17 replies to this topic

[AsdinAnts]

6/14/24

 

I received these queens on monday, I bought these queens from bmb1ee. Each of these 5 queens arrived in perfect condition, they all had a huge amount of eggs with some small larvae. (thanks bmb)

 

I’m kind of scared to keep these though, since I heard that they get to devastating numbers..

 

upon arrival, I fed each of these queens a drop of hummingbird nectar. They drank it, but they were very hesitant at first 

The larvae have grown much more during these 4 days that I have kept them, can’t wait for their nanitics! 

 

Each queen has more developed larvae then the queen pictured (I took a picture of the queen that had the least amount of larvae and eggs, as to not stress the more successful ones.)

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[Stubyvast]

Yah I've raised these colonies before. They grow super fast! Workers take about two weeks to fully develop, but their nanitics are Sooo small. But yes, they do grow pretty fast. However, they're small enough that a pretty decent sized formicarium will hold them easily for a year or maybe even two. And another awesome thing about this species is that they can eat pretty much anything. They're generalists, so you can even feed them your leftovers from dinner if you really want to. 

Enjoy keeping them! They're a fun species to try out.

[AsdinAnts]

thanks!

[AsdinAnts]

They all got pupae a week back, and now the pupae are starting to gain color.
One is really starting to get dark, so hopefully it encloses soon !

[GOCAMPONOTUS]

Yours are growing faster than mine, they still have larvae. keep it up!

[AsdinAnts]

The temperature in my room gets pretty cozy, so that’s probably why lol, also one of my queens got their first nanitics!
I checked in on them this morning, and I saw a very cute, very tiny little worker. I’ll take pictures once I get back home.

thank you!

[GOCAMPONOTUS]

Good job!

[AsdinAnts]

All of the queens have gotten their second stage of workers, they are all doing very nicely. I feed them regularly, and I also gave one of the colonies an outworld covered in sand to see what they would think of it.

[AsdinAnts]

Here are some pictures!

The first two pictures are of my best colony, and the last one is the slowest growing of them all.

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[Zzz]

Very cool!

[AsdinAnts]

yea, i fed each of them pogonomyrmex queens around a week ago, and their larvae looked very nice fat.

[AsdinAnts]

so, there are still 4 colonies left. All of them are doing pretty good.

In the picture it shows some of the brood, queen, and workers. When I was trying to take a picture of them, the workers scattered taking a lot of brood to a darker corner of their nest.

I decided to move them out of the test tube for better visibility, and because it was starting to lose most of its water.

I have been feeding these girls a lot, I fed each of the colonies a cricket, and they left holes in its body. That just goes to show how ravenous these ants are, even at a youngish stage like this colony. I’m thinking about moving the other colonies to tubs and tubes setups, it would be much more easier to feed them and so I won’t have escapees every time I open their test tube.

The queens has been pumping out a bunch of eggs, and they also have a tonne of larvae. You can see the protein inside of the larvae, its kind of gross but cute at the same time..

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[GOCAMPONOTUS]

Love it! my biggest colony hollowed out the cricket I gave them and put their brood in it.

Edited by GOCAMPONOTUS, July 24 2024 - 8:55 AM.

[AsdinAnts]

that’s what they did to the cricket I gave them, lol

[NotAxo]

I have an even bigger problem. My C. Parius colony (12W) eats crickets twice the size of the queen every 2 days. Their giant pile of at least 24 eggs were hatched today. They moved the cricket completely into the test tube. It was a pile of dust, except the head and legs...


How am I supposed to clean that mess...

Edited by NotAxo, July 25 2024 - 8:27 AM.

[Artisan_Ants]

I have an even bigger problem. My C. Parius colony (12W) eats crickets twice the size of the queen every 2 days. Their giant pile of at least 24 eggs were hatched today. They moved the cricket completely into the test tube. It was a pile of dust, except the head and legs...
How am I supposed to clean that mess...

That’s pretty crazy for 12 workers. A pile of dust? I’ve fed mealworms to my C. chromaiodes colony (they are like 30 - 40 workers now) and they shredded it to an exoskeleton in like a day, but I’ve never heard of Camponotus being able just to create insects into dust. Your C. parius were either hungry or they are just naturally notorious lmao.

[GOCAMPONOTUS]

I have an even bigger problem. My C. Parius colony (12W) eats crickets twice the size of the queen every 2 days. Their giant pile of at least 24 eggs were hatched today. They moved the cricket completely into the test tube. It was a pile of dust, except the head and legs...


How am I supposed to clean that mess...

I've only heard of that in solenopsis

[RushmoreAnts]

Nice man, up here these invasive [censored] had the audacity to fly on the 4th of July. I got 5 colonies with pupae now. Good luck!