10 replies to this topic

[AntPerson76]

This journal is made to include all my queens that I've caught so far and all the queens I will catch this summer. There are a good amount of queens so I didn't want to make a journal for each individual queen.
First off, my aphaenogaster rudis queen! (Pics soon) I found her a few days ago and she doesn't have eggs yet. I'll update if anything happens, but the thing I wanted to talk about is the setup I want them to live in. I want them to live in a tubs and tubes setup with sand and dirt as the substrate, and include a mini scale city that's ruined. It's hard to explain and it might not work, but if it does I'll include pics.
Next is my second pheidole dentata queen. I want them to live in just in their beginning stages in a AC test tube portal with a connected test tube.
My second nylanderia flavipes queen will also live in a dirt setup with her colony.
Finally so far, I have a tetramorium Immigrans queen with a huge pile of eggs. I plan to house them in a mini hearth or something else from tar heel ants for good visibility.
I've seen lasius males around my house so I might find a queen soon. I know they were flying in Tennessee during my visit.
I forgot about my pheidole tysoni colony. I love their color and they're one of my long time favorites. I plan to keep them in an AC test tube portal with test tubes attached, but really, I'm not sure where else they could have lived. I want good visibility of the whole colony, but I feel they are too small for a mini hearth and could escape. Any suggestions on where to house them?

Edited by AntPerson76, July 17 2023 - 4:31 AM.

[AntPerson76]

I've changed my aphaenogaster's setup to something easier to make. I call it Porto, which is Italian for haven. It will be in a 12x12x12 glass box, and I will put gravel on the bottom for drainage. Than a mix of dirt and leaf litter, and maybe Cocoa fiber for the substrate. I will add a thin layer of this above the gravel to make sure my aphaenogaster don't nest in it. I will add plants, moss, rocks, and driftwood, all of which I am going to clean before placing in. I will add a medium sized plastic cup and bury it in the dirt to make a little pond. I plan on putting a little nest in the corner for my aphaenogaster. I don't know what nest yet, but I want to be able to see them grow. From what I know, aphaenogaster grow slower than other species, so they are perfect for this nest. Of course, it will probably turn out a lot differently in real life than how I'm imagining it. Hopefully it's livable though. Also I'm basing the landscape off of shrublands.

Edited by AntPerson76, July 18 2023 - 5:27 AM.

[AntPerson76]

I'm not very patient, so I brood booster my aphaenogaster queen and now she is standing over a pile of big larvae. I've been thinking about the nest I want to make that I mentioned above for them, and I think the perfect place for them to live in the tank is a wooden nest I made a long time ago for my campnototus. I'm sure I could make a smaller version that would fit well in the corner of the tank, and it would simulate the inside of a log that they would usually live in. I was wondering if the wooden nest would mold in a tank with tons of different plants and tiny insects, and another problem is I don't want them living int he substrate of the tank, so I was going to make only a thin layer of I realized this wouldn't work because the plants need a good amount of soil to grow. I'll figure something out.
My tetramorium queen has larvae and I'm excited to move them into their mini hearth when she gets workers.

Edited by AntPerson76, July 20 2023 - 1:48 PM.

[ANTdrew]

You’ll definitely want to add springtails and perhaps isopods to deal with mold. It will be almost impossible to grow plants without having the ants move into the soil around the plant. One option could be epiphytic air plants.

[AntPerson76]

I didn't get a picture, but I saw my bigger nylanderia colony's queen for the first time in 3 years! She was sitting next to a huge pile of eggs surrounded by workers in the biggest visible chamber.

[AntPerson76]

Update: my lasius queen got two workers so far with more on the way since I brood booster them. It did take most a month for the cocoons to hatch which I thought was strange. My smaller nylanderia colony also is growing pretty nicely at around 9 workers. My tetramorium queen has tons of small larvae, and my aphaenogaster rudis queen has lots of white pupae. My pheidole Tysoni colony let me see some good looks at their queen, and they have tons of eggs and brood and new workers and majors on the way. They do have many male alates which I'm not too excited about because they obscure the view from inside the test tube. This is my opinion, but if I get a chance I'm taking them out and killing them.

[BleepingBleepers]

GL man, hope you get some pics in for the journal. We love pics

 

A Picture's worth a gazillion plus a billion words like they usually say!

[AntPerson76]

GL man, hope you get some pics in for the journal. We love pics
 
A Picture's worth a gazillion plus a billion words like they usually say!

I know, but I don't really have a good setup for taking pictures and don't really want to buy a camera. For now I'm going to work with taking pictures with my phone.

[ANTdrew]

Get a clip on macro lens for your phone. It’s all you need for decent shots.

[AntPerson76]

4 things: I've had a formica subsericea queen for a while now to the poi t where she has cocoons but forgot to mention her lol.
I also recently found a temnothorax queen sitting on top of a rock, and a campnototus novaeboracensis queen who looked kind up beat up in the past week. (Pictures soon)
The last thing is my aphaenogaster queen finally let the pupae emerge and now she has a batch of her own eggs, and a bunch of workers around her.

[AntPerson76]

Update: My formica subserica colony has died. At first I wasn't sure how the queen died, but after a few days of leaving the only worker alone with the rest of the pupae, I examined the scene again and saw the queen's leg next to her corpse! She had been murdered by her only worker, and it got worse. Another pupae emerged, and this time, something totally unexpected happened. The workers savagly ripped the queen apart from her abdomen, and I have no clue why they did this. I was sad at the end to this promising colony, (I'll upload pics later today) but at least there is good news. My apheongaster queen has laid more eggs and the colony of about 8 workers are living happily in their new test tube. My P. tysoni, lasius, and smaller nylanderia colonies are all off to an amazing start. (excluding my tysoni because they were caught as a farely big colony). They all have fresh tubes because their old ones were molding, but no colonies have moved in yet. I assume they will use the second test tubes when they run out of space in their current ones. I also hope to catch more queens soon.