6 replies to this topic

[Mathiacus]

Hello from nsw Australia!
I tried that antdudes forum a while ago but he was intolerable (I have rage issues) anyway.. I housed a colony of captured sugar ants (Camponotus consobrinus if wikipedia is to be believed) they were only workers and I had them in an upright formicarium that I built so I could watch them dig. It was an eye opening experience! After 3 months I decided to let the remaining ones go back to the wild (tests proved that they were too long gone from the original nest to be accepted). It is unfortunate that they will roam and die but it is better that they are free for a brief time.
My wife and I went to the evil bunnings and picked up some ytong bricks and spent about 4 hours chiselling them out yesterday. They are not ready yet but I am still waiting to see if my captured queens are viable. I will post pics when I get home and have a chance to work this forum thing out.
Looking forward to learning from you guys and sharing my anting experiences with all who are interested.



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[LAnt]

What queens do you have?
 

[Mathiacus]

I am sorry, I do not have a positive id yet. They are the medium sized black ones. From my reading I have concluded that the chance of them actually being viable is low. My son and I found them swarming a power pole so we got a container and scooped up a bunch of the males, females and some workers. They had not flown yet and I did not know that most only mate 'on the wing'. I will give them a few months in the uncle milton style formicarium before I give up on them. The workers are taking care of the queens quite well and all the males (drones?) Have dropped dead (I think is a good sign) so I'm not about to fix what is not broken.

I will attempt to upload a bunch of pics tonight.

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[dspdrew]

Welcome.

[Mathiacus]

this final one is one of the workers near the dismembered gaster of the alien queen (noob mistake)

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[Mathiacus]

My initial project with my banded sugar ants

This is one I built as a present for a mate

Pulling apart the uncle milton style to condense them into one nest

The result of 4 hours of digging with screwdrivers

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[Crystals]

Welcome!

Nice to know your wife also supports your new hobby. 

 

I have no knowledge of Australian ants, so I am more or less useless in helping you ID them.