50 replies to this topic

[Bardusquus]

Neat colony

[Trailandstreet]

an incredible colony.

[dspdrew]

Update 6-23-2015
 
This colony probably got to over 2000 and then they almost all died off. I suspect the reason was way too much trash and dead insects in the container, along with the fact that it had been sitting for almost two weeks with another container on top of it stopping most all of the air flow. Now the colony is down to only around 500 or so workers. I'm probably going to be getting rid of these anyways and discontinuing this journal for now because I just can't take care of the amount of ants I have. I would rather focus on specific species I am more interested in.

[Tpro4]

so, close, was gonna tkae em off your hands

[Bardusquus]

Update 12-20-2014
 
One of these queens died the other day after all 30 or so of her workers suddenly died a week before. The same thing happened to one of my S. xyloni colonies I had right next to it too. I have no idea why this happened, but it's not the first time I've seen this sort of thing happen to Solenopsis.

 

The other queen is doing pretty good still. As of today she has about 100 workers, and a good-sized pile of brood.

Same thing happened to me, about  a third of the workers died along with all the queens.

Edited by Bardusquus, June 25 2015 - 7:08 AM.

[dspdrew]

Update 9-30-2015
 
This colony is now dead, as I froze them yesterday. Apparently it's illegal to even keep a colony of these in CA. I was contacted by the California Department of Food and Agriculture, mainly because I had them listed on the AntsCanada GAN Project website. What I wish I could know was who the spineless jellyfish was that couldn't just contact me directly and inform me of the law, and instead went to the State. I would have destroyed these in a second. As you can see in my earlier posts, I didn't even want them.

[drtrmiller]

Now don't mislead people.  I showed you the exact law stating the specific counties where they are quarantined, with other statutes related to the generalities.

[dspdrew]

I'm just repeating what we were told. I know it's usually a bunch of half-truths, but the "no" answer is usually the one preferred by the government when asking for permission to do something that's SOMETIMES (includes yes, and no) prohibited.

[Foogoo]

Update 9-30-2015
 
This colony is now dead, as I froze them yesterday. Apparently it's illegal to even keep a colony of these in CA. I was contacted by the California Department of Food and Agriculture, mainly because I had them listed on the AntsCanada GAN Project website. What I wish I could know was who the spineless jellyfish was that couldn't just contact me directly and inform me of the law, and instead went to the State. I would have destroyed these in a second. As you can see in my earlier posts, I didn't even want them anymore.

Do you know if you were reported or could the CDFA staff have came upon it? That's pretty lame if someone reported you...

[dspdrew]

Based on the emails, it sounds as though someone reported it.

 

 

Edit: Actually no, I'm positive someone reported it.

 

"We were recently notified that there is a new producer of ants out of Costa Mesa/Los Angeles..."

 

Also, that must mean I'm fertile too.

Edited by dspdrew, October 1 2015 - 5:44 AM.

[kellakk]

"We were recently notified that there is a new producer of ants out of Costa Mesa/Los Angeles..."

 

Also, that must mean I'm fertile too.

 

Great! Now you just need to focus on getting those little workers out so they can do all your projects for you.