48 replies to this topic

[BrittonLS]

Captured May 27, 2015

Suburban Neighborhood,

Tarrant County, Texas

 

My first ants!

 

Been raining a lot here (in Texas) and on the advice of dspdrew, I check outside in my pool to note that it had in fact collected several drowning Solenopsis alates, so decided to hunt for some. I grabbed two out of my pool, but not knowing how the chlorinated water might affect them decided not to simply collect all of them out of it. Walking around on the sidewalk in my neighborhood I caught a total of 11 more queens for a total of 13.

 

I'm currently keeping them in the pill bottles I captured them in, not having my test tubes in the mail yet. Just hoping they don't suffocate till they get here, hopefully earlier than later tomorrow.

 

I'd like to try a couple different setups for them just to see how they do and since I have a good amount of them and it shouldn't be too hard to get more unless all of a sudden Texas decides that it's had enough rain.

 

I'll probably do these setups:

Standard test tube

Test tube with substrate

'Something else'

Open to suggestions

 

Anyhow, here's a couple pictures

Attempt to demonstrate size. They're all about 7mm give or take.

Edited by BrittonLS, September 27 2015 - 9:33 AM.

[Bardusquus]

Neat.

[Myrmicinae]

I'll probably do these setups:

Standard test tube

Test tube with substrate

'Something else'

Open to suggestions

 

I would recommend moving some queens into a small petri dish with a moist plaster floor.  Drill (or melt) a small hole in one of the sides and place it in a larger container, so that the first workers will be able to forage.  This setup has worked quite well for me across multiple species.  The only major downside is that the plaster will need to be occasionally watered with a syringe.

 

As the colony grows, you can simply add more petri dishes.  If you would prefer for them to move into a formicarium, you can remove the petri dish lid, causing them to evacuate immediately.    

Edited by Myrmicinae, May 28 2015 - 9:01 PM.

[drtrmiller]

The only major downside is that the plaster will need to be occasionally watered with a syringe.

 

 

I have a solution for this.  More details revealed soon.

[dspdrew]

 

The only major downside is that the plaster will need to be occasionally watered with a syringe.

 

 

I have a solution for this.  More details revealed soon.

 

 

Uh yeah. I've had, and been using one for a long time.

[BrittonLS]

 

The only major downside is that the plaster will need to be occasionally watered with a syringe.

 

 

I have a solution for this.  More details revealed soon.

 

Terry and his top secret products.

[BrittonLS]

Everyone is now in their test tubes and in a cardboard box in the garage on top of the freezer. My test tubes had a a good bit of air bubble in them though, so I don't know, that'll probably kill all of them somehow.

[Bardusquus]

Everyone is now in their test tubes and in a cardboard box in the garage on top of the freezer. My test tubes had a a good bit of air bubble in them though, so I don't know, that'll probably kill all of them somehow.

How does a airbubble kill ants

[BrittonLS]

Checked on my ants today, at least three of them had a noticeable pile of eggs, some others potentially had some as well but I couldn't be sure. Terry said it shouldn't matter whether they're in the dark or not and prefers to keep them in the light so they don't freak out when you check on them as much so I've decided to keep them near my desk in an open box now sitting on top of my modem and router for heat. Hopefully neither of those actually overheats because of that... >.>

 

Only one death so far, but one or two seemed to have eggs scattered all over the tube which I've been told in an indication of a bad queen, so we'll see after another little bit on them.

The two with substrate in their tube have dug themselves cozy little enclosures, but... I can't really see if they're laying eggs or not without handling the tube a lot, which I didn't want to do, so we'll see what they do.

 

I will probably consider getting a heating cable soon or a heat lamp, depending.

 

 

The count is currently 18 living S. invicta queens.

Edited by BrittonLS, June 3 2015 - 10:00 AM.

[Alexant]

It is a shame about their invasive nature. They are very attractive ants.

[BrittonLS]

Yeah, the queens have a lovely color and pattern.

[Jonathan21700]

Yes, I find them very beautiful too.

[BrittonLS]

6/11/15

 

Went out of town for a bit, a couple of them have a little black around the cotton balls, but they all look good. At least 5 tubes have eggs, including the one with two queens. I checked one or two other, but didn't want to upset them by turning over their tubes and looking. They all have pretty good sized clutches as well so I think the others either are unfertilized or too freaked out in their tubes. I tend to see them on the dry cotton more often than not.

 

This one has maybe about 60 eggs? She was super chill too. Didn't seem too bothered by being picked up or the light of my microscope. Or when I accidentally bumped the test tube while positioning my camera and sending her rolling across the desk...

 

[Bardusquus]

Nice queen. Looks like. S.xyloni though

[BrittonLS]

She could be, it wouldn't surprise me lol

 

I'd been wondering actually. But I think perhaps I have some of both.

Edited by BrittonLS, June 12 2015 - 8:03 AM.

[Bardusquus]

She could be, it wouldn't surprise me lol

 

I'd been wondering actually. But I think perhaps I have some of both.

On closer inspection she is indeed S.invicta.

[BrittonLS]

Minor update, I noticed that the four ants that were doing the best were actually in the shadow of the light in my room, so weren't directly in light, but the others were, so I put a single piece of paper over them to see if it helps while keeping them in the ambient light.

[BrittonLS]

The one I took pictures of previously continues to do spectacularly as seen here. She's got... pupae? Larva? I'm not exactly sure which is which >.> But she has them! The other ones still seem to be in the egg stage still and a few more have laid eggs. I just now actually put the heating cable under the test tubes that I've had for like a week, so hopefully that encourages them a bit. I think the couple with mold I need to move because it's definitely continuing to grow and I think some of the cotton balls with bigger air bubbles are looking a little too dry. I might just try to escalate them on the back end though so the bubble stays off the cotton. 

 

 

Also... so it turns out I have one less S.invicta queen than I thought... I uh... I looked a little more closely and realized...

Oh my gosh, you are not an S.invicta, what the crap. So just because you pick up 18 queens of the same type at the same time, don't assume they're all actually the same type I guess! I'm still waiting for someone to tell me they aren't even ants and I'm just out of my mind this whole time.

[Ants4fun]

Looks like Pheidole.

[BrittonLS]

My star queen continues to shine! Lookit these little guys. She started sorting them out when I was looking, which was neat.

Haven't seen larva in any of the others, but a few of them have pretty grand clutches of eggs, hopefully they start turning into larva or I might have to see if they're just laying a giant buffet for themselves. 

 

Wait, hold the phone folks. It looks like the double queen tube has actually pulled way ahead into the lead! Some of the brood are already bringing on colorization. I'm going to have to figure out what to do with these guys, since one still has her wings, there's a chance she might not actually be fertile. Then again, she might just like her wings.

 

It seems like it'd be obvious that they're ahead because there's two, but also, this is the first time I so much as touched they're tube to take a picture, so that honestly might have been the biggest difference. As well perhaps having two of them has just made cleaning and caring for the eggs easier and more effective.

 

What a good couple of parents they make though, I got to watch them cleaning and moving them around, which I haven't actually caught my former-first-place queen doing.