20 replies to this topic

[futurebird]

I will someday find all the videos I have of this colony going back two years and write their history, but today I just wanted to share this new video. (it has sound)

[Ernteameise]

Beautiful

[futurebird]

The girls are well and truly awake and active now. When I was fixing the tube they chewed through, I noticed a small crack. Today I sealed the crack with epoxy (the clay kind) and they are NOT HAPPY. They are undoing my work right now. I was worried the epoxy would make them sick, now I'm just worried they will get so angry they expand the crack before it hardens.

I guess I need to get the steel mesh out.

 

 

[JesseTheAntKid]

grrrrrrr! Rah! No epoxy!

[Mushu]

Awesome video. Great close up.

[futurebird]

The epoxy is now hard and they have stopped messing with it. I didn't notice any ants getting sick either, which I was a little worried about. The fortress will hold. For now. 

[ZATrippit]

Nice job, futuerbird

Edited by ZATrippit, February 14 2024 - 12:22 AM.

[futurebird]

They seem to like their new outworld decoration. It's the perfect size and they are so excited!

 

I feel like maybe I'm a bad influence on them... giving them bad ideas... but ... They probably already had ideas like this. 

[antsriondel]

They seem to like their new outworld decoration. It's the perfect size and they are so excited!

 

I feel like maybe I'm a bad influence on them... giving them bad ideas... but ... They probably already had ideas like this. 

Nice! Is that a decapitated head in the bottom right corner? 

[futurebird]

Yeah noticed that after I posted it. I think it was tucked under their old outworld decoration... They will take it to the graveyard I'm certain. 

[JesseTheAntKid]

Did they just hijack a shipment of sugar?

[futurebird]

They prefer the term "liberate" to "hijack" 

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

They seem to like their new outworld decoration. It's the perfect size and they are so excited!

 

I feel like maybe I'm a bad influence on them... giving them bad ideas... but ... They probably already had ideas like this. 

Just say'n. That detached ant's head in the lower right corner of the shot kinda reduces the cute levels going on here. Gives it more of a heist gone horribly wrong vibe when you start out noitcing that first.

[TheAntKid]

This setup is pretty cool.

[futurebird]

I haven't seen the queen for this colony for the longest time, but I spotted her today. She's four years old!

 

 

And still laying so many eggs:

 

[futurebird]

Tulip, the eastern black carpenter ant (Camponotus pennsylvanicus) is a median worker. She likes to hang out at the highest point of the driftwood branch. Like most elderly ants (she is nearly 2 years old) she no longer enters the main nest. (I think older ants avoid the nest chambers to prevent disease) she spends a lot of time looking up… she has escaped twice. On her first escape I gave her the pink dots. 
 
 

Edited by futurebird, March 31 2024 - 10:38 AM.

[futurebird]

. . . some of these carpenter ants are—

 

 

how to put this?

 

 

Obese. Look at these gasters!

 

 

 

At what point do we start just calling you a replete? Everyone thinks the big majors in Camponotus pennsylvanicus meant to fight and dig— but I think they are more into bulk food storage.

[Ernteameise]

Well, my Camponotus are also fat. I think this is normal? It is interesting to see the totally different lifestyle of my Messor harvester ants, who do not really do trophalaxis and store seed in their nest and share ant bread with each other which they communally chew on. On the other hand, my Camponotus have a social stomach, only the minor and media workers go out to forage and they fill up the major workers (who sit in the nest, being lazy) full of food. This is their way of storing the food. This can become extreme, and as you say, in some species they will become repletes. The honeypot ants native to Australia are Camponotus.

Isn't it wonderful that there are so many different lifestyles and behaviours out there, all adapted to their respective environment and food source. I think this is exciting.

 

As for your video of the old ant... I do observe this, too. I have an old major with a broken leg, who does not enter the nest anymore, but who is placed on a lookout at the entrance where the tube leads from the outworld to the nest. She is very vigilant and checks that everything proceeds in an orderly fashion. In some species of ants, the older ants are on guard and war duty, and in weaver ants, they have special barracks away from the main nests, they will be the first line of defense when an attack happens. As Edward O. Wilson says: "We will send our young men to war, ants will send their old ladies."

The old ladies have the most experience, and they are the most expendable. Everything and everyone in an ant colony has it's place, and nothing is wasted.

This is also fascinating.

[futurebird]

 

That was 3 months ago. 

 

I love it when people post photos that show their whole set up for a colony, it can be hard to understand how things are connected with close up photos. My carpenter ant colony takes up two bookshelves. They have two "outworlds" or places to find food and do ant stuff. They have three nesting spaces. 

Glass on antkeeping enclosures often has a hazy look. We use "fluon" to keep the ants from climbing out. I wish I could find a solution that didn't look so messy.

 

 

Is it just me or do they look … proud of this latest batch of eggs from big beautiful mother ? 

Whenever I report on what my ants are doing in their nest I think about how there are colonies in forests, and abandoned lots, probably one not too far from you now... who are all doing the same thing right now. Quietly getting ready for summer so they can burst onto the scene with a whole ready made army.

... deep in the cold earth something is stirring.

 

 

The full set up. On the top shelf a log cut in half with plexiglass cover to show the nest chambers. Large black ants are packed into the nest. A glass terrarium connects to the log, the to a small annex nest: a round wood circle filled with more ants.

A long curving plastic tube connects to the lower shelf. There is a larger enclosure with a branch to climb on and sugar feeder. Then, their newest log home. it’s not as full as they are still moving in.

 

 

Closer view of their new nest. It’s about one third full mostly older ants using it for now. They have not moved and brood down to this nest. The brown cable provides heat, which they seem to like on cold days.

 

 

The mini annex nest is a round of wood with five chambers like flower petals. It’s packed with ants.

 

 

The two shelves again but with the purple, green and ochre magnetic felt covers on the three nests to block out the light. The annex nest has a cover with a felt flower petal design that mirrors the chambers.

 

Aaaaand that's the carpenter ants! I think they are set for the summer in terms of nesting space with the new log added. I may add another outworld later in the summer depending on how well they are doing. Right now they have a lot of eggs and a pile of small larvae. No pupae at the moment, but there are three large heaps of eggs in the nest on the top shelf. 

[Ernteameise]

This is a great setup! And a very nice colony.

I also love the tea-cozies you have for covering them up.

I am like you, I also love to see the whole setup different people have. It will give me ideas on what to do when my colony grows.