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[MichiganAnts]

The following is a journal of the first ever any colony of W1Z25.

Stardate 9.27.2016 The queen has arrived!

My queen was sold by a GAN seller near my town. Once home i decided to keep the formicarium on my computer desk where i can check it out once in a while while gaming on my pc. I keep checking on them about every 5 minutes. The seller told me that they havent had any food today so i took it apon myself after watching them for ~30 minutes to find a worthy snack. I go outside and i see a rolly-polly.. i pick it up and think about the process of smashing it and ripping it apart. i decide against it and put it back. i then spot it... an EAR WIG!! I go back inside and grab my tweezers and grab it, pull its head off and its pinchers aswell. i then bring it to the nest. now it was a rather big ear wig so i decided against giving the whole body in 1 night, considering i wasnt sure how i was going to clean it up. so i rip the body in 2. the main body and the butt (thorax?). i then tilt the nest alittle and unplug the hole.. and slide the butt in. i quickly close it and all goes well. after a few seconds my workers notice a new smell in the nest. and 2 run in to investigate. then soon pull it out of the tube and into the main chamber where the whole colony begins to feast.






after about an hour they have stopped feeding, obviously full and tired. I'm sure when i wake the thorax will be ripped apart. I did make 1 funny mistake, my flashlight i use to look for the eggs also has a laser pointer. well i was checking on the eggs and clicked it off, or so i thought. i turned on the laser right in front of the queen. I'm sure it scared her! she got into a very defensive posture for a moment but then calmed down once i saw what i did and turned it off. I then threw away the mid section of the ear wig, since i didn't want a twitching half body of a bug on my desk all night.


I am starting to noticing some personality in my ants. My queen is a dork and like to do fun things with her workers.its kinda hard to see but that is my queen using a worker as a lazy-boy chair while laying on her side to sleep.



I have such high hopes for this queen and her young. As i type this the queen has had enough of making fun of her workers and has got off her worker-lazy-boy and is now back over her eggs. Tomorrow i plan to try and feed them some sugar water or some other sweet. and make a cover so that way they can have some privacy, even though my room is naturally dark during the day.

This will be updated whenever i notice something of note, which I'm sure ill be updating alot since this is my first and everything is so new and exciting. tomorrow I'm also going to try and film them with either my phone or HD webcam.

 

this is a copy of my journal on antscanada's forum

 

[Enderz]

Good luck! I'm don't know much but it looks cool

[MichiganAnts]

Stardate 928.2016

MAJOR UPDATES!!!

(who knew so much could change in less than 24 hours!)



this morning i woke up and decided to give my girls some privacy, i found some cardboard and gave them a lid, its by no mean air tight and I'm sure some light is still getting in, but its better than being totally exposed. I also saw that they did some spring cleaning during the night, and decide that the middle chamber is the garbage center, the shell of the ear wig butt and some bits of cotton and moved there. and the who colony seems to have had a good night.



before i head into work i decide to feed them, this time a small house fly. they responded MUCH more agressive to it than the ear wig butt, 1 worker bit and sprayed it. i watch them happily accept the offering and begin to feed again, boy they are hungry!! i did forget to bring home some tomatoes from work (I'm a chef), so they won't be getting fruits tonight. 



I decided to go outside before work and look in my log piles, i was so intent on looking for another queen to get more eggs, since my girl only had 2. BUT i didn't expect to actually find another queen!!! i managed to round her and 4 of her 5 workers up, PLUS 2 groups of eggs!! In total colony 2 had 5 workers(1 i didn't catch and 1 was dead apon entering my house), ~30 eggs, and a very healyth looking queen. I was on such an adrenaline high from it i didn't know what to do. so i had to hop on a Michigan ant farmer group and ask about help. I got alot of information but i had to leave for work, so for the next couple hours i had to leave them in the Tupperware bowl i had them in, without any food or water.



The entire time i was at work i kept debating on what to do. i had set out to just get eggs, i never expected to actually find any, let alone another queen with more eggs than mine! I wanted to make my colony the biggest in my town, but after watching all of Antcanada's vids i somehow felt responsible for this queen. and to be totally honest, i knew if i just stole her eggs and put her back alot of people would be mad at me, even my queen seller, whom i annoyed alot today by asking him tons of questions. 

In the end i decide what the heck, and i shall raise 2 colonies! it dose double my chances of success. 



I first found a cup (i plan on getting antcanads starting pack this weekend and giving each colony a nice home.) and then with help from other farmers i put extra virgin olive oil around the lip and gave them a nice moist cotton ball (moist not soaking wet). then came the hard part, transferring the colony. every time i tried to open the Tupperware lip the workers would try to escape. but this time they were to busy dealing with the eggs, so i managed to dump the colony into the cup, or so i thought. they hung on for deal life in the Tupperware. i had to poke them a few times and one by one i got them into the cup. once i double checked that i got all the eggs and ants in, i placed them int he bottom of my entertainment center. its alittle warmer down there and its dark. i plan to leave them be for a couple hours and then give them some honey. 

I just want to personally thank the ant farmer and my queen GAN seller for putting up with all my questions!


Current colony stats

Colony 1 (bought through GAN) (the colony in the white nest)

1 queen
7 workers
2 eggs

Colony 2 (found in my swamp/wood pile) (aka Cup colony)

1 queen
3 workers (1 in the container i think is dead, so I'm not counting her, if she is still dead tomorrow ill remove her)
~30 eggs (ill try to get a real count tonight or tomorrow when they get used to the cup)

[Enderz]

Nice! Hope you have good luck on em!

[MichiganAnts]

thanks enderz, 

[Loops117]

Happy you decided to keep the second colony. I'm not saying that all queens die over hibernation, just the the success rate for queens in general at any time is rather low. 2 Colonies won't be much more then 1 to care for, so why not give it a try. This will allow you to learn more. Maybe try 2 different foods or methods with both colonies to really learn the hobby.

 

As i said via text. This is a learning experience for everyone. It doesn't matter how long you've been in the hobby. All queens are different. Some have more will to live then others. Some will accept certain foods while another colony of the same species will be more picky. This will teach you more about the species you now care for and ant keeping in general. 

[MichiganAnts]

Stardate 929.2016

I'm starting to get into a routine with my ants. I wake up, check to make sure all is well, then feed them honey. I was alittle concered last night and this morning about the Cup colony, the queen looks like the same as the nest, but the workers are so much smaller, i began to fear i had a 2nd species! however after showing my friend a good pic of the queen and the workers, I'm relieved to say they are niantics. so that explains why they are so small. 



This morning i looked at my Cup colony and i thought, i need to make a better way to feed them besides air dropping food onto them. So i decided to build an elevator of sorts, using a pen as the main supporting rod, some ribbon i found, a piece of cardboard, and 1 penny to act as a balance and weight. pics below is how i built it. it works very well, its not perfect though.












after 2 hours the Cup colony hasn't touched its honey, and i think i know why. I caught them yesterday when it was 50F outside. I'm starting to think they were starting to hibernate when i found them, that plus stress of being caught. But all are alive and well, expect i can see it looks like a larva or something they arent keep with the eggs, maybe its dead, or maybe they havent noticed it yet. I'm not sure. I'm going to be getting an actually nest for the Cup colony this week/next week and a slightly bigger nest for the white queen aswell.

Speaking of the White colony, her and her ants LOVE honey!! this morning i gave them the usual 1 drop, it was gone in 5 minutes. I decided to do an experiment and i gave them a 2nd, again, they ate it as soon as it was in the nest. after a half hour i gave them a 3rd drop and this time they didn't rush to it and eat it, they took there time with it. I'm guessing i wasnt feeding them enough, ill have to try and see how much/if any they eat tonight.

I look forward to moving them both into the home they will be in until the spring, i hope its not to hard on both queens, but it will be best for them, plus i need to clean out both homes currently, the Cup colony has alot of bits of wood, and a dead spider in it, the White colony has a dead fly and an ear wig's [censored] in it i need to remove.

I plan to try and give the White colony some meat tonight when i get out of work, maybe ill find a cricket or something i can cut up for them. I'm going to keep trying to feed the Cup colony, but if my thoughts are right, then they won't be eating or drinking much until spring

[MichiganAnts]

Stardate 101.2016

 

last night while trying to give my white/tackle box colony some honey to congratulate them on having an out world, disaster struck! With the lid open and me trying to give them the food, the worker who was out in the out world was able to climb straight through my barrier! i managed grab her and put her back, but not before she got a bite on me(I'm used to it, i used to play with ants all the time as a kid), HOWEVER once i got her back in the out world i noticed i seemed to have mangled her back right leg. And also the colony was huddled up in the farthest corner inside the nest. I checked back 1 more time before i went to bed and she was still in the out world, BUT using her leg! i was happy and i thought maybe it wasnt as bad as i thought.

 

I woke this morning to find the food thrown all over, and she was dead. the rest of the colony was still huddled up in the nest. so i plugged the whole and removed the out world.

 

So i am starting to see the "growing pains" of being an ant farmer. hindsight is 20/20 and i know several things i did wrong when i did this out world. such as:

 

didn't clean it before and after drilling the whole.

didn't wipe the barrier to a thin coating (that's why they could climb over it)

didn't barrier the whole inch high wall, just the top half

 

I think I'm just going to leave them be for the rest of the weekend and cope. I see that while the tackle box in theory was a good idea, they need a non-square container, and a taller one that way i can use more barrier. I'm going to probably just do what most others are and sent the nest in a big container and put a large barrier and not adjust anymore till spring.

 

As for the Cup colony, i have great news!! it seems that being in my constant 76F has woken them out of hibernation! (i caught them this week when it was 50F outside) The workers are being much more active and i think the queen is waking up slowly but surely. she mostly is laying there and they keep tugging her lets and trying to wake her up. However i don't do much with these girls, I am mostly using the whites as my learning curve and then applying my results to the Cup colony. 

[Mdrogun]

 

Stardate 101.2016

 

 

As for the Cup colony, i have great news!! it seems that being in my constant 76F has woken them out of hibernation! (i caught them this week when it was 50F outside) The workers are being much more active and i think the queen is waking up slowly but surely. she mostly is laying there and they keep tugging her lets and trying to wake her up. However i don't do much with these girls, I am mostly using the whites as my learning curve and then applying my results to the Cup colony. 

 

As someone who is very experienced with Camponotus pennsylvanicus, don't do this. They are going to hibernate at one point or another and delaying it only hurts the colony.

 

Btw, what kind of barrier are you using? I used Fluon for my Camponotus pennsylvanicus and it worked great. They're pretty good at climbing for being so big.

[MichiganAnts]

I wasnt trying to wake them up, when i caught them Michigan was having a cold day (53F) so I'm guessing that started the hibernation, but i didn't guess that until a couple days after i caught them. and i was using extra virgin olive oil. the problem was A i didn't clean the box before applying it and B. i didn't wipe up the excess

[fortysixandtwo]

Looking good so far man. Keep up the detailed updates.

[MichiganAnts]

Startdate 102.2016

I've had enough!!!! Of this mold in my white founding formicarium. And with how ugly and dirty my cup colony looked. So i decided to kill 2 birds with 1 stone. First i did things by the book, washing my hands, washing out lids/containers/ even the case that will hold both colonies. Then i got to work.

I managed to fairly smoothly move the Cup colony out and into a nice new container, with the oil barrier applied correctly this time. It has a barrier that is almost 2 inches wide. that should keep them until spring and then i can move them into my AntsCanada starter kit. I'm still amazed how i caught these girls in the wild almost a week ago, and now they are very active in my warm house and I hope they make a massive colony. 



And here we can see the container inside of what i call the "Oh crap" box, it used to hold a turtle beach headset, now it holds ants. i leave the top open but the whole container and lip have a barrier aswell (the wall barrier is 4 inches wide!) In the event of an escape. i can shut the lid and contain them. 

here is the former Cup colony. And the White colony in the "Oh crap" box. over them is the foam cover to keep the box VERY dark, with a little light going through where the headset used to sit.



Speaking of the white colony, I must first say I'm so sorry to them and to any lovers out there. i know i should mess with them too much, but i just had to get the molding fly and spider out. I tried to be quick and gentle at first, But they refused to leave the nest, it was there home. they'd been in it for a long time, and would fight to keep it. After i couldn't get them to leave the nest, i decided to just clean it while they are in it. i was quick and they never really noticed my cleaning until i had to use an ear cleaner to get the mold off the clear plastic, a worker tried very hard to kill the ear cleaner.



You can see in the middle chamber just how bad it was getting, it was there garbage dump and it was full.



After getting the dead fly and spider out, it was starting to look new again, but still needed a good cleaning, all while not touching the ants and trying to not stress them out too bad.



And here is the final product, minus the clear plastic top piece, I had to clean that aswell. I double checked the cotton to make sure it isn't moldy and its still wet. And then carefully put the top part on and then moved it into the "oh crap" box. 


I just wanted to say again that I know I mess with my ants alot, and I shouldn't. But this is my first colony, And its all growing pains and learning experiences. I know ill mess up and kill workers, i know some will escape, and i know ill kill a queen at some point. But that's part of the hobby. You gotta take the good times with the bad. But after moving them and getting rid of that mold i feel confident they will make it through the winter. For now they get to enjoy my warm room until mid-October (or when the temp stays below 50F) And then they get put under my stairs on the cold basement floor until spring. And I know I have rubbed a couple people in my local ant group and the main ant group on FB the wrong way with what i do. And I'm sorry. 

For tonight and tomorrow I'm leaving my ants alone, No honey or anything. MY next post should be me just saying when i get my new ant stuff for next year. unless something bad happens.

[MichiganAnts]

Stardate 109.2016

 

I've ordered 2 new homes for my ants, and then ill be getting a wine chiller this week so i can safely hibernate them. i was just going to put them on my concrete floor in the basement but the temperatures would be random and uncontrollable. Once they arrive on Tuesday they will be in the final homes until the spring. 

 

Good news from the white queen. today i was checking her out when i noticed.. she has laid a new egg!! she now has 3 eggs. I couldn't get a pic of it though. It surprised me greatly, i was so convinced that she was about to start hibernating so all egg producing would stop. To reward her for the surprise i was going to give them some honey. Then a friend told me that i should try doing honey water. I've never done that, i always just gave straight honey, so i tried it anyway. and boy they loved it!! I gave some to the Tupperware queen aswell land her and her nanitics ate it all aswell. 

 

So the plan this week is Tuesday the new nests arrive. then hopefully by this weekend the wine chiller will be here and hibernation will start.

[MichiganAnts]

Stardate 1010.2016

 

*note I'm more than likely going to be retiring this journal since the name is no longer valid. so this will be the final entry*

 

http://imgur.com/a/21Ssn

 

AMAZING NEWS!! Today, as i have for the last 3 days. searching through my woods and woodpile looking for more queens. And i hit the mother load!! I found a species i've only ever seen in antscanada's videos. its camponotus noveboracensis!! the species Mikey himself loves the most to raise! And she has everything you'd want in a first year colony. 1 very healthy looking queen, 25 workers(most are nanitics but a few are 2nd gen workers), and i kid you not.. 50 to 100 eggs!!! 

 

But I'm getting ahead of myself. I was just looking around.. hoping that maybe.. just maybe id see another camp. pennsylvanicus. queen. I got to another average looking log. i could see the bark had a ~1/4 inch space between it and the actual hardwood. i opened it up, as i did about 10 other logs today.. but then i saw it.. the fast scuttle of ants.. and then i saw the brood.. but all i brought with me is a simple test tube. now i didn't remove the bark entirely, i just barely opened it up and took a peak. so i quickly and gently put the bark back... and ran to my house. I got to my house and ran into the kitchen, looking for a good temp home. i found a plastic container that would be perfect.. but i couldn't find the lid!!! no!!! after about 2 minutes i grabbed a tall metal container with a lid, but i knew they could climb up the wall.. HOWEVER, I  remembered that i had a brand new jug of fluon. so i used it to make a 1 inch wide barrier after i quickly washed out the bowl and lid. i then ran back out to the woodpile. my heart is pumping like mad. i peel the bark open even more.. and i started to grab workers who had brood in there mouth and kept getting them into the bowl. i thought i saw the queen but i wasnt sure. so i got as many workers as i could.  but i hadn't seen the queen, and all this would be for nothing if i couldn't find her. i moved the log the nest was in and i saw more workers on the ground.. i grabbed them all.. and then i saw her.. the queen!! i grabbed her aswell. WOOT!! i then spent the next few minutes grabbing every ant i saw in that area. However i noticed right away i messed up, i had grabbed some parasite queens aswell. and while for the most part they were ok together.. the 2 2nd gen workers knew better, and began killing them! after i saw no more ants i sat back and admired what i had done. i had manged to get ~90-98% of her workers.. and I'm fairly sure i got all the eggs to. I then grab all the non camponotus noveboracensis and got them out of the bowl. after than was done i brought them inside. 

 

then i noticed a couple of the "workers" where being attacked by the 2nd gen still, so something was wrong. i inspected them more closely with a flashlight and tweezers and saw i had missed a couple of parasite queens. And then i saw the coolest thing to date with any ant i own. A 2nd generation worker had a parasite queen in her mouth and then.. it happened.. she cut its head off!!! it was so awesome!! i wish i had a way to record it. I then used tweezers and grabbed out the other 3 ants that they attacked. and i noticed as soon as the last one was out they began to calm down. 

 

I then quickly made a tiny test tube out of a syringe with a wet cotton ball on 1 end for water and then put them into dark isolation for ~5 hours. I then decided to check on them and all is well, they are cleaning the bowl and organizing the eggs. the eggs, its awe inspiring just how many this queen had made.. the pile of eggs is bigger than the queen herself!! I can't wait for this colony to explode once spring hits. 

 

After i checked up on the Nova colony, I decided to reward all 3 with some honey-water in foil. Its crazy how all 3 colonies react differently to it based on time with me. the white colony isn't afraid at all, they go up and drink within 30 seconds on the foil being in. but they've been in captivity for months, and are used to it. The Tupperware queen is still fairly nervous about it, a couple workers run around, but for the most part they are calm, and after about a minutes workers can be seen leaving a trail to the foil so all may drink. And the Nova colony, still shaken up by the ordeal just panics once they sense the air pressure change of me opening the lid. i hope that in the morning they are calm and manage to enjoy some of the sweets. 

 

Tomorrow My first 2 nests (for the white and Tupperware queens) will be here, and later this week my wine chiller, and 3rd (even bigger) nest will be here for these girls. I've now tripled the amount of queens i intended to raise. for now its easy.. but when they start to grow.. i may have to sell 1.. and it will suck.. but this is all assuming that all my queens make it through the winter.

[fortysixandtwo]

Nice. Pretty cool about the parasites.