5 replies to this topic

[Novomessor]

Hello, I'm new here. I created an account to chronicle this journey with my first ant colony (Novomessor Cockerelli). 

 

Initial Observations

 

1. These ants love mealworms.  They eat about 3 to 4 per week.  It’s not necessary to cut it up.  Mealworm guts tend to stain the sand, causing a mess. They prefer their food still moving.  If I smash the tip of the mealworm head with needle nose pliers it will continue moving for quite some time and also provide a place for the ants to grab the mealworm.

 

2.  They show no interest in seeds, grapes, or strawberries. 

 

3.  They readily take sugar water and apple slices. 

 

4.  They like it heated 24/7.

 

5.  Not the best climbers.  They can easily be knocked off the walls with forceps during cleaning if there’s not too many of them in the outworld.

 

Summary of pictures - Pictures are attached in chronological order.  The title of each picture is the date it was taken. If you scroll over the picture with your mouse cursor the title (i.e., date taken) should appear. 

 

10/21/24.  Today is move-in day.   Colony size is 9 workers, queen, and brood.  The queen was last to leave the glass tube and enter the formicarium. 

 

10/29/24. Queen carrying eggs.  The eggs all clump together.

 

11/3/24.  I added a sugar water feeder to the outworld last night.  I woke up to find that the ants plugged the drinking slots with trash causing all the water to leak out. (Picture 1.) They like to hold their eggs upside down, from the ceiling.  (Picture 2.) These ants also like to stack the brood into three different piles based on development: eggs (top right), larvae (water tower), and pupae (left).  (Picture 3.)

 

11/4/24.  There are about 11 pupae that will be ready to go within a week.

 

11/19/24.  Colony size is up to about 25 workers now. There are only 2 pupae now, several larvae, and a growing clump of eggs.  The younger workers tend to be the ones holding the eggs.  They really like to hold the eggs upside down while clinging to the ceiling.

 

11/20/24.  Half the colony investigating the daily food drop. They are much less shy about investigating the outworld now that their numbers have grown.

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Edited by Novomessor, November 21 2024 - 11:24 PM.

[Novomessor]

Update 11/24/2024. 

 

1. Flooding.  I have a Tar Heel Ants (THA) formicarium.  I don't think the THA water tower is level. I can see the water level is below full.  Even though the water level is below the top (when viewed from the front), it is flooding in the back.  By flooding, I mean I can see the walls changing color from absorbing the water.  This is the second time I did this, so I didn't learn from last time.  I have to make a note, do not fill the water tower more than 2/3 full.

 

2. Lets talk about brood.  My last two pupae hatched, so I'm up to about 27 workers now.  I'm also down to 0 pupae, 4 large larvae, and a cluster of eggs.  I've been monitoring the egg cluster and it doesn't seem like it changed much since 11/3/24; that is, in the last three weeks. From 11/3/24 to 11/13/24, the cluster grew a tad larger.  But from 11/13/24 to 11/24/24, the egg cluster seems unchanged (see pictures). 

 

Summary of pictures. 

 

Picture 1. Egg cluster as of 11/3/24. 

 

Picture 2. Egg cluster as of 11/13/24 (grew slightly). 

 

Picture 3. Egg cluster as of 11/24/24 (unchanged from 11/13/24).  Note: picture quality is poor due to excess moisture on the wall from the flooding (see update # 1., above). 

 

Picture 4.  Newly hatched pupae next to the remaining larvae.  

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Edited by Novomessor, November 24 2024 - 10:05 PM.

[ANTdrew]

Be careful for mites if you are feeding live insects. Commercially raised feeder insects are often teeming with grain mites. To prevent mite infestations in your set ups, I highly recommend dipping all feeder insects in boiling water for 3 seconds. Note that freezing is not enough to kill mite eggs. 

Edited by ANTdrew, November 25 2024 - 5:37 AM.

[Novomessor]

Thanks, I’m breeding the mealworms.  I first started doing it for other pets and it's pretty easy to maintain so I figured I'd keep a small batch for the ants. The mealworms are kept indoors.  I flatten the head with pliers and drop one in every other day. Even without the head it still wriggles for a good 20 minutes or longer. These ants really seem to prefer the "live" ones (or at least the muscle memory movements from these mealworms).  I also drop freshly deceased non-moving mealworms into their food bowl that I find when I do a daily check/sort of the mealworm bin.  By fresh I mean that if they’ve already changed color, I toss them with the old fruit.  The ants have much less interest in non-moving mealworms. It hadn’t occurred to me to boil the mealworms. I don’t feed them any indoor or outdoor-caught bugs.

 

Update 12/1/24

 

The queen laid another cluster of eggs since the last update, and some of the eggs finally hatched into tiny larvae.  The workers removed the newly hatched larvae and created a second tiny larvae pile on top of the water tower.  The original larvae pile on the other side of the formicarium was down to 1 large larvae (as of 11/27/24), and that girl grew into a pupae by the next time I checked (on 12/1/24) and joined the pupae pile.   

                                                

I observed a worker remove a tiny egg from the larger egg cluster and walk away with it.  I was incidentally taking photos and snapped one of her removing it from the larger egg cluster (picture 1, red arrow).  She carried it to the other side of the formicarium where the queen and pupae are located, and then I lost track of her.

 

Summary of pictures

 

Picture 1 (11/27/24).  Worker removing a tiny egg from the larger egg cluster.  She walked off with it and I didn’t see her return it. The worker on the right is holding a second smaller egg cluster.  

 

Picture 2 (11/27/24).  Closeup of the two egg clusters.  The ants are holding both egg clusters while clinging to the ceiling upside down.

 

Picture 3 (11/27/24).   Current status of the brood:  (1) three pupae; (2) one larvae; (3) two egg clusters (see pictures 1 and 2).  The worker count is unchanged since the last update (approximately 27 workers).

 

Picture 4 (12/1/24).   Pupae pile grew; colony is up to 4 pupae. 

 

Picture 5 (12/1/24).   The larvae pile also grew.  There appear to be about 7 to 10 tiny larvae now (right), and a large cluster of tiny eggs (left, in front of queen). 

 

Picture 6 (12/1/24).  Better view of the recently hatched larvae pile.

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Edited by Novomessor, December 2 2024 - 12:58 AM.

[ANTdrew]

You still need to look out for grain mites. All the mealworm cultures I've raised at home eventually got grain mites in them. I flash boil all insects before feeding, even ones I raise myself. It's just not worth the risk of getting a disgusting grain mite infestation. 

[Novomessor]

Thanks! 

 

Update 12/8/24.

 

There was a significant amount of larval growth in the last week.  In addition, three of the four pupae emerged so I’m up to approximately 30 workers.  Here is a quick recap of the pupae growth: 

• 11/24: 0 pupae.
• 11/27: 3 pupae.
• 12/1: 4 pupae.
• 12/8: last pupa.  I watched one emerge today.  A worker helped her hatch and was picking at her.

Based on prior observations, the pupae are hatching in under 14 days. Also, it looks like I have some larvae ready to move to the pupae stage soon.  Based on the amount of larval development (in terms of sheer growth in size) over that same time period, it seems the slowest stage is the egg stage. I’d give a rough estimate as: egg (4 weeks); larvae (over 2 weeks); pupae (under 2 weeks).  And total life cycle time (egg to worker) of approximately 6 weeks.

 

Summary of pictures.

 

Picture 1 (12/8/24).  Brood development.  The larvae grew significantly in size since the last update.  Three out of four pupae also emerged since the last update, including one today.  That leaves just one pupa in the brood pile.

 

Picture 2 (12/8/24).  There is also an egg cluster in the back, next to the last remaining pupa. 

 

Picture 3 (12/8/24).  Newest addition is drinking sugar water. The youngest workers are about 40 to 50 percent larger than the first generation of workers.

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Edited by Novomessor, December 8 2024 - 11:35 PM.