45 replies to this topic

[CAantz]

I tried giving them honey and hummingbird nectar.

[Virginian_ants]

Have any other workers arrived yet? I'd wait until most cocoons hatch.

[CAantz]

That’s a good idea, I will wait until all or most of them are hatched before I try feeding again.

[CAantz]

ca02 doing well with 5 workers, 3 more cocoons, and a small pile of eggs with some young larvae. They are still not eating, and I have them in a setup similar to tubs and tubes. They have two feeders, one with hummingbird nectar and the other one has honey for my beehive. They are both dyed red, so I should be able to see if they eat. I will wait until the larvae are pat the newly hatched stage before I try giving them some mealworm. Sadly there is not anything to report with the vicinus queen because she has no eggs again. I will try giving her some protein in hopes she makes some eggs soon.
Pictures coming tonight!

[CAantz]

ca02 has 6 workers with a batch of about 8 eggs and a few small larvae. They have a small outworld connected to their tube. There is always a worker on top of the test tube but, it doesn’t eat the food I give them, it just attacks it. So far they haven’t eaten, and left the mealworm and fruit flies alone. Their stomachs are not red indicating that they haven’t drank any nectar from the feeder. For some reason the vicinus queen is back to 2 eggs when I thought that she was a goner, so I hope she doesn’t eat her eggs this time.

Edited by CAantz, June 27 2023 - 8:17 AM.

[gs5248]

I would just let the vicinus stay there unchecked for a few weeks, unless she really needs some honey or something.

[CAantz]

Yes, that is a good idea, I gave her a drop of honey the day I checked on her because she was lookin a little skinny.

[gs5248]

She probably would need some energy since she has been wasting a lot of eggs. Her wing muscles will only last so long. If you've already fed her though, just let her be.

Edited by gs5248, June 29 2023 - 7:20 PM.

[CAantz]

ca02 still not eating and a couple of the workers have died

[CAantz]

All of the workers are dead because for some reason they would not accept any food at all

[BleepingBleepers]

I just made a journal today, also have the CA02 carpenter ants.

 

I made some note in there about honey sources and my thoughts on it that might serve some interest, perhaps check it out.

 

Anyhow, when you feed your CA02 ants, do you feed them it in the nest tube? They don't like live looking insects in their tube, they treat it as a threat as oppose to food. HOWEVER, mines seem to not treat it as a threat when I cut the roach in half, exposing the innards and without the upper part as then they see it as a carcass as oppose to an insect threatening their nest.

 

Did you wait until the worker ants start tugging on the cotton to get out? That's a sign when to give them room to forage, otherwise, I wouldn't bother them or feed them unless MAYBE without them realizing it, give them a drop of sugar water (NOT honey water).

 

Your other ant is either a failed queen or you disturbed her too much, hence why she ate all her eggs. Founding stage must be very dark, very quiet, maybe check real fast once a week until they get several nanitics. Once they get a few workers, they seem to get a lot less nervous and hence we're able to have them out to watch.

 

 

 

EDIT: I just noticed one other thing from your setup picture on post number 25, couple of posts above this.

 

The queen doesn't like her nest to be open like that, it'll make her feel unsafe. The cotton should remain at the entrance for that purpose and to keep the humidity in the chamber. You can do what I did, use a straw to make a hole but keep the cotton in place.

Edited by BleepingBleepers, July 6 2023 - 10:56 PM.

[CAantz]

Thank you so much for the info! I read your journal and never realized that raw honey could still have additives, however I feed them honey from my own beehive, so I know there is nothing added.
I did feed them in the test tube, but not insects. I only fed either a drop of honey on tinfoil, or hummingbird nectar soaked in cotton(both of which they attacked instead of eating)
I did not wait until they started tugging at the cotton to move them, but they did have six workers, so I just assumed they were ready for more space.
I did make sure to completely kill the worm before I fed them and I cut it up, but I will try to just give my ants the bottom half withought the legs in the future.
I made sure to not check on the vicinus queen much and I think that she might just be a failed queen. If (probably when) the ca02 queen dies I will give the vicinus some of her larvae and eggs in hopes that she will do something with them. However, it is still possible that ca02 will make a comeback with the larvae and eggs she has now.
I will also make sure to put the tube in the cotton for an outworld in the future to keep their test tube how they like it.
Thank you again for all the feed back!

[gs5248]

I have always heard of Camponotus being a beginner species, but I have also seen countless journals like these, where the queens die randomly, workers die, they don't eat, don't move out of a moldy test tube, or just grow too slow. I wonder how any colonies even make it to a few thousand workers in the wild. I think the vast majority of Camponotus queens might just have bad genetics, and end being the ones we catch. 

[BleepingBleepers]

^ @CAantz

 

Yeah, from what I understand, it's when it's processed that they remove all or most of it.

 

"however I feed them honey from my own beehive, so I know there is nothing added"

Yeah, I remember you saying it was from your beehive but I still wanted to mention it because it felt suspicious so to double check. It could be something else in the honey that we're not aware of.

I would recommend, then, to completely avoid all honey for the time being and to just stick purely with sugar water, the kind you mix yourself. Sugar water + another source with just pure water and if you see the ants forage outside, a fresh pile of bug guts. Remembering back, I did even offer mines a tiny tiny bit of wet cat food.

 

"I did not wait until they started tugging at the cotton to move them, but they did have six workers, so I just assumed they were ready for more space"

I'm guessing this will differ from one ant colony to another, but you basically want to keep them in there until they're ready and they show this by trying to dig their way out of there.

 

 

 

"I did make sure to completely kill the worm before I fed them and I cut it up, but I will try to just give my ants the bottom half withought the legs in the future."

Ya, I tried feeding mines whole dubia nymph but they end up freaking out and end up fighting the prekilled roach. Seemed to be stressing and tiring them out so I took the roach out, got a new roach, cut it in half and tried giving it again to them, but as soon as they realize the top half had legs and a head, they attacked again. It was only when I gave it the bottom half they kinda attacked a tiny bit, was cautious but ate it soon after, carried it into the nest. Hey, whatever works haha   

 

 

"However, it is still possible that ca02 will make a comeback with the larvae and eggs she has now."

I really hope so. I was quite disheartened when I read through your journal and saw the bad news. Keep trying and I hope your success!

It definitely does seem like your queen is trying her best, she's no quitter!

[CAantz]

Thank you so much!

[CAantz]

ca02 queen has passed, and vicinus still has no eggs and is looking a little skinny. 

[BleepingBleepers]

ca02 queen has passed, and vicinus still has no eggs and is looking a little skinny. 

Sorry to hear that

 

Any plans for the future? Going to try again, etc? You got more knowledge and experience this time around, bet you next time is a charm!

[CAantz]

I probably won’t try for Camponotus for a while because I have had a few colonies turn out like this. I do have two pheidole colonies one with about 60 workers and one with about 40 and eight queens. Idk for sure what kind of pheidole, but I am pretty sure the one with 40 workers is California due to their reddish orange queens and majors with large orange heads. I think the other one is megacephala because the queen is a dark brown or black. The workers are still orangish, and they have two different sized majors. The orange major is about a mm smaller than the black ones.

Edited by CAantz, July 12 2023 - 6:52 AM.

[gs5248]

Camponotus seems to this a lot, very finnicky. 

[ANTdrew]

Keeping Myrmicine ants is a lot more rewarding than Formicines.