15 replies to this topic

[TacticalHandleGaming]

Today I received a small colony of Solenopsis molesta from a local ant keeper that caught the queen in fall of 2023. Currently only at 3 workers. But I'm so excited to see them grow!

 

 

Edited by TacticalHandleGaming, February 16 2024 - 8:31 PM.

[Artisan_Ants]

I have quite a few too, queens and colonies. You might want to feed her a small drop of honey (it won’t affect her, since my colony’s are eating pretty big drops. which aren’t HUGE, but big enough for them to not drown). Feel free to ask any questions!

Edited by Artisan_Ants, February 17 2024 - 7:34 AM.

[TacticalHandleGaming]

I have quite a few too, queens and colonies. You might want to feed her a small drop of honey (it won’t affect her, since my colony’s are eating pretty big drops. which aren’t HUGE, but big enough for them to not drown). Feel free to ask any questions!

They got a gut loaded fruit fly yesterday, and I'm going to give them a tiny drop of honey tomorrow.

[Artisan_Ants]

I have quite a few too, queens and colonies. You might want to feed her a small drop of honey (it won’t affect her, since my colony’s are eating pretty big drops. which aren’t HUGE, but big enough for them to not drown). Feel free to ask any questions!

They got a gut loaded fruit fly yesterday, and I'm going to give them a tiny drop of honey tomorrow.

Sounds good to me.

[TacticalHandleGaming]

The Queen has laid a bunch of eggs, and is nice and fat. I did give them a dandelion seed to see if they would eat it. We'll see if they do or not. 

 

 

[Artisan_Ants]

They should eat it since all Myrmicaines are usually omnivores (which all ants are obviously, but I find that Myrmicaines eat seeds more often) but your colony is young, with workers and no majors, so I doubt they’ll even try picking at it.

[ANTdrew]

THG knows what he’s doing. He’s an experienced and successful keeper with many great journals.

[TacticalHandleGaming]

It's more of a test to see if they will eat a seed at this stage. While I am experienced with quite a few species, Solenopsis is a new one for me. So I appreciate the advice. I hope to grow this colony to rival some of my others in size.

[michiganantsinmyyard]

They should eat it since all Myrmicaines are usually omnivores (which all ants are obviously, but I find that Myrmicaines eat seeds more often) but your colony is
young, with workers and no majors, so I doubt they’ll even try picking at it.

I don’t think solenopsis molesta have majors, plus many ants are not omnivores. I think THG has plenty of knowledge with what he’s doing.

[TacticalHandleGaming]

While the dandelion seed seems untouched. The colony has been very happy to eat fruit flies, and even a cricket leg more recently. The brood pile is now noticeably larger.

 

[TacticalHandleGaming]

Very nice brood pile. I expect we will have new workers very soon. I'm keeping a close eye on the cotton in the test tube. I think I'll likely move this colony to a different tube soon.

 

[TacticalHandleGaming]

We got our 4th worker!

 

 

[Artisan_Ants]

Moving is super tricky especially with a small colony. The brood is a pain to move because it is obviously so small. For minimal stress, you might want to me them move on their own. I tried moving a young colony very recently (like 5 days ago) and lost quite a huge amount of the brood. There are still some in their new test tube, but they haven’t found it yet (I didn’t check on them after that, but they do have some new eggs. Anyways congrats on the 4th worker!

[TacticalHandleGaming]

So we had to do a bit of an emergency move when I got back from my vacation. The cotton got very bad and we lost 2 of our 4 workers. The good news is we bounced right back up to 5 workers after being put in a mini hearth.

 

[TacticalHandleGaming]

This colony is thriving in their mini hearth.

 

 

[GOCAMPONOTUS]

Looking good