49 replies to this topic

[Voidley]

What are you using for photos, just a cellphone + macro clip on or something else?  You're consistently getting really clear detailed photos in all your threads.

 

 

That's actually just a smartphone camera on "macro mode." My dad has the iPhone 13 Pro which he lets me borrow it to take photos of ants. One thing that I do find helps a lot is to photograph them in strong, indirect sunlight to fully illuminate the ant but still not see its shadow or the reflections/glare of the sun—overcast days work especially well for this. Also, try not to use white backgrounds because the ant will end up looking like a silhouette with no detail. Plus I'm sure there are other tips people know to make the photos look even better, but I have yet to discover those.

[Ernteameise]

Wow, cool, these young colonies look very promising. Good luck!

[ANTdrew]

Wow, cool, these young colonies look very promising. Good luck!

Indeed! Now all you need to find is a Crematogaster queen.

[Propo.Fol]

 

What are you using for photos, just a cellphone + macro clip on or something else?  You're consistently getting really clear detailed photos in all your threads.

 

 

That's actually just a smartphone camera on "macro mode." My dad has the iPhone 13 Pro which he lets me borrow it to take photos of ants. One thing that I do find helps a lot is to photograph them in strong, indirect sunlight to fully illuminate the ant but still not see its shadow or the reflections/glare of the sun—overcast days work especially well for this. Also, try not to use white backgrounds because the ant will end up looking like a silhouette with no detail. Plus I'm sure there are other tips people know to make the photos look even better, but I have yet to discover those.

 

 

Hah thanks helpful advice.  Sadly I just read this and did the weekend "check in on the colonies and take photos" thing this morning already. Looking at the photos I definitely see what you mean with the silhouette effect on the white background.  

[Propo.Fol]

Ok, so on to what was discovered today!  I got assaulted early this morning by my daughter demanding we do our now ritualized weekly Saturday check-in.

 

No nanitics yet, however I'm pretty sure they will soon be showing themselves.

 

First, good and bad news with L-K.  She is the one who seemed to only have eggs with no (or only small) larva as the weeks have passed.  Looking today, I got a clear shot of her brood and larva were clearly present-- that was the good.  In the photos I think(?) I noticed some damage to her gaster, circled below, which was the bad

 

 

As to my other laisus queens, they've all still got numerous cocoons, and the new addition this week was visibly ant-like pupae.  I always thought for species with cocoons, they hatched from the cocoons into new workers.  Is this normal and all is well, or is this a sign something went wrong in their development?  I am half excited this means we will soon have nanitics, and half worried something is wrong with eveyone!  All three  had some of these.  L2:

 

 

 

L3

L3's pupae visible, sorry bad photo:

And finally L4, the pictures came out much better

 

As to my tetras, updates are universally positive. This week pupae were visible in all of their brood piles. In this first one D's brood pile, with pupae visible (ie one at the top):

 

Here is C, the one who removed her wings.  Again pupae visible!

 

Just one more, A (ie good ol one-wing) again with pupae

 

That is it for the week -- I am really hoping next week will include nanitics with how ant-like those laisus pupae are...fingers crossed it is a normal next step and not a developmental issue  Any insight into any of this stuff from you more experienced keepers is greatly appreciated!

 

 

[ANTdrew]

Looks like you’re well on your way! As to the wounded queen, insects can recover from injuries like this. On the mantid forum, folks say to treat wounds on mantises by applying a dab of honey due to its antibacterial properties. This might help it heal, but may be more stressful to the queen than it is worth. Definitely wait until nanitics before trying any intervention.
The naked pupae shouldn’t be a problem. I think the issue is that the larvae do not have any substrate in the tube. Cocoon weaving ants use bits of dirt or sand to help wrap their cocoons around, so in the future you should add a bit of sand to test tubes with Lasius queens.

[Ernteameise]

I am curious how the injured queen will turn out.

Well, one bit of good news- ants have a metapleural gland (it is one of the defining features of ants) and that gland produces antibiotics.

And different ant species are known to have actual nurses who will treat other ants with the gland secretion.

So if she has her first workers, there is a good chance that the queen will be "treated".

Fingers crossed.

Edited by Ernteameise, August 27 2023 - 11:22 AM.

[Virginian_ants]

I have a Tetramorium queen with a damaged gaster and she's doing great.

[Propo.Fol]

Thanks everyone, as always appreciate all of your knowledge and advice!

 

I went back and reviewed old photos back to catching L-K and turns out the damage was present / visible although maybe not as obvious.  Hopefully the fact that she is laying and the eggs are progressing is a good sign.  Will leave her alone.

 

Also appreciate the reassurance on the naked pupae.  Lesson learned, will add a bit of something in the future.  Now that it is mentioned, most of the cocooned pupae have some visible bits of cotton pulled from the plug about them.

 

Also excuse me while I dive down a rabbit hole reading about the metapleural gland in ants

[Propo.Fol]

Ok!  I am happy to report that we did our weekly check-in yesterday morning and many nanitics were found!  But I am getting ahead of myself.  Still, it was basically universally good news in all of the tubes. 

 

First, I will start with L-K, who was looking wonderful this week.  The damage to her gaster is still visible in the photos, but her brood has advanced and cocoons are now visible.

 

Brood photo (lots of larva! lots of pupae! Pretty good considering where she was 2 weeks ago)

 

Next up we slowly pulled L1 outta her foam holster and found this adorable little critter waggling her antenna at us. We officially have nanitics            . I absolutely love the antenna on these, they're almost comically large compared to the size of their bodies.

 

She had 11 nanitics in all bustling about the tube.  Also already working on the next few generations with big piles of eggs and larva cookin.  Great!

 

the whole family

 

 

L2 is looking like she is ready to be a momma too, maybe next week!

 

She had this one, I'm not sure if this is a misformed/nonviable ant?  But otherwise pleased with her brood pile

 

L3 also had nanitics -- I counted 6.

 

Next moving onto the Tetramoriums, Here is A (one-wing), all looks good and I bet she will have nanitics next week

 

Caught C re-arranging her brood

 

 

D is about the same as the others

 

And finally, we were very surprised to pull E out of her foam, she had a gaggle of nanitics as well! Guessing by their colors this all happened very recently? Unlike the laisus queens where the nanitics were fairly active and curious (although not panicky) these ladies were basically all almost frozen in place, very little movement or activity, just some antenna waggling. Also counted 6 nanitics for E.

 

 

Our three founded colonies getting ready for a first meal:

 

 

So in terms of feeding, I made them each a little foil plate, got out a single frozen cricket, dipped it in boiling water for a few seconds, and chopped it up into thirds.  I also put a tiny tiny drop of sunburst nectar on the other end of the foil.  The stuff was sort of expensive, but back when we had "mail order" uncle milton ant farm ants, every time we fed them our honey there'd be a spike in dead ants, so I just decided to drop the $ on it.  I had no trouble waiting until there were no ants near the entrance and sneaking the plates in.  The tetramorium colony showed almost no interest, but the laisus ants from both colony's were all over their plates.  They both slurped up all of the sunburst and at least investigated the cricket.  One colony actually stole the SMALL legs of the cricket and moved them next to the brood pile.  The larger colony (L1) wasn't as interested, but maybe my fault for giving them the top of the cricket  .  I left them out on my desk for maybe 4 hours while the family and I were out and removed the remaining food when we got back, then returned the colonies to their dark drawer.  Planning on feeding them again in maybe 2 days, does that sound right?  Anyway, the laisus colonies just seemed totally ambivalent to being out in the light.  They occasionally got a little worked up when my kids banged into the table directly but otherwise I would describe as calm and curious.  Wondering if I could get away with leaving them out of the drawer now in a quieter part of my home now, or if I should keep em hidden for a few more weeks. 

 

A couple more ok photos.  As soon as I fed L3, the nanitics demolished the sunburst and two immediately brought it back to share with mom, so the kids and I got to witness trophallaxis as L3 got her first meal in months.  Got a video too which Ill post below if I can figure it out

 

Some L1 nanitics checking out their score

 

L3 nanitics stealing some cricket leg and putting by brood -- how'd they know I was gonna take it out

 

 

Overall a great week for us, everyone is very excited. Any feedback or advice is always appreciated!

 

-Propo

 

 

 

[ANTdrew]

Congrats! Your first nanitics are a thrill like no other. Those Tetramorium indeed just eclosed. They will soon become ravenous for protein. You can keep colonies out now, but cover them with a towel, some foil, or cardboard tubes cut in half.

[Ernteameise]

This is awesome!

I am happy for you.

[Propo.Fol]

So had a bit of a disaster on my last feeding.  Mostly it was really cool watching the ants gasters visibly fill and distend as even the very small amount of sunburst given was consumed.  One colony was able to lift their section of cricket and drag it back into the tube with their brood.

 

The disaster came when attempting to take some photos. I've gotten a (cheap crappy) usb microscope from amazon, was like 30 bucks.  Works fine for dead/stationary stuff and when hand-held.  I figured I'd try it out see if I could get any highly magnified photos.  I quickly established my hand was not steady enough for this so I put the microscope in its cheap attachable mount.  The microscope immediately popped out of the mount and fell maybe 1cm onto the tetramorium colony tube, smashing it.  After my initial moments of cursing I was able to see the ants were fine, maybe 40% of the distal end of the tube had been totally smashed leaving them with maybe 2cm of space ending in jagged glass.  I was able to stick a cotton ball over the broken entrance as a temporary measure.  

 

Their reaction to this disaster was not as I expected.  I thought they would get all worked up and active, but instead they grabbed all their brood, made a big singular pile, and jumped on top of it protectively, which certainly made my life easier!

 

 

I was stumped about how to proceed.  Moving to a new tube would be difficult due to the long jagged glass bits, I could not simply tape a second tube onto the end.  I tried to make a bridge with aluminum foil and tape which sort of worked but I was pretty confident the tiny T. immigrans nanitics could easily exit at the seams.  This was all happening late at night after work and I needed to get to bed. Decided converting to a tub and tube setup would be a solution but could not find any appropriate containers.

 

I ended up covering the new tube, using the aluminum bridge and sticking the whole contraption in a gallon ziplock bag and left them in the light, hoping they would move on their own and any escapees would be recoverable from the bag.  

 

They had not moved in the morning,nor by the next evening when I got home from work.  Decided I had to force the issue as I am preparing to do some travelling.  I carefully made a less janky aluminum foil bridge (ie, a aluminum tube of slightly larger diameter than the test tubes), and connected them up and did my best to vigorously tap everyone from one to the other.  Worked on some nanitics but nothing else.  In the end I had to use my feather forceps to manually move the remaining very grumpy ants one by one.  I used a paintbrush to gently move as much brood as I could, although I think they lost maybe 1/3rd or so in the transfer.    Colony "E" is now safely back in their dark drawer to recover from my repeated assaults.  

 

 

 

All of the drama aside, my more mundane question for anyone kind enough to be reading -- do I need to go digging into the test tubes with a pair of tweezers for cricket remnants after a day or so?  For the cricket bits they removed off the foil and dragged near the brood.  Or do I just leave it be?

 

-Propo

[Propo.Fol]

Ok back from some travel and happy to report basically everyone has had nanitics at this point, minus my daughter's laisus queen who has a mass of cocoons.  Maybe next week!

 

I have to admit I didn't expect this high of a success rate with the colonies.  Only two tetramorium queens out of the 6 rescued from the pool did not appear to be fertile, and our laisus queens will be at worse 3/4, likely 100% by next week.  So happy about that, but feeding time is a little complicated!  The tetramorium colonies so far have been placid and easy to feed, but two of the laisus colonies always rush the exit when I open the tubes.  I think (at least for the laisus) I need to figure out something to make feeding easier.  Might run out and try and find some good containers for simple tub/tube setups.

 

As to updates, first up, L-K, my daughters laisus queen, I think next week.   Good mix of brood

 As to my other Laisus queens, the largest brood size was 14, smallest was 10.  Not bad!  A couple random shots

 

For my Tetramorium colonies, brood sizes were all between 7-9.  Pictures unfortunately turned out badly, but heres a photo of C, the only one who removed her wings.  I wonder if over time the workers will help the other queens get rid of those!

 

 

I am happy to report I was able to catch one more queen, photo below.  I found her just sitting in the windowsill at my gym, in the open, with her wings, not doing anything.  I didn't think this was very promising behavior for a fertile queen, but there are some eggs this week so maybe there is some hope.  Not sure of the species, given the time of year likely Laisus neoniger?  Clearly laisus and much darker coloration than my other ladies.

 

 

As to feeding time, now with 7(!!) colonies to feed, I somehow managed to exacto-knife a small cricket into 7 parts.  I put a small dab of sunburst and a cricket morsel on 7 foil plates and they were universally happy.  Much more excitement, overall, for the sunburst, although everyone showed at least some interest in cricket.  Lots of trophallaxis was observed which is so neat to see.  I also love seeing how the gasters swell up and become visibly distended as they gobble up nectar.  I mentioned it earlier but the two "older" Laisus colonies were REALLY difficult to feed, they always had 3 ants at the exit and they would rush out if I tried to removed the cotton.  I did, eventually, manage to feed them, but when attempting to remove the plates I had numerous escapees.  One fell on the floor, could not be found -- I gave up, only to later find her climbing my leg.  I was able to thus rescue her and redeposit with her sisters.  I have to figure out an alternative.  May order some small test tube attachments that give a tiny outworld.  Saw "Nurbs pencil case" tub/tube setups and might go try and reproduce something similar.  Or maybe something else, my plan for the week is to solve this. 

 

Looking at the photo now, I think this droplet was too big. Noone got trapped/drowned but I should be more careful

 

 

 

Mmmm, cricket

 

 

Interestingly, ALL FOUR of the tetramorium queens did this -- they at some point walked over to the nectar and just stood by it.  Never saw any of them actually partake.  Could have just missed it.  They mostly returned to their egg piles when I took out the plates.  I have noticed that the Tetra queens are more likely to wander around their tubes whereas the Laisus queens stay put with the brood.  I am very happy I was able to catch two distinct species as it is very interesting to compare their behavior as a new keeper.

 

 

 

 

[ANTdrew]

You should soak nectar into tiny squares of paper towel. Remove old food after a few days. You should also make a plan for all your extra colonies. More than one Tetramorium colony could quickly become overwhelming.

[Propo.Fol]

You should soak nectar into tiny squares of paper towel. Remove old food after a few days. You should also make a plan for all your extra colonies. More than one Tetramorium colony could quickly become overwhelming.

 

Thanks.  I will try soaking the nectar next time.  

 

As to the tetra colonies, yeah.  I am def now a little worried about what to do with them.  I'm thinking I'll hold onto all through diapause and see how that goes, then offer to give extras away to any local keepers who may want.  If that doesn't work, I'm guessing it is ok to release them where they were collected?  I'm sure the chance of the colony then surviving would be low but beats drowning in a pool.  Suppose it is a better problem to have than 0 colonies!

[Propo.Fol]

So having had so much trouble feeding a few of the test tube colonies last week (specifically the laisus!) I spent this week looking into building tub and tube setups, or ordering some small premade outworld kind of things (or maybe building my own!).  Ended up ordering some stuff I likely don't need from Por Amor arts in Canada and wakooshi in the UK, along with a little bit of DIY supplies for myself, including some 100 micron mesh off ebay, some possibly promising cheap tubs on amazon, and a step-drill bit set, which I am excited to have on principle alone.  Honestly while I'm sure I don't need any of this stuff, I really appreciate that this small, mostly hobbyist driven industry exists, and some of the things people make are so neat!  I'm excited to try some different stuff and see what I like or doesn't work as great, etc.  I also ordered myself a minihearth from Tarheel -- I realize I won't need it for a year, but yeah, I will consider filling it motivation to take good care of my colonies!  Please no one tell my wife about my little spending spree 

 

Feeding has been touch and go, with escapees being an issue with the laisus colonies.  I accidentally smooshed one earlier this week chasing her down  .  All three of the laisus colonies always have at least 3 ants right by the cotton.  Another issue I've had is the sunburst drop being too big and risking drowning an ant, or running over the bug bits on my foil plates.  So three solutions:

 

1. My new feeding plate.   Folded over in middle to make a shelf and then semi-rolled up to easily fit into a tube.  Also (thanks ANTdrew for the advice) soaked the nectar in a little slip of paper towel, which the ants are totally down with.

 

2.  This one seems really obvious in hindsight(oops! ), but I grabbed a large-ish plastic bin and lined it with fluon.  For the laisus colonies I can put the tube in this temporary tub while feeding, so at least I can police up any escape artists at my leisure instead of chasing them across my table and under my desk.  Just not having to "worry" about escapees made the whole process a lot faster, and faster = less escapees, go figure.

 

3.  I read this one on the reddit antkeeping community - I can't find where I read it to give credit, but it worked ok on the tetramorium colonies.  I only pull the very end of the test tube out of its darkness-sleeve while leaving most of it dark.  The few ants the tetras had near the cotton tended to just move away from the light for a moment, allowing me to slip in the plate quickly without any bother.  This did not work at all with the Laisus colonies, no surprise!

 

I realize all this stuff is probably obvious, but being new they were all little changes that helped.  Between these feeding the 7 colonies went from a big pain in my butt to maybe 10 minutes of work soup to nuts (including flashboiling the cricket and making the plates)  Not bad!

 

As to my colonies themselves, L-K did not have nanitics this week -- she is still defensively sitting on top of a big old pile of cocoons when I took her out.  Damaged gaster unchanged.  Next week!

 

All other colonies were more or less the same.  The Laisus colonies continue to be much more adventurous and active (and I think more interested in the cricket?).  The Tetramorium immigrans colonies have been much more subdued, slower to find the food and much less likely to jump all over the protein.  Tetra queen "E" -- the one I cracked her tube and then had to forcibly move her seemed none the worse for wear, although it is very clear her brood pile was diminished in the move.  Just a few random photos below:

 

 

Yum

 

My gym-caught Laisus neoniger(?) with her small brood pile.  Note sure how promising this is but we see!

 

 

Fun week of ant stuff on our end.  Goal for this week (besides waiting for supplies to arrive) is to try and make one of those DIY aspirators so well documented here on formiculture!

 

-Propo

 

 

 

[ANTdrew]

If they have a Hobby Lobby near you, the display cases they sell make ideal outworlds. They are frequently on sale for half price as well.

[Propo.Fol]

Thanks ANTdrew -- I'm going to keep an eye out for (an internet) sale, sadly none near us.  They definitely have some promising choices.  This actually looks maybe perfect and is only 6 bucks, depending on shipping maybe I'll try it:  https://www.hobbylob...Case/p/80957046

 

 

So I got a few packages this week and managed to put together an aspirator and a Mark I ant tub.

 

For the tub, I found some decent (and cheap) containers on amazon, the major issue is the container is transparent but sort of cloudy in the manner that cheap plastic often is.  The lids are perfectly clear however.   Disappointing as they would have otherwise been perfect.  Price was right tho!  About $2.61 per bin.  I wanted bins long enough for 150mm test tubes yet otherwise small, which seemed a little hard to find surprisingly.  In case it is of use to anyone the link is:

 

https://www.amazon.c...ct_details&th=1

 

The second thing I got was my step drill bit..and oh boy, what a fun toy.  I may have placed a few holes into some objects around the house that did not strictly need them.

 

 

 

 

after a few practice holes, I drilled two holes the largest I could into one of the lids

 

I wasn't sure what the best adhesive would be to secure mesh to the holes.  Ended up using hot glue which is a little ugly but I had on hand...thinking maybe epoxy would have been better, but of course one tube was dried out, oh well.  It does work I think?

 

I am not sure if this was a waste of time, but I decided to put a 3/8" hole into the side of the tub for potential future use, like maybe connecting them directly to a new formicarium in the future.  Plugged it with cotton.  This may have been unnecessary and does make a potential escape point (or more accurately, a weak point when considering the presence of children!).  Mostly I just wanted to use my new drill bit more honestly.  I added some very fine sand I had on hand.  Worried it may be too fine, is literally almost powder like.  It is leftover sand from my corydoras aquarium, works great for them digging in the sand and filtering it through their gills.  Fingers crossed ants can deal with it!  Image below of the finished product, with a 150mm tube next to it for scale

 

 

 

I also made an aspirator from the guide on this site (https://www.formicul...or-photo-guide/) and it was both as easy as advertised, and shockingly even works!  I used a medicine bottle and probably 95% of the work was trying to get the old label off cleanly.  As evidenced by the photo, I failed in that regard .  Might try again with a new bottle only for that.

 

 

Excited to try my tub out with one of the colonies.  Tomorrow I hope!  Any advice/feedback/things I should change, I'd be happy to hear it.  Wondering if I should put down a thin layer of grout or similar on the bottom, or if there is really no point.

 

-Propo

 

 

[100lols]

Awesome diy projects! You’ve been busy

The hot glue may be a weak point in your design, as you mentioned. I recently built some “tubs and tubes” setups as well and really enjoyed the process.