119 replies to this topic

[Ernteameise]

A better picture of their huge egg pile.

There is more to come apparently.

 

 

And they bring more!

 

[Ernteameise]

So the ready-to-ship mini hearths arrived here save and sound.

Very well packaged as usual.

What I also love is that Mack always packs a little freebee like a feeding dish for the colony.

 

The normal mini-hearth will be an extension to this Camponotus colony when they have grown over this year. I do not expect them growing too much, since in nature, they form colonies of about 200 workers.

 

 

 

[Ernteameise]

Here are some workers engaging in some trophalaxis (the majors really seem to act as repletes), right in front of a pile of eggs:

 

[Ernteameise]

More food for kids and queen!

 

[Ernteameise]

Some nice growth, here, too.

 

The queen is sitting on a pile of eggs, and her hungry workers dig into the provided cricket.

 

 

[AsdinAnts]

fat little happy ants 

[Ernteameise]

Just watched something beautiful.

On one side of the nest, 4 workers were helping a large (probably major) larva spin a cocoon, bringing along small stones, turning her over, and helping her spin her cocoon.

On the other side, 3 workers helped a callow sister out of her cocoon, all working together to get her out. Afterward, the young callow was fed by one of the foragers.

Two majors then proceeded in chewing up bits of the cocoon.

I have noticed that with my Lasius niger colony, the cocoon shells are brought upstairs to the trash as a whole.

But I never have found any whole cocoon shells with these Camponotus.

They are a cryptic species- and one way of staying hidden might be that they have no flashy big whole cocoon shells in the trash announcing their presence, but only the inconspicuous bits.

I found all of that utterly fascinating and captivating.

THIS is why I keep these girls.

[Ernteameise]

Woohoo, and there is another egg pile.

Sadly, the development (egg to worker) appears to be quite slow (and they do have a heat cable), but still, they might grow quite a bit this year.

 

[Ernteameise]

Dinner is served- some cricket and some boiled turkey meat

 

[Ernteameise]

Great little colony and I really think these ants are very pretty.

For a slow growing species with small colonies, I think they do very well.

Just look at all that brood!

 

 

[GOCAMPONOTUS]

All sorts of brood!

[Ernteameise]

These girls also show nice growth and they are also very hungry.

They are basically waiting for me to feed them, and they are my ants that are the fastest at a newly served insect.

Looking at them, maybe I am feeding a bit too much.

 

[Ernteameise]

It is amazing how much this colony has grown over the past few weeks!

 

(basically twice as many ants as in my previous post!)

 

Edited by Ernteameise, June 30 2024 - 3:57 AM.

[Stubyvast]

Wow look at them go! Brood looks well fed too! (Not to mention the workers). 

 

This morning, the new girls had carried some of the moist vermiculite into the test tube and created some sort of "wall".

Since my Rescue Ants in the test tube did the same with sand and seed, I think this is totally normal behaviour and will also help them control the humidity in their test tube better.

Yes my myrmica rubra colony also sealed up the entrance to their test tube with soil, leaving a tiny entrance for them to get through. I agree with what you said about moisture, especially for myrmica rubra, who love moisture! Can't wait to see this colony hit the Hundreds!

[GOCAMPONOTUS]

They are growing nicely!

[Ernteameise]

Today I bought some large locusts at the pet store, and all of my girls got to share.

For my smaller colonies, I copped the locusts up to provide smaller pieces.

 

 

The colony is growing nicely, the queen looks healthy and there is some more brood.

 

 

[Ernteameise]

They continue to do well.

They are however not the most active ants, they only come out when there is fresh food.

 

[Ernteameise]

This colony grows slowly, and they continue to be shy ninjas.

But they still enjoy a nice protein meal.

 

 

[Ernteameise]

Oh no!

One my nightmares as an ant keeper has happened!

Today, when cleaning and feeding, I realized that the mini hearth that houses my Camponotus piceus has grown mould!

Maybe this is one of the reasons why this colony grows so slowly!

It also appears to be one of the nasty moulds, my guess would be on Aspergillus, which is known to produce nasty aflatoxines.

 

 

And these are my supposedly "clean" ants.

In comparison the messy nest of my messy Camponotus lateralis (although, yes, the colony is 4 times the size)

 

 

What did I do?

I opened up the nest and wiped and cleaned most of the mould off, using diluted vinegar and water.

I also opened up one of the nest mates for air circulation.

I hope this is under control now.

 

 

Funnily enough, the ants did not really freak out.

I could open and clean without everyone running everywhere.

The only ant that freaked and ran away was the queen.

She just left all the daughters and the kids and ran off at the first sign of trouble, while everyone else hunkered down and tried to protect the kids.

 

 

I really hope doing a spot clean and opening the nest mate will help.

 

I also noticed that this nest also has book lice running around.

I think ALL my ant colonies and nests have book lice.

 

Supposedly, if it is not a parasitic species (and I have not made an observation that they are, I think they are just harmless scavenging book lice), book lice help with mould and eat mouldy material.

This might also play in my favor?

 

Well, this was quite a shock.

[Mushu]

Yikes, good luck. Curious if the spot cleaning is enough. I do notice camponotus don't  run crazy like say honeypots when the nest is invaded, or they are just much slower.