65 replies to this topic

[Dan_Not_Found]

Small Update

Both the MH queen and Fortress Queen have a bunch of cocoons so I expect both colonies to have 13-14 workers by the end of summer or a bit earlier.

I do think they could grow faster but unfortunately I don't have the insects to make that happen. The last of my darkling beetles died out yesterday and there are no signs of mealworms

Also, disregard what I said about these ant launching themselves across the fluon barrier. I literally watched one worker from the Fortress colony walk across it and back with 0 problems. I'm not completely sure why that is, but it isn't much of a problem for now so I won't try to fix it.
My guess is that the plastic on the Fortress got really dirty or something so the ants can easily grip onto particles stuck onto it.

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

[ZTYguy]

Even though there are no signs that baby mealworms are present, don’t loose hope. Mealworms take a bit to grow up to see-able sizes so. I have that same issue. 

Edited by ZTYguy, June 19 2022 - 5:56 PM.

[Dan_Not_Found]

The MH colony can also climb over the barrier... maybe I'm just really bad at applying fluon 🥲

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

[ANTdrew]

Increase ventilation and decrease humidity and the fluon will work.

[Dan_Not_Found]

7/4/22

 

Both colonies have around 10 workers.

Hopefully they can grow up to 20-25 workers before summer ends 

[Dan_Not_Found]

Hello everyone, I just got back from a trip in Korea! I saw some really cool ants there but unfortunately I didn't snap any pictures. There was mostly camponotus and some other medium sized ant. It sort of looked like formica or polyrachus but it could honestly be anything since my ID skills suck.
Either way I also saw what seemed to be a 15mm camponotus major!! I knew 15mm was big but seeing it in person was absolutely massive. It had silver hair on its abdomen and was black, any guesses on what species it is?

When I checked on my colonies today, they actually grew a lot in numbers. Currently, I would guess they're around 15-20 workers, they don't have a lot of brood though (which was expected). Maybe I can get them to 30 or 40 workers by the end of the year


Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

Edited by Dan_Not_Found, August 30 2022 - 10:02 PM.

[Dan_Not_Found]

MH colony is around 25 workers, Fortress colony is around 32 workers! I'm not too sure why there is such a large gap in workers between the two colonies since I feed them both at the same time and roughly the same amount. Perhaps the abundance of space in the fortress has caused the colony too develop faster, but I doubt this is the cause. The MH colony does have some more pupae though, so I expect for this gap to shrink within the next few weeks, something like 30 workers to 33. I'll post some more pictures in my next update.

Edited by Dan_Not_Found, August 30 2022 - 9:59 PM.

[DRpepper]

what a great journal

[Dan_Not_Found]

Back with another update, there's been a lot of growth, especially with the fortress colony!
Fortress: ~50 workers
MH: ~35 workers
The worker gap is getting considerably larger which is still an anomaly to me. Perhaps my theory about having excess space leading to faster growth could be right? However, the MH colony does have noticeably larger workers, (on average 1-2 mm, just eyeballing it). Currently, the largest worker I can see is in the MH colony and seems to be around 2 mm larger than everyone else.
Despite a lot of workers, there are no majors or medias' in sight. There have been some pretty large larvae but they ended up becoming larger workers. From what I've observed in other camponotus journals here, majors/medias' seem to appear once the second year of growth starts regardless of colony size. Crossing my fingers, majors will appear next year!
That's it for this month, I'll see you guys in November

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

[That_one_ant_guy]

Looking nice 👌

[That_one_ant_guy]

Looking nice 👌

[Dan_Not_Found]

Hi all, sad news, the queen of the MH colony died

I'm not sure why she died, but she did seem rather thin the past few weeks. I'm observing her body and I don't see anything that is out of the ordinary. No mites, no injuries, no abnormalities at all. The rest of the colony seems perfectly fine. 

As for the rest of the workers, I'm not completely sure what to do with them. Could it be possible to merge the 2 colonies? Not all at once, obviously, but maybe introducing each ant one at a time? I've heard of methods where vinegar was used to get rid of their scent.

Is there also a method where I can preserve the dead queen? Her death seemed rather recent and the body is in near perfect condition.

Regardless, this death was unfortunate and a few expirements I had in the future won't happen, but perhaps this could also be a learning experience. 

[T.C.]

No, DO NOT mix the two colonies. However you can give the brood to the other colony.

[Dan_Not_Found]

Ok so, I decided to attempt this experiment, and it actually turned out successful (atleast for now).

I added one worker that was dipped in vinegar and also chilled in the fridge into the fortress colony's outworld. There was a bit of panic, but soon the ants calmed down. After a few minuntes, the fortress colony's workers began to clean the added worker! Soon after, they performed a bit of trophallaxis. After around an hour, the added worker went into the main nest and she was met by several workers who all began to clean her. The queen also did not seem bothered.

This went way better than I expected, and I was curious whether it was actually the vinegar that was the reason why this was so successful, or the workers themselves.

After a bit of thought, I decided to add another worker, but without the vinegar and chilling. The interactions were almost identical, and she soon ventured into the nest after ~15 minutes. Workers greeted her, cleaned her, and the queen was unbothered.

 

Now, I want to wait and see if any complication occur. I will observe them over the week, and if everything goes smoothly, I will plan to merge both colonies together over the upcoming weekend. 

[TheGreatAlate]

I would be curious to see how that plays out at a larger scale unless you're planning to introduce them individually each time until you've introduced all workers, but that seems painful to do...

[Dan_Not_Found]

I would be curious to see how that plays out at a larger scale unless you're planning to introduce them individually each time until you've introduced all workers, but that seems painful to do...

 

I was curious about what would happen as well, however, I also don't want to overly stress the colony. I might try to introduce ~3 ants at once and see what happens, but we'll see.

[Dan_Not_Found]

I merged both colonies yesterday and there were no major complications! The colony seems settled in and everything looks well. Currently, they're around 90-100 workers.
I haven't fed them a lot this past week so there isn't a lot of brood.
Currently they only have 2 cocoons, however, I spotted a pretty big pile of eggs and small larvae. I'll likely heat this colony over winter.

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

[Dan_Not_Found]

Nothing new, colony grew in only a few workers, otherwise they only have small larvae that don't seem to be developing.

I did get a Nucleus type III today, but I feel like it will still be a while before they can move in. 

[Dan_Not_Found]

The colony has started to start producing workers! They have a pretty giant pile of brood.

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

[Dan_Not_Found]

It seems like the colony is finally producing majors!!!! There's one pretty big cocoon and two even larger larvae, pretty excited

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk