87 replies to this topic

[XZero38]

So this is my first attempt at raising a colony of ants, and right now in Denver Tetramorium sp. E. are in their nuptial flight season. I went out last week and found 3 queens, two on Monday 6/20/16 around 1730-1800 right after i got home from work. I found a 3rd queen the following morning 6/21/16 around 0700 just outside the daycare i drop my dog off at. I have them in a basic test tube setup sitting in a dark closet in a spare bedroom upstairs. After 5 days queen one hadn't laid any eggs at all, while queen 2 had laid eggs but they were scattered all of the test tube, queen three on the other hand had a small pile of eggs and was tending to them. So that following Saturday 6/25/16 I decided that queens 1 and 2 were not either fertilized or strong enough to start a colony and i got rid of them and went out that morning around 0730 to look for more queens and i ended up finding 4 more in less then 10 minutes and saw another 5-6 as I was walking back home with no more empty test tubes. I got back home the 4 new queens were put in the same basic test tube setup as queen 3. I checked on them last night and queens 1-3 all have a pile of eggs that they are tending to (queen 3 is still the one from last week) while 4 and 5 arent really doing much of anything. Ill post pictures as soon as i am able to. I tried uploading pictures for reference but am unable to upload pictures at this point since I'm a new member.

[sgheaton]

Hey! Another Colorado..an..! I've been finding these things all over the place. In my yard...on the sidewalks at work. Glad to know its all coming together and making sense now. Out of all that I have collected....two are producing eggs I believe. I took pictures of them this morning and am waiting to update my journal with them as they aren't super exciting yet. 

 

I use my cell phone camera > e-mail'd to myself > uploaded into imgur to post pictures. What is your plan for a formicarium, etc? That's my current struggle point.

[XZero38]

I think I'm gonna buy a formacarium from antscanada.com. I like the ones they have on there.

[XZero38]

Plus they are easy to keep watered and have a place for a heating cable

[Goldsystem]

I think I'm gonna buy a formacarium from antscanada.com. I like the ones they have on there.

I plan on getting a hybrid nest for my tetramorium ants aswell, good luck with your queens!

[sgheaton]

That is why I'd get one. Because heating/watering has been already taken care of. Except you're limited on size. that's my only hold up..... ...

[XZero38]

I would imagine that for a new colony the smaller hybrid nest would work just fine. I read in the antscanada forum that they are planning on bringing back the large nests as well.

[XZero38]

First two queens I caught

 

The 4 new queens i caught that following saturday

 

All my queens a few days later. (#3 I've had for a week at this point)

 

[sgheaton]

Haha...you ready to collect more this weekend or you stopping with what you've got?

[XZero38]

Well, currently I'm out of test tubes. But i checked on them last night and #4 has a small pile of eggs now. Still nothing from #5. I want to get some more test tubes, but i think with the 4 queens that i have that are laying and caring for their eggs ill be ok with the tetramorium queens. If #5 hasnt produced any eggs by tomorrow Ill probably let her go and go find another queen.

 

Pogonomyrmex have always been my favorite species and the first ones that i had in an ant farm when i was a kid which was just a bunch of peanut butter jars screwed down lid side down on a piece of plywood and connected with tubes. Pogonomyrmex flights will be starting soon here in colorado so ill probably go out and see if i can't find any of them, after i get more test tubes of course.

[sgheaton]

I released my two that were "duds" to the wild and currently have the other two alive and well. Have little chambers and egg piles. I'll probably buy the antcanada housing unit for one group of tetras and tube it into my own built tank. The other one I really want to try in some sort of dirt set up as I wanted the window pane of Pogonomyrmex...

 

There are some massive piles of excavated dirt that some colonies have made around the areas. Watching them is like the whole ground is moving. Super interesting though I don't think I'm ready for that caliber of work.. Looking at drews fish-tank Pogonomyrmex of two years looks to be like a big project I'm not quite ready to accept. I haven't had any luck quite yet in finding them though as soon as the flights begin, there are fields ripe for grazin.

[XZero38]

I bought the test tube portal, and ill probably use that as a mini outworld till the colony gets large enough to move into a proper formacarium and outworld.

 

I saw his dirt tank setup, and thought it was a pretty good idea, i would probably modify it a bit so its not just solid dirt (not sure if it actually is or not)

[sgheaton]

He does very well in-depth explanations of his builds.....you just have to find it..and then make sure its the right one (most recent). I've thought I'm looking at his "most recent" tweaks/changes and I've been wrong because its either A) a different species of ant or years ago. This tank was essentially a water box inside of a dirt box though - my original desire for a tank (I've got an extra bigger fish tank that I was going to use for ants instead of fish).

 

Good luck on finding some Pogonomyrmex queens!

[sgheaton]

There were so many queens in my yard this morning...

[XZero38]

What species? 

[XZero38]

Quick update on my Tetramorium queens. 1-4 all have brood, I released queen 5 cause after a week she still hadn't laid any eggs.

A couple pictures of the queens with their brood.

This is a close up of queen 3, you can see that some of her eggs have hatched into larve.

[sgheaton]

They were all Tetramoriums. 

[spytim]

I wish you the best of luck!  ^_^ 

[XZero38]

Quick little update, no pictures though. 

So #3 has quite the pile of brood going, and quite a bit of them are larva so I'm hoping for a decent amount of workers with this first generation.

The other 3 queens also have larva and large piles of eggs.

#3 will probably need to have her test tube changed shortly after her first workers are born.

Ill try to get some pictures up later.

[sgheaton]

How come you've got the cotton balls pushed in so deeply? Err...Why only allow the queen a lil cubic centimeter of room? Is there a benefit to doing that?