28 replies to this topic

[evanmancini2011]

9/27 really nothing much today!

Edited by evanmancini2011, September 27 2024 - 7:17 PM.

[ANTdrew]

There is no need to update then.

[rptraut]

Hello Evanmancini2011;

How are you coming with the mites? I miss your updates.
RPT

[evanmancini2011]

Hello, long time since I have last posted on this journal. So far all of my ant colony's are still in hibernation and I will probably take them out in the beginning of February. Sadly when I checked on my pavement ants lots of the workers have died. I am guessing this is because at the start of hibernation I let them get to cold. But each of them still have 1-20 workers. Because of so many workers dying I will most likely take them out of the tubs and tubes setup and just keep them in their test tubes for know. Today I fed them a few drops of honey which they loved. I really hope the number of workers come back. I want them to grow to be a huge ant colony. I was wondering if anyone knows if this colony likes fruit flies or seeds?

 

The crematogaster colony is well and still in hibernation. Today I cleaned their outworld while I still can before they came out of hibernation. I have no idea if they still have mites but my guess is there not parasitic mites because none of the queens have died. My guess is this colony has 100 workers. This is by far the biggest colony I have ever owned. But I still want them to grow to as big as they can be. 

 

Lastly the harvester ant queen died. This is very sad to me because I wanted this queen to do well. I hope I can catch another queen this summer!

 

My goals for this ant season is to grow my pavement ant colony to the hundreds and maybe even grow the crematogaster colony to the thousands. This season I will start feeding the pavement ants every other day and try to feed the crematogaster colony every day so I can reach these numbers. I also want to move all my pavement ant colony's and my crematogaster ants into a proper nest this ant season! And I hope this year I can start growing a carpenter ant colony and catch many other queen ants!

 

Thank you so much for reading my journal. I will definitely start posting here more often!

Edited by evanmancini2011, January 20 2025 - 1:49 PM.

[evanmancini2011]

Today I did some research on how to breed crickets because I think they will be the best for my ant colony's. I will also start to learn how to breed small meal worms so my colony's can have a variety of food choices. If anyone has any tips on breeding crickets or meal worms for your ants please let me know!

 

Thanks to rptraut, I will make a few small feeding out world's for my pavement ants when they are out of hibernation. 

Here are a few pictures of the process so far. Soon I will poor some grout at the bottom once it gets a little warmer.  

 

 

 

 

Thank you for reading this journal!

[ANTdrew]

I don’t recommend breeding crickets. Just buy a bunch at the pet store or order online, then freeze them. Mealworms are super easy to breed. Just get a big plastic Tupperware and fill it with wheat bran. Dump a bunch of mealworms in and give them a few carrot slices every couple of days. They will multiply rapidly.

[evanmancini2011]

This weekend, I officially ended the hibernation period for all of my ants! Surprisingly, it went very smooth for my first time, being that I never hibernated ants before. A few workers from my Crematogaster and Pavement ant colonies didn't make it through unfortunately, but the hibernation went really well overall.

The first thing I did after they woke up was clean their outworlds and test tubes really well before they woke up. This took a little while, but I'm glad I did it! After that, I updated the old test tube for my Crematogaster colony by attaching a new one to their portal so they would have fresh water available. Finally, I prepared a heating cable for the ants which to slowly raise the temperature and help them ease back into their normal level of activity. 

 

Here are some pictures: 

 

I fed this Pavement ant colony a small piece of cricket, and it's been a huge success. This colony has proven to be the most thriving and successful one I've had so far!

This colony is my second most successful, though unfortunately, I've noticed mold on the cotton. Thankfully, I don't believe it's affecting the ants, which is a relief. I also gave them a piece of cricket to eat, and they seemed to enjoy it.

Unfortunately, this colony lost the most workers during hibernation, but I'm hopeful that their numbers will begin to recover soon. I fed them a small cricket leg, and they absolutely loved it.

Here are some photos of my Crematogaster ant colony.

Here is a little worker waving its antenna out!

Here is the first worker exploring outside of the test tube! 

For some reason I have no idea why they are still so cramped together and on why they are not leaving the test tube that much after a day I took them out of hibernation.

If anyone knows why this is happening please tell.

 

Thank You for reading this journal!

 

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

I think it is because they don’t feel that they got a sufficient hibernation, or they are just warming back up from a long hibernation, my Formica was like that too when I took them out, they were very sluggish until I fed them some raw honey.

 

My Crematogaster have been going all winter and they still are very active.

[rptraut]

Hello evanmancini2011;

I’ve found some of my ants go into a much deeper “sleep” than others during diapause. My Tetramorium colonies don’t really sleep at all and activate right away when taken out of winter storage, but my Camponotus colonies can take up to a week to really wake up.
RPT