279 replies to this topic

[kiedeerk]

Native Camponotus have mostly come out of diapause. Some queens have been very productive while others have not started laying eggs. Camponotus pennsylvanicus colony is the only colony that is still in diapause mode as their larva have not progressed or laid any new eggs. Camponotus castaneus colony have quite large larvae and soon to have pupae but the queen has not restarted laying eggs however she is quite “fat” with a full gaster. Camponotus chromaoides colony has a nice pile of eggs and larva are progressing. The most productive colony is the Camponotus nearcticus with tons of larva and eggs. Camponotus subbarbatus queen has also been laying quite a few eggs. It is interesting that some colonies came out of diapause much faster than others as they were all put into diapause at the same time in h th e same environment.

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[kiedeerk]

Acromyrmex versicolor should have new workers in a week or so. Many of the pupae have started to turn color. This will be a nice number boost to this colony. When I first started this colony I didn’t plan well so they are currently in a closed small container with a gypsum base. So i need to hydrate the gypsum daily and drop dried flowers in daily. Their fungal garden takes more than half of the space now so I will need to move them along with their fungus into a newer proper set up like my trachy set up.

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[MyrmecologyMaven]

Very nice! I always prefer nests with outworlds for fungus growers. Your thread keeps reminding me how bad I miss my old acromyrmex colony. Need to track a colony down this year but I'm too busy to hunt down a nuptial flight.

[kiedeerk]

Big update with lots of pictures.

First up: Colobopsis Papago. They are still doing well. They have about 20 workers no majors yet. Their brood pile is healthy with brood of all stages. The workers are well fed. Their old test tube was all dried so I had to move them into a new test tube.

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[kiedeerk]

Camponotus socius have ended their diapause phase. Queen has restarted laying eggs and their brood are progressing. They have a couple new pupae now. Spring is coming soon therefore I will be able to get more insect options for them. They are pretty picky about proteins but are fond of termites.

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[kiedeerk]

Trachymyrmex septentrionalis have been busy. More workers means they can grew their fungal garden really fast. In matter of 2 weeks their fungal garden is now covering 3/4 of their 4x4 inches nest. They are still ok using the dried blue lotus flowers for now. Spring is around the corner therefore I should have fresh flowers for them. I looked hard but have not seen any eggs yet. I am worried about whether the true queen has made it through diapause. Although eggs are very small and are usually well hidden in the fungus. Once larva develop I should be able to see them in the fungal garden.

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[ANTdrew]

Daffodils are blooming. The wretched invasive pear trees everywhere should be blooming very soon, too. Cherries after that.

[kiedeerk]

Daffodils are blooming. The wretched invasive pear trees everywhere should be blooming very soon, too. Cherries after that.

Leaf cutters are picky about what they will use but cherry blossom last year were a hit with them so they should be blooming in the next few weeks

[ANTdrew]

You know you can cut cherry branches, hammer the end of the branch a bit, and put it in a jar of water by a sunny window. The warmth inside will trigger them to bloom weeks earlier. Beautify your home and feed your ants!

[kiedeerk]

You know you can cut cherry branches, hammer the end of the branch a bit, and put it in a jar of water by a sunny window. The warmth inside will trigger them to bloom weeks earlier. Beautify your home and feed your ants!

 

great idea but i feel bad cutting off branches. they can wait a few more weeks then I will have limitless cherry blossoms

[kiedeerk]

Native Camponotus are all doing well. Some have their first pupae of the year. While others have been very busy laying eggs. I noticed that the myrmentoma or smaller Camponotus species like subbarbatus and nearcticus queens have been the most productive in terms of egg laying. Pennsylvanicus queen finally laid new eggs. This is looking like a great start to the new ant season.

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[kiedeerk]

Acromyrmex versicolor just eclosed their first set of workers of this new season. I saw around 5-6 new workers with many more to come. They will need a new nest in the coming weeks to month to allow for more growth with the increase in worker count. They are doing really well on dried lotus flowers. They have very healthy brood pile of all stages.

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Edited by kiedeerk, March 3 2025 - 8:01 PM.

[kiedeerk]

Moved my largest Acromyrmex into a proper set up. I hope they will continue to thrive the same way they have been. The largest fungal garden was just sitting on the plaster of their old nest so I was able to just scoop it up and drop it into the new nest. There was some side garden I had to scrape off and dump it into the new nest. I still have my trachy and other Acromyrmex colonies that I can steal fungus from so I am not too worried if fungus somehow dies.

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[kiedeerk]

Pogonomyrmex badius have come out of diapause. I took them off heat for the last couple months. Pogonomyrmex diapause without any brood. I estimate death rate of 10% of the whole colony during diapause. I placed them back on full heat two weeks ago. Part of their nest is probably close to 100F and very humid which is their ideal conditions. Queen has already restarted laying eggs.

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[kiedeerk]

Native Camponotus colonies are progressing well into this new season. Most have a pretty big batch of pupae. The colony that is slow to come out of diapause are the pennsylvanicus. Unsure of the reason but the larvae have not progressed however the queen has laid a new batch of eggs. The subbarbatus are also a bit behind the others but the larvae are starting to progress.

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[kiedeerk]

Trachymyrmex have grown their fungal garden to cover the entire area of the nest. You can see the exquisite details and designs how these ants construct their fungal gardens. The almost honeycomb design is very different to how the Acromyrmex construct their fungal gardens even though the fungus is the same exact one.

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[kiedeerk]

I have had great success with pogonomyrmex species. I find them to be quite easy to care for once they start going. The most important thing is heat. The temperature inside my pogonomyrmex nests are in the 90-100F. I use exclusively heating pads although heating cables are probably fine as well. With heating pads the downside or upside is the generation of high humidity and will cause condensation to form on the glass. The downside is that it will obstruct your view. But the upside is it creates ideal environment for pogonomyrmex and provides them with a drinking water source. I currently keep pogonomyrmex badius and barbatus and both are thriving under these conditions. All desert species will thriving in these conditions of high heat and humidity. Of course you should still give them a gradient as harvesters need a dry area to store seeds this is easily achieved by just putting one side of the nest onto the heating pad.

My pogonomyrmex barbartus have more than tripled in size since coming out of diapause. I have not fed them any insect proteins just seeds and nuts. All the light colored workers are recently eclosed.

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[kiedeerk]

Pseudomyrmex apache. I first got this queen last year in the summer but she never laid any eggs. I had already given up on her and assumed she was infertile. I just kept her in her test tube occasionally feeding her sugar water and fruit flies. Last couple weeks I decided just to put her test tube on top of a heating pad just to see if heating her to 80+ degrees would do anything. To my surprise, she started to laid eggs after a couple weeks. She now has three eggs. It still going to be an uphill battle. I usually don’t start journals unless I get through to workers because you never know. I will keep up the feeding especially once eggs hatch. I can’t stress enough the importance of heat for these desert species.

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[bmb1bee]

Apparently their larvae take a while to develop even when heated, since I've heard the gynes emit pheromones that suppress larvae from developing into workers. For what reason, I'm not sure. I have a small colony of these right now and they get boring sometimes...

 

Despite that, they do make up for it with their unique appearance, compared to most other ants in my area.

Edited by bmb1bee, Today, 10:06 AM.

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

~ With heating pads the downside or upside is the generation of high humidity and will cause condensation to form on the glass. The downside is that it will obstruct your view. But the upside is it creates ideal environment for pogonomyrmex and provides them with a drinking water source. ~

 

If you use a heat cable, draping just a little bit of the cable over the glass can remove and prevent condensation. It only takes a little bit of warm to keep the glass form being cold enough to create condensation, sense it is about the differential of temps between the cold enough glass and warm humid air in the nest.
In some cases the heat cable is not even in direct contact with the glass but a half mm or so over it, that is enough.

Often i find there are just some spots and a little cable in the area is all that's needed. On my larger glass top nest it took about 3-4 days to stop all the condensation spots while also figuring out how little of the cable i could use to keep it that way.


hers' an example of my large nest.
Along the top of the image, this nest has a copper tube in it that the heat cable runs through, providing the main source of nest heat. Those mostly empty chambers along that edge  where it is hottest winds up piled with late stage brood and pupae normally, but the current brood pile is small as the queen had been on break for a while. While the cable on the glass is not really adding that much heat overall. And is in many places a half mm or so off the glass(it's got a bendy shape to it so i use blutak to keep it place). If i didin't have the cable on it, all the water tower chambers wouldn't be visible at all, and a few other spots here and there would be holding some condensation.

 

Edited by Full_Frontal_Yeti, Today, 12:40 PM.