28 replies to this topic

[100lols]

Wow I can't believe I didn't notice this journal until now. I should probably look at my own forum more often.

That is amazing you pulled it off. I don't think I have heard of anyone else doing it yet. I just looked at my old journal and it looks like I tried three different years and always failed. The furthest mine ever got was some eggs and possibly larvae.

I have been keeping a colony of S. xyloni just for this purpose, but I never found any S. amblychila queens this year. I haven't really found much of anything on my the black light in the hills the last few years for some reason. Your idea of just introducing the queen to a brand new S. xyloni colony seems like a good idea.

I'm going to have to try harder to get some more of these queens next season so I can give it another try.

Thanks for stopping by! I used your attempts as references actually

I mean, it is truly the queen who deserves the praise! I noticed she used trophallaxis to trick the workers. They instantly would start grooming her which looked scary at first until I realized what was happening.

I do believe the size of the colony may have been a factor? & maybe also introducing the queen to the original host colonies test tube instead of just brood boosting? But really who knows. Maybe I just got lucky

Can’t wait to check out your next attempts!

Be careful with the cork entrance molding. I’ve tried something similar, and it always grows mold.

Uh,oh! Thanks for the tip. Maybe I’ll take it out once I brainstorm an easy alternative. Now that the tube is in use it’ll be a little tricky lol.

[dspdrew]

 

Wow I can't believe I didn't notice this journal until now. I should probably look at my own forum more often.

That is amazing you pulled it off. I don't think I have heard of anyone else doing it yet. I just looked at my old journal and it looks like I tried three different years and always failed. The furthest mine ever got was some eggs and possibly larvae.

I have been keeping a colony of S. xyloni just for this purpose, but I never found any S. amblychila queens this year. I haven't really found much of anything on my the black light in the hills the last few years for some reason. Your idea of just introducing the queen to a brand new S. xyloni colony seems like a good idea.

I'm going to have to try harder to get some more of these queens next season so I can give it another try.

Thanks for stopping by! I used your attempts as references actually

I mean, it is truly the queen who deserves the praise! I noticed she used trophallaxis to trick the workers. They instantly would start grooming her which looked scary at first until I realized what was happening.

I do believe the size of the colony may have been a factor? & maybe also introducing the queen to the original host colonies test tube instead of just brood boosting? But really who knows. Maybe I just got lucky

Can’t wait to check out your next attempts!

 

I really don't know. There's so many different factors and so few attempts by all of us.

[100lols]

November 25th, the queen is completely covered in workers this morning and the brood pile is looking good. Unfortunately, I’ve had some condensation build up in the tube. No harm to the ants though!

There has been more activity in the outworld that the test tubes are connected to. The girls seem to be taking in protein at a massive rate despite the time of the year. Truly a fire ant colony.

[ANTdrew]

What size are these workers, like a thief ant, or more like a fire ant?

[100lols]

They are pretty much typical fire ant size, tiny bit smaller. But definitely not thief ant small!!

My pictures are pretty bad because of the condensation. I’ll try and get a good size comparison picture next update!

[100lols]

December 25th, in classic fire ant fashion the colony is growing at a rapid unmanageable rate lol. The colony is so prolific it’s hard to give them sugar in a feeder. The brood pile looks about the same(edit it’s not the same lol, it huge now) but there is an obvious increase in number of workers. I find it interesting how fire ants tend to shred everything up. They definitely want to escape and murder my family, but I doubt they ever will in their cozy little setup. They also drink water at a really quick rate. I provide no direct heating aside from keeping my cabinet at around 80 F. I have been feeding superworms, crickets, fruit flies, and mealworms. I feed every 2-3 days. I’m already thinking about doing some culling to help slow things down….

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year cheers!

Edited by 100lols, December 25 2023 - 4:55 PM.

[AsdinAnts]

love this journal, merry christmas! 🎄

[BleepingBleepers]

Wow that's a whole lot of ants man! Very nice!!

 

Just hope they never escape though haha!

 

How are they doing now? Hope they're doing good.

[The_Gaming-gate]

We need an update!