278 replies to this topic

[Ernteameise]

Today, the girls formed a tight cluster in their outworld.

Why were they bunching up? What was going on? Were they planning an escape or world domination?

On closer inspection, the girls were working together to cut up and then chew up the crickets that I fed them.

As these girls do with their seed, where they sit together and make ant-bread, and which I have also shown months ago something they do with BBQ chicken, they also do this with the insects they feed.

The chew it up and form "pellets" and these are then fed to the larva.

They do not really do trophallaxis, but instead do this different way of communal food processing.

Which is interesting in itself.

 

 

[Ernteameise]

I think these girls are now also slowing down for winter.

They have no real hibernation, but they go into a slow down phase, since they are from Southern Spain.

 

They still take protein and especially love their crickets.

And of course they love to forage for seed.

 

 

 

[Ernteameise]

Yay!

Just heard back from Mack at Tarheel Ants.

They had some issues with a new supplier, and things took longer to sort out than anticipated.

He did not contact me sooner since he did not really had anything much to tell me apart from that there was a delay and things were complicated.

 

Well, A+ for customer communication.

 

He said he was just about putting the finishing touches on my custom nest, and it will still need to dry out.

 

I told him that I will be away end of October / beginning of November for my veterinary business trip to the UK and was unable to receive any parcels and also will not be able to pay any customs fees if the parcel gets stuck in customs.

So I asked him if we could please move shipping dates to beginning of November- I would really really hate that I spent so much money and Mack got through all that trouble, only for the parcel being stuck and then forfeit at customs because nobody turned up to pay.

 

Anyways, I cannot wait to see pictures of the finished customs nest, I hope he shares pictures on the Facebook site.

As soon as I have pictures, I will share them on here.

I am still very excited for this, and my girls surely are in need for an upgrade!

[100lols]

I’m sure the nest will be a work of art!

What’s your plan for the girls while you’re gone that long?

[Ernteameise]

I’m sure the nest will be a work of art!

What’s your plan for the girls while you’re gone that long?

I am gone 2 weeks and I have already seen they can last without be for 10 days no problem, and that was during my diving holiday in Italy when it was still hot outside.

End of October they will have slowed down for winter, the heat mat will be off, and they will have enough water provided by me and they have their stored seed.

I do not see any issues to be honest.

The joys of a harvester ant colony! (and another reason I like them so much, they can entertain themselves without me for a couple of weeks)

All my other ants will be in "winter mode" too, so as long as I provide enough water beforehand, this should work.

Edited by Ernteameise, October 11 2023 - 11:35 PM.

[100lols]

The spoils of being responsible in choosing your ant colonies. You and the girls will be missed while you’re gone!

[Ernteameise]

As you can see, the girls are slowing down for winter.

Fewer larvae can be seen, the productive time seems to come to an end.

They still take some protein, however.

 

 

 

On closeup-

one worker making off with a drumstick

 

[ANTdrew]

Nice! Looks like the forum just entered diapause. Aussies better step up!

[Virginian_ants]

That's what that was. I was wondering if something went wrong because I didn't find any posts for a while.

[Ernteameise]

While I have now put the Lasuis, Temnothorax and the Rescue Messor colony into diapause condition (cooler temperatures on the balcony), this colony and their setup are too large to move safely.

I know from the person who sold me this colony that they have been properly hibernated in the past 2 years, and those two years are very critical.

I have read in some scientific papers that Messor absolutely needs a real diapause at least in their first and second year.

They did experiments and just kept conditions and temperatures in summer mode for very young colonies, and either the queen died or did not produce enough eggs the following year.

 

With this colony, they will be continue to live in my living room.

I live in an upstairs flat that is not well insulated, and I will only be heating the room when I am at home to save on energy.

So the average room temperature will be around 18 degrees (and below during the day).

The heat mat will be off.

Since these girls are from Southern Spain, I am reasonably confident that this will be sufficient as diapause conditions.

I hope this will work!

[Ernteameise]

Girls are really getting ready for diapause.

Much less brood to be seen, but they still have a few larvae in there, so I thought I do another protein feeding, just so they will get these larvae into development.

The ants are also much less active with the heat-mat off, I think this is emulating quite well the environment in Southern Spain.

 

 

[Ernteameise]

Well, it was a good idea to feed the protein-

I think it has proven pretty popular.

 

[100lols]

The girls seem comfortable indeed. Surprised by that protein response!

[Ernteameise]

The girls seem comfortable indeed. Surprised by that protein response!

Yeah, I was surprised, too.

But today (with the temperatures getting lower and are now at about 15 degrees centigrade in my living room) they are much less active, I think they are now really slowing down for winter.

[Ernteameise]

Despite the girls having slowed down, they are still active. Currently, they live in my living room at around 15 degrees centigrade.

Simulating a Spanish winter.

 

I have found around 10 dead ants today when cleaning the rubbish dump.

Do more ants die during the cold months?

They have plenty supply of water, and they are certainly not starving with their seed stashes.

 

I offered some food today.

I gave them some fruit jelly, some chilli seed (I was curious if they would take chilli seed, since the capsaicin (the "hotness" molecule) works on mammals, but not birds for example, my parrots loved chilli seed!), I also offered some supermarket roast chicken (which the girls have loved before) and I also gave them some more small normal seed.

 

Well, the chicken was (as suspected) a success. The jury is still out on the chilli seed.

 

 

With the small seed, I just dumped them in the outworld, and in just 30 mins, they had dragged them to a "sorting corner" next to the "outdoor stash" in between the rocks in the outworld.

It is just so fun to watch them collecting the seed, and then going all OCD about sorting them and dragging them off into their different stash corners.

 

So this is how we started:

 

 

And this is how it went:

 

+

 

 

[ANTdrew]

It is typical for many workers to die over winter. It’s probably just old age hitting now.

[Ernteameise]

So, this morning the chilli seed had been dumped in the rubbish corner (it looks clean since I cleaned it out yesterday).

At a guess, chilli seed are not very popular.

 

 

All the roast chicken had been transported to the nest, and is now processed there (chewed up to be fed to the larvae)

 

 

The queen also looks active and healthy- she is probably happy to be able to catch a break in egg-laying during the colder months

 

 

There are also a few valiant larvae still

 

 

And there even is a small pile of small larvae for some reason:

 

[100lols]

I love ants that are organized and OCD, lol. Some beautiful shots of the girls. :zoomeyes: Those majors!

As long as hydration is working as normal and intended, I concur, the workers deaths shouldn’t be a concern. Sad to see them go!

[Ernteameise]

The colony is in winter mode.

The queen now has her deserved break in egg-production.

Not much brood is happening anymore.

 

 

Weirdly enough, not all ants are living in the nest, NO!, around half of them are hanging out in their bivouac between the rocks in the out-world.

 

 

They also have moved the seed storage completely into the DigFix at the back of the AntCube.

Oh well, this will make it much easier to move the colony to the new nest for Tarheel Ants when it arrives.

 

 

Update on the new nest-

I had a chat with Mack from Tarheel Ants.

The nest is finished.

And could be sent immediately.

But Mack suggested (and I agreed) that since my ants are now in winter mode, there is no rush and he sadly has made the experience that things are wild over the holiday period with shipping and he suggested to send the parcel after the holiday period. He just had too many things go missing over the past few years, especially internationally.

For such an expensive custom nest, why take the additional risk?

This makes sense.

And as you can see above, there is just no reason for rushing things.

[ANTdrew]

Waiting definitely sounds wise to me. Go slow to go fast!