34 replies to this topic

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

Alright, so I am not starting up this journal (kind of am...) , instead I am asking a question, so I checked up on the colony, all of the workers are still alive and healthy but I have noticed that they are running out of food, the main "replete" that they depend on food for (the major worker that gave to them from brood boosting) almost has no more food, the other workers don't have food either to share with the rest of the colony, so that is my question, do I take them out of hibernation (Jan 11th) ? Or do I leave them, they have been in hibernation since November 11th, or do I feed them? It will be hard to because they have no outworld

[ANTdrew]

Hibernating Formica only need water, not food.

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

Hibernating Formica only need water, not food.

Alright, thanks for the continuous advice AntDrew! 

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

​Update?

 

So here is an update about my Formica and here is where I begin… *sigh* they laid an egg… My experience with them so far is that they completely ignore the seasons like regular Formica and lay eggs wherever the flipping fish they want.

They are really healthy right now and the nanitics are not dying off yet. I also found out that they love ground beef from tacos.

I also named the queen Adriana and I found out that she is not that jumpy anymore, here’s some pics:

The queen, Adriana

One of the workers carrying ground beef (they keep running around so I cannot get a pic of them eating it)

One of da eggs

 

That’s it for that update, please feel free to comment about da egg and how it is too early to take them out (my fault)     
 

Also, does anyone have any idea why they laid….?

Edited by OwlThatLikesAnts, February 2 2025 - 3:28 PM.

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

​Update:

So the Formica have been doing very good, they ate all of the ground beef and by doing that, they laid a lot of eggs and they now have a decent sized brood pile, about 20 eggs and small larva. Because I saw the small larva, I decided to feed them again and this time I gave them some pork fat, and they are really enjoying it right now. The queen is still a hulking monstrosity, she was the bigger queen of the pair, about 11mm but now I expect she grew an extra 1-2 mm! Talk about huge! I bet that she is cooking up a bunch of eggs in there because ever since she grew that big, she has been pumping out eggs at an astonishing rate (at least for a Formica) That is it for this update, I still can’t understand why they are laying eggs in February, normally Formica has very strict egg laying schedules beginning in spring and ending around end of summer, has anyone else seen this before?

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

​Small photo update:

The brood pile grew a bit so I decided to take photos of them

 

Right now they are just eating the piece of pork fat and the worker that is carrying the eggs can barely move because there is so many of them and it keeps getting stuck around other workers and pieces of substrate. Now I know what the second year population boom is because this is my first time raising a colony to their second year. I also have not kept them in any darkness and they are completely fine

Edited by OwlThatLikesAnts, February 18 2025 - 5:36 PM.

[ANTdrew]

My old Formica subsericea used to always lay lots of eggs right after I started heating them in February, so what you’re seeing is not unusual at all. If you wake them up early, though, the queen will tend to stop laying early, so you won’t have a huge population boom.

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

My old Formica subsericea used to always lay lots of eggs right after I started heating them in February, so what you’re seeing is not unusual at all. If you wake them up early, though, the queen will tend to stop laying early, so you won’t have a huge population boom.

Alright, now I know, thanks AntDrew! (I mean one time this specific colony laid eggs in September and they grew to workers, so I guess only time will tell)

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

​Small Update:

Man their brood pile is really starting to take off  . They have a mixture of eggs, newly hatched larva and some small larva. I expect their brood pile to be in the 25-30 zone and other than that they are doing very good.

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

​Photo Update:

I know it has only a couple hours since I’ve updated but I just peeked into my Formica’s nest and I was like “WHAT IN THE FLIPPING FLAPPY IS THAT” It turns out that my Formica have hunted, captured, and killed something that somehow got into the nest, the nest it completely sealed off and nothing can get in or out, but sometimes when I am feeding my ants I like to leave the outworld open because for now they are good behaving ants and they do not want to escape.

​

 

Now that I am looking in their nest, it seems that they have seized a silver fish of some sort but they have definitely ripped it to shreds and I can’t find any body parts.

 

 

This is a photo of last week when they decided to give me a good shot of their brood pile, they really like to lay eggs when they have an abundance of proteins and nice living conditions, I have also began to notice that whenever I change the cotton in their humidifier/water feeder in their nest, they like to rip most of it to shreds and keep just enough so that they can drink from the humidifier.

 

 

This is a photo of them right now, the brood pile hasn’t grown too much and you can also see the “silverfish” in this photo, they really seem to be proud like a bunch of hunters that just took down a giant bear, they also seem to really enjoy eating the silverfish itself

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

​Small photo update:

the photos says it all, the colony has done some massive growth during the 2 and a half weeks since I have posted an update, from tiny newborn larva to large sized larvae in a couple weeks, it is really astounding how fast these ants can grow for how big they are, especially if they have a constant source of protein. I feed them meat and it really lasts them a long time, they even eat it when it is dry. Sometimes I think of them as “fast growing one sized carpenter ants”

 

​this photo is them showcasing their largest larvae 

 

 

Moments later, they moved out their large larva and placed the smaller larva ball to get their pictures taken   

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

Small Update:

First pupa of the season!!!     

It looks pretty small, close to nanitic size but just a bit bigger, seems to me that they are going for the quantity and not quality approach. I also see a small pile of larva that are soon to become pupa, so right now this colony is doing really well.

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

Brief update:

they now have 3 pupa, one naked and 2 with cocoons

Edited by OwlThatLikesAnts, March 10 2025 - 8:40 AM.

[OiledOlives]

Just a quick note -- these are not F. subsericea. The pubescence is too dilute on the second tergite (and likely 3-4, but it's unclear). Something like F. subaenescens is more likely (not an ID, fusca-group in these speciose areas need further magnification to confirm).

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

Just a quick note -- these are not F. subsericea. The pubescence is too dilute on the second tergite (and likely 3-4, but it's unclear). Something like F. subaenescens is more likely (not an ID, fusca-group in these speciose areas need further magnification to confirm).

If one of the workers die, I will try to get more magnified shots, just saying there used to be 2 queens and some of the workers are brood boosted (the bigger ones)

Edited by OwlThatLikesAnts, March 10 2025 - 6:46 PM.