9 replies to this topic

[StanceOnAnts]

Hola todos! 

Here's my experience keeping Cephalotes texanus. I received this colony from a friend in January. I carved my own wood nest out of honey mesquite wood that had come with the ants. I had been reading my research papers about them and their relatives to know how to care for them. My friend had taken pictures of where they had found the small colony. It was an old mesquite sitting right next to a medium sized river. They said they were in the dead limbs in the tree. I added plaster of paris at the bottom to create a high surrounding humidity since they don't seem to like moistened nests at all. Then I added more sticks and a feeding area. In the reports, they are said to eat pollen, but mine haven't been interested in it.

 

 

(My computer puts pictures sideways and I don't know how to fix that)

 

I have been feeding them mealworms and turkey breast. Also Honey-water. They like the turkey breast the most and would even take it into the nest to continually eat over several days. 

They started out with 5 larvae, 2 eggs, 1 queen, 20ish workers, and 10ish soldiers. They now have 7 larvae, 30-40 eggs, and only 3 losses of a soldier and 2 workers. The soldiers also came looking very thin but after a few days their gasters are very swollen and appear a bright rusty red color near the articulation of the gaster. 3 of the larvae appear to begin to pupate. There's not much else to report on them. They grow rather slowly it seems. Eggs appear to take 3-4 weeks to hatch and larvae 1.5 weeks to start pupating with proper feeding. They are actually rather easy and simple to keep at the moment. 

 

January 20th, 2023

 

January 27th, 2023

 

January 29th, 2023

 

February 2nd, 2023

 

More pictures will be added when I come back from a mini President's day vacation. 

[ANTdrew]

What a cool colony and nest! I look forward to following this! 

[T.C.]

Nice setup. Whered you get the container?

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

what's in the feeding tray?
what's your humidity solution? do you have a water tower or do you dribble water on the plaster from time to time?
what's your heat solution? is it heated by the light alone or do you use a pad/wire somewhere too?

Edited by Full_Frontal_Yeti, February 22 2023 - 11:34 AM.

[StanceOnAnts]

Nice setup. Whered you get the container?

 

Amazon. Came in a pack of 3

[StanceOnAnts]

what's in the feeding tray? what's your humidity solution? do you have a water tower or do you dribble water on the plaster from time to time? what's your heat solution? is it heated by the light alone or do you use a pad/wire somewhere too?

 

Pollen, Honey-water, Mealworms. In that order from left to right. 

Humidity is created from evaporated water that's in the plaster. I just water it every couple days and it does very well. The nest doesn't get directly watered since they only need high air humidity. Humidity is 95-80% at all times.

It's heated with a heat mat underneath at about 85 degrees F in the center to a gradient to room temperature at the furthest end. The nest located at about 79-80 degrees F. 

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

 

what's in the feeding tray? what's your humidity solution? do you have a water tower or do you dribble water on the plaster from time to time? what's your heat solution? is it heated by the light alone or do you use a pad/wire somewhere too?

 
Pollen, Honey-water, Mealworms. In that order from left to right. 
Humidity is created from evaporated water that's in the plaster. I just water it every couple days and it does very well. The nest doesn't get directly watered since they only need high air humidity. Humidity is 95-80% at all times.
It's heated with a heat mat underneath at about 85 degrees F in the center to a gradient to room temperature at the furthest end. The nest located at about 79-80 degrees F. 

 


thanks, i was imaging that was pollen i was seeing. i also like to just see what people's "total package" setup is.

I was recently asking about feeding pollen as it's part of their normal wild diet. I was reminded that bee products cannot be guaranteed free of pesticides, and a recount of a colony being sickened by some honey.
It made me cautious to consider it, but still would like to try and give them as close to a wild diet variety as i could.
Have you been using pollen as a food for long? Do you have any recommend brands on pollen that you tend to trust more?

Edited by Full_Frontal_Yeti, February 22 2023 - 11:42 AM.

[StanceOnAnts]

 

 

what's in the feeding tray? what's your humidity solution? do you have a water tower or do you dribble water on the plaster from time to time? what's your heat solution? is it heated by the light alone or do you use a pad/wire somewhere too?

 
Pollen, Honey-water, Mealworms. In that order from left to right. 
Humidity is created from evaporated water that's in the plaster. I just water it every couple days and it does very well. The nest doesn't get directly watered since they only need high air humidity. Humidity is 95-80% at all times.
It's heated with a heat mat underneath at about 85 degrees F in the center to a gradient to room temperature at the furthest end. The nest located at about 79-80 degrees F. 

 


thanks, i was imaging that was pollen i was seeing. i also like to just see what people's "total package" setup is.

I was recently asking about feeding pollen as it's part of their normal wild diet. I was reminded that bee products cannot be guaranteed free of pesticides, and a recount of a colony being sickened by some honey.
It made me cautious to consider it, but still would like to try and give them as close to a wild diet variety as i could.
Have you been using pollen as a food for long? Do you have any recommend brands on pollen that you tend to trust more?

 

 

I've actually not had any success with them eating the pollen. I'm actually very disappointed. I decided to try again in the spring time, where maybe they would have more accessibility. My colony was caught in the Grand Rio Valley, which is noted in a specific study that not a lot of pollen collects in an accessible way for them there, so maybe my population of them are just not adapted to eat pollen constantly. 

The brand of pollen I use is Pure Original. It's unfiltered and undiluted, so I thought it'd be the best bet. If you are going to look for good brands, I would look for anything that isn't diluted and aren't clumped in honey balls. Just pure powder form.

[StanceOnAnts]

Update!

 

They now have their first worker pupae! They have also developed 2 male pupae, but I suspect those were from the wild colony and part of the original larvae they were collected with. They have also had some of their eggs hatch into small larvae. Overall, they are doing great besides growing slowly. The queen has also been laying more eggs. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jonathan5608]

Update