173 replies to this topic

[dermy]

Man it's just a sea of ants in that thing!

[Foogoo]

You've got to be kidding me! This is the same queen from 2014?

[LC3]

The real question is. How did you manage to even come up with a rough estimate count.

[dspdrew]

You've got to be kidding me! This is the same queen from 2014?

 

Yes. They're just a little over two years old.

 

 

The real question is. How did you manage to even come up with a rough estimate count.

 

Sample amounts are part of the technique. I do it a few times, and come out with close to the same estimate each time. I've confirmed my estimates before too on smaller colonies, so I know I'm fairly accurate. I would probably be good at one of those "guess how many peanut M&Ms are in the jar" games. I even drop the amount by a percentage too just to make sure there's a better chance that I'm under rather than over.

[dspdrew]

Update 4-23-2016
 

I just noticed today that the new queen in the "dirt box" has at least eight workers now.

[Foogoo]

Update 4-23-2016
 

I just noticed today that the new queen in the "dirt box" has at least eight workers now.

The ones you found a month ago??

[dspdrew]

Yes. Didn't you find a few of these?

[Foogoo]

Yes. Didn't you find a few of these?

Yup, what temperature did you keep them at? Mine are developing very slow, despite being kept around 86 degrees. I think only one out of 8 has pupa at this point.

[dspdrew]

Mine were kept around 90 to 95 degrees.

[dspdrew]

Update 5-25-2016
 

I sold the new queen in the "dirt box", and the two others died I think.

[KaptainKibs]

Any updates? Did you move the colony of 2,400 at the time into your prototype?

[Leo]

the ants..

[dspdrew]

Update 12-10-2016
 
Well, the large colony is a lot smaller now. A while back I let the water tank go empty and didn't realize it until the pile of dead workers started getting big enough for me to check to see what was going on. Sadly the colony is all the way down to about 400 workers now. The queen has started pumping out eggs again, so they will probably be huge again in no time.
 
Here's what the colony looks like now. As clean as these ants are, their formicarium has gotten a little dirty over the many months they've been in it. I need to move them into an updated prototype soon anyway.
 

[Leo]

update

[dspdrew]

There have been no changes since the last update.

[MegaMyrmex]

Upadte? Plus, do you sell any formicariums?

[dspdrew]

Update 10-22-2017
 
Wow, talk about a come-back. This colony has more workers now than it did before I accidentally killed off most of them. Right now I would estimate close to 3000 workers. They have almost completely covered every bit of surface area in the formicarium, including the out world. I really need to move them into something larger very soon. These pictures are about three weeks old, so the colony has grown even more since then.
 

 

 

 

 

 
 
I can just toss my chicken breast in there when I'm finished and these guys will clean every last bit of meat off of it.
 

 

 

[VoidElecent]

Wow, that's a lot of ants! What are you planning on moving them into?

 

When to Veromessor start producing alates?

[dspdrew]

Wow, that's a lot of ants! What are you planning on moving them into?

 

When to Veromessor start producing alates?

 

I don't know, and I don't know.

[nurbs]

They are amazing for sure. The ones I have from this season are already over 300 workers.