3 replies to this topic

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

this has been like one of my first colonies that have produced alates and males   and It has been around 2-3 months since they have been caught from the little garden pot. I have seen some workers come and go but the egg laying rate has not been so high until one of the two queen ants that I have decided to go physogastric!    I have seen her lay eggs all over the place, even on workers! Which I sometimes freak out because I think they are mites because of how the eggs are only 3mm in diameter, I have a tiny outworld for them and they rarely go out in it because of how small they are making it hard for them to find their way back in (and sometimes they camp the whole night out until a worker comes and finds her)

 

I have been feeding them nonstop because I kept finding fruit flies in the house which even when I crush them they still find a way to walk into their doom (the brood pile lol). I have also feed them chia seeds and they love them, they have never accepted honey or any other sweet liquid I have offered them I feel like that considering they live underground they don't rely on sugars so much because of how there diet is mostly eggs and larva from other ants.

 

I have noticed that they workers would "execute" some males that they chose to and then move them to the garbage pile and then two days later they will start eating the male occasionally until they completely forgot about him 

 

before she was physogastric with a bunch of males and larva and a few pupa

 

Here one of the queens became physogastric and some of the males enclosed (don't worry about the flies because they just keep them there so they can eat them whenever they want)

[ColKurtz]

this has been like one of my first colonies that have produced alates and males   and It has been around 2-3 months since they have been caught from the little garden pot. I have seen some workers come and go but the egg laying rate has not been so high until one of the two queen ants that I have decided to go physogastric!    I have seen her lay eggs all over the place, even on workers! Which I sometimes freak out because I think they are mites because of how the eggs are only 3mm in diameter, I have a tiny outworld for them and they rarely go out in it because of how small they are making it hard for them to find their way back in (and sometimes they camp the whole night out until a worker comes and finds her)

 

I have been feeding them nonstop because I kept finding fruit flies in the house which even when I crush them they still find a way to walk into their doom (the brood pile lol). I have also feed them chia seeds and they love them, they have never accepted honey or any other sweet liquid I have offered them I feel like that considering they live underground they don't rely on sugars so much because of how there diet is mostly eggs and larva from other ants.

 

I have noticed that they workers would "execute" some males that they chose to and then move them to the garbage pile and then two days later they will start eating the male occasionally until they completely forgot about him 

 

before she was physogastric with a bunch of males and larva and a few pupa

IMG_1930.jpeg

 

Here one of the queens became physogastric and some of the males enclosed (don't worry about the flies because they just keep them there so they can eat them whenever they want)

IMG_1971.jpeg

If these were caught has queens, the males are most likely because one of the queens are infertile. Solenopsis molesta do not get males in colonies this small. However, it is possible that both queens are fertile, considering you caught them when they don't have their nuptial flights (They fly July-August). You could have caught some queens from a larger colony, with a few workers and brood at the surface, while most of the colony was probably underground. I've had an experience similar with my Camponotus chromaiodes colony, I caught them, she had brood, about 15 workers, and a few majors. Then a few weeks later went back to the same fallen tree and about the same location on the fallen tree  and found a large amount of brood, workers, and majors, that were most likely the same colony.

Edited by ColKurtz, August 1 2024 - 8:04 AM.

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

nope they were in a small l. niger colony in a small pot with no dirt around because it was on my porch and I moved them but then I found them in a little chunk of dirt and i was shuffling around the rest of the dirt and there was no other chambers with queens and brood I guess they just founded but I think ik where the males came from because there was an other S. molesta queen that I had and laid eggs but she died and I guess they were unfertile.

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

They live everywhere! I have a neighbour that put out ant traps and 2 days later a full blown colony with a bunch of brood and alates pop out of nowhere and this was 2 months ago and they are still going strong