173 replies to this topic

[Gregory2455]

As in either next month, or in less than 6 months.

[Alza]

how old are these again

[Tpro4]

Successful

[Gregory2455]

Alza these were caught this year. Veromessor pergandei make massive colonies.

[Alza]

i see 

[dspdrew]

Do you see the queen? I think this species is going to go into my big panel formicarium.

 

Yes, she's still pretty easy to spot.

 

 

how old are these again

 

 

All dates and information are included in the journal, so the colony would be seven months old.

[Alza]

seven months! what do you feed ?!?!?

[Gregory2455]

Messor pergandei make big colonies. The eat insects and seeds. Also, they obviously like Byformica formula, and sugar water.

In case you have not seen it for a third time, here is an image of a colony's mound that is not even mature.

[Alza]

i want to know specifically what dsp senpai feeds them

[Gregory2455]

Well, figure it out. In the pictures you can see insect remains, Byformica blue formula, and hummingbird nectar. Probably other stuff too but whatever.

[Alza]

that may not be all he feeds them. Also dsp how many queens did you catch of this species 

[Gregory2455]

This is his only colony, also it says at the beginning of the journal. read stuff instead of just pictures.

[Alza]

"On March 31st 2014, I found six Veromessor pergandei dealates". thanks reading works.

[Gregory2455]

Yes. Reading things would be ideal on forums such as this.  

[dspdrew]

Update 11-11-2014
 
Something unfortunate happened to the colony. I recently finished my second formicarium prototype, and moved this colony into it, but apparently something likely having to do with the formicarium seems to have killed about 100 of their workers.
 
I used a Fluon coated black light trap funnel to help get them all into the out world container of the formicarium.
 

 

 
 
After dumping out two of their test tubes, I left them for a while in the one main tube that contained the queen and most of the brood.
 

 

 

 
 
They immediately started exploring the nest.
 

 
 
I eventually dumped out the remaining test tube, and they moved right into the nest. This is where the trouble started. After about 24 hours went by, I started seeing dead workers in the out world. I also noticed a lot that were in the process of dying. Many workers would just sit there motionless until I touched them, then they would start moving around again. It seems that many of these would just eventually fall over and die. Up until now, I had never even seen one dead worker in their nest or out world before, so I knew something had to be wrong. I waited a bit longer, but this just continued. After probably around 80 or so workers died, I finally took the formicarium apart in a tub coated with Fluon, and dumped everything out. I put a fresh test tube in there too for them to moved back into.
 

 

 
 
I cleaned off and removed all the pieces of the formicarium.
 

 
 
Within an hour, they moved the queen and all the brood back into the test tube. I removed all the dead workers, and left them like this to continue to observe them.
 
Later that night I found about 20 to 30 more dead workers. The next morning, it looked like nothing had really changed since the night before. When I got home from work that day, I only saw the same 20 or so workers piled in the corner of the tub, so it looked as though the deaths had stopped. I strongly suspect this was caused by the Plasti Dip I used to coat the Ytong, as it still had a very strong odor, so it was most likely not cured, and probably harmful to the ants. Everything else used in this formicarium, are regular materials used before by many people, including myself.
 
From now on, I will test anything new with only a few of the ants to make sure this does not happen again. Once I find out exactly what was causing the problem, and/or get this fixed, I will move them back into the formicarium.

[dermy]

That sucks, that formicarium looked like it would be cool to see active with all those ants. Especially considering the amount of time and effort you had put into it!

[dean_k]

It's good that the queen did not die. As long as she lives, the colony will continue on.

 

I really like that nest design.

[dspdrew]

Thanks. I just need to find out exactly what chemical killed them, and where it is exactly. I think I most likely already have that answer.

[123LordOfAnts123]

Interesting that you seem to be having issues with plasti-dip...I've used it almost a dozen times now to coat the exposed areas of firebrick blocks without consequence. Many instances I forced the ants to move with less than a day of cure time, while a strong odor still lingered, no problem.

Edited by 123Lord Of Ants123, November 11 2014 - 4:03 PM.

[Gregory2455]

Maybe it is just this species that cannot take it.