fungus! Over just 20 days, the fungus grew from being a couple specks to being the size of a ping-pong ball (if collected into a ball)

May 5th



There has been a bit more added growth and the fungus is now the size of a golfball. This is also when I began to notice eggs all over the fungus, with a specific pile of them in one of the corners in the delicup. (There's no queen, and I made a post about this earlier last week and they're probably tropic eggs to grow the fungus, but I'll update here if there's any development further than just eggs).

May 6th



Here's a picture from above when I had to clean it out for the first time. There's not as many workers due to them trying to leave when I cleaned it (I put them all back into the outworld)

May 11th



This is the fungus growth as of today! It's now a bit bigger than a golf all. I guess it's like a golf all and a quarter of one. Of course there's no queen so there's no growth to the number of workers, but I hope to change that soon!!

[aznphenom]

Nice posting. I am a little confused about the situation though. So, was there a queen and she died? or you just collected only workers and somehow a fungus too?

 

Early spring/now is actually a great time to find foraging queens that flew last fall. 

[VenomousBeast]

Nice posting. I am a little confused about the situation though. So, was there a queen and she died? or you just collected only workers and somehow a fungus too?

Early spring/now is actually a great time to find foraging queens that flew last fall.

They're just collected workers and fungus😁👍.
It's been really cold lately so the queens aren't out forging yet😅 but yes, you are correct! They do forage when the weather is consistan since they are semiclaustral.

[aznphenom]

 

Nice posting. I am a little confused about the situation though. So, was there a queen and she died? or you just collected only workers and somehow a fungus too?

Early spring/now is actually a great time to find foraging queens that flew last fall.

They're just collected workers and fungus.
It's been really cold lately so the queens aren't out forging yet but yes, you are correct! They do forage when the weather is consistan since they are semiclaustral.

 

I am in Maryland and happened to live by one of the super rare spots that has Trachy. I actually saw a foraging queen was I was last there (last year) but let her go because I couldn't find a fungus. Weather has been cold like you said but looks like its finally warming up so I am hoping to go out soon again. This time, if I find another foraging queen and no fungus, I might experiment with her with atta fungus and see what happens.

[VenomousBeast]

Nice posting. I am a little confused about the situation though. So, was there a queen and she died? or you just collected only workers and somehow a fungus too?

Early spring/now is actually a great time to find foraging queens that flew last fall.

They're just collected workers and fungus.
It's been really cold lately so the queens aren't out forging yet but yes, you are correct! They do forage when the weather is consistan since they are semiclaustral.

I am in Maryland and happened to live by one of the super rare spots that has Trachy. I actually saw a foraging queen was I was last there (last year) but let her go because I couldn't find a fungus. Weather has been cold like you said but looks like its finally warming up so I am hoping to go out soon again. This time, if I find another foraging queen and no fungus, I might experiment with her with atta fungus and see what happens.

That'd be pretty cool! Maybe we could get together and look for some? 😁 Of course I couldn't bring anything home, but the experience is always the fun part!

[VenomousBeast]

May 12th,2022

More growth! It's about 1/3 the size of yesterday!