23 replies to this topic

[Ants_Dakota]

Awesome journal! As a question though, what are some of the tetras doing in the PVA watering section of the nest? How did they get there?

[RushmoreAnts]

Awesome journal! As a question though, what are some of the tetras doing in the PVA watering section of the nest? How did they get there?

The nest is in the outworld, there is nothing restricting them from climbing in the watering hole.

[Ants_Dakota]

 

Awesome journal! As a question though, what are some of the tetras doing in the PVA watering section of the nest? How did they get there?

The nest is in the outworld, there is nothing restricting them from climbing in the watering hole.

 

Ahh makes sense. We will fix that soon.

[RushmoreAnts]

Update 7

October 26, 2024

 

Thriving as always, these colonies were due for a long-needed change. Last update you were introduced to phase 1, aka STORM's new nest. The weekend after, Ants_Dakota and I crafted outworlds for all three colonies, my Pogonomyrmex colonies, Pheidole colony, and Ants_Dakota's colonies. Colony B and D's test tubes were also becoming filthier than a sketchy gas station bathroom, the face of their cotton consumed with the darkness of mold. I moved them into new test tubes as well, which they took nicely to. All three colonies love their new outworlds, as I'm sure your colonies wi- wait, your colonies? Haha, I clearly meant the rest of my colonies... yeah. Why would I even say, "your colonies"? I mean, it's not like we would ever, I don't know, (THIS CLASSIFIED INFORMATION HAS BEEN CENSORED BY WILDERNESS ANTING, LLC. TO BE DISCLOSED AT A LATER DATE), wouldn't that be something? Anyways, moving on...

 

STORM

Unfortunately, when I first brought the Tetras inside, I did not have enough heating mats to go around. Seeing as STORM was the largest colony, I decided to yield their spot to Colony B and Colony D to help them catch up. STORM got a little overwhelmed by the cold front and immediately began preparing for hibernation; their quick eagerness surprised me, as from all of the research I've done, Tetras do not need to hibernate. Now that they've been on heat for a week, they awoke once more and are eating normally again. The outworld is not heated, which is not ideal, as their foraging is rather sluggish, but it stills works out.

 

Worker count is somewhere between 200-250. They lost a couple dozen workers, as when the nest was in their old pencil case outworld, some workers had the brilliant idea to nest in the hydration sponge chambers, which are not connected to the rest of the nest and are accessible from syringe holes at the top. I was able to recover a few of them, but most of them made an escape once the nest was out on my desk. Brood count is still insane, with just as many large larvae and pupae as workers. I spotted another gargantuan egg cluster while filming them today, signifying their impending rapid recovery.

 

 

They got the big outworld. I'm quite proud of how it turned out, and I was able to experiment with a new beach sand substrate Ants_Dakota came upon and combined it with my Vermiculate to create a double biome outworld, one a fertile forest floor and the other a sandy beachhead, complete with shells, driftwood and seagull prints. They are divided by an impressive quartz mountain straddling both biomes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Colony B

It didn't take much. Just one week, that's it. One week of extra heat. They were so close. That's right, this colony came close to beating out STORM, as their worker count careens towards the 200-mark. Fortunately for STORM, they have a noticeably larger brood pile, though B still isn't far behind. As with their old test tube, they distribute themselves relatively evenly throughout the tube, as the heat allows for the entire test tube to be humid to some degree.

 

 

 

Colony D

Like a spiteful sibling, Colony D just does the opposite of whatever B does. They clump all of their brood against the cotton to maximize humidity. Of the three, their colony has the fastest, most aggressive response to being checked on, with even the slightest vibrations sending them spilling into the outworld in droves. They know exactly when they're going to be checked on, and can anticipate it from a combination of vibrations, change in light, and my movement/shadow. It's gotten to the point where they will flip out before I even open the outworld.

 

Curiously, this colony has displayed signs of preparing for hibernation as well, with their brood/worker clump becoming even denser than usual, and activity slowing down, despite being on heat. Then the next day they confound me by acting completely normal and eating ravenously again, despite no change in heat. I will observe their behavior over the next couple weeks and make a judgement of whether I should hibernate them. Seeing as South Dakota is a great deal colder than much of their other conquered American territories and European homelands, it could be speculated that the local populations adapted to hibernate much more readily to deal with the rapid, violent temperature shifts. Even if this is true, I am still unsure if they need to hibernate, and as I said I will observe their behavior and report back.

 

Sitting at between 150-200 workers, the colony has the smallest brood pile of the three, though it is still quite substantial with over 100 large larvae and pupae.

 

I present to you: the blob. Due to their stratified formation, the queen is buried somewhere beneath all of that brood.

 

Just another day in paradise...

 

 

This is where the outworlds dwell when I'm not photographing them. A few Myrmica colonies to the left photobombed the shot.

Edited by RushmoreAnts, October 26 2024 - 8:43 PM.