5 replies to this topic

[Bracchymyrmex]

Hello all! It was 68° F in Philadelphia today so my brother and I decided to look around our yard for some activity from different species. We cracked open the bark of a log and found a Tapinoma sessile colony but no queen so we left them alone.

 

Later on, we found an old rotten log, full of centipedes, that was practically entirely decomposed. I broke off a piece of the log and to my surprise I saw what we think is a Nylanderia terricola queen. We rushed to get her and as many workers + brood into a test tube setup. We now have just shy of about two dozen eggs and about a dozen workers. The queen was very distressed and a little disoriented, and there could have been a couple workers that didn't make it into the tube.

 

We gently put the colony into a dark quiet place in hopes that they may recuperate. However, they will need an outworld soon and we are unsure of what to do, should we make them an outworld? Should we let them recover? Should we move them to a formicarium?

 

Any and all advice pertaining to what we should do next would be greatly appreciated.

 

(pictures are coming soon once the colony stabilizes)

[MrILoveTheAnts]

Well you will need to feed them at some point and it's good to let them forage of course. They won't bother collecting food though until they have an established nest location so the sooner they have the basics of a typical ant setup the better.

 

Also I know I mentioned it in chat but I'll post it here so everyone else can read. The species you have listed there is not likely what you found. N. flavipes or N. faisonensis are more likely, though perhaps a few others as well. 

Edited by MrILoveTheAnts, April 9 2017 - 6:13 PM.

[VoidElecent]

Well you will need to feed them at some point and it's good to let them forage of course. They won't bother collecting food though until they have an established nest location so the sooner they have the basics of a typical ant setup the better.

 

Also I know I mentioned it in chat but I'll post it here so everyone else can read. The species you have listed there is not likely what you found. N. flavipes or N. faisonensis are more likely, though perhaps a few others as well. 

 

What should we do to guarantee they have established the basics of a "typical ant setup". Should we keep them in the test tube they're in or should we consider moving them to a formicarium? Since we haven't granted them access to an outworld yet, should we keep them active with cricket legs and sugar wanter inside their tube?

 

Any more advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

[Bracchymyrmex]

This thread has been lost due to a tremendous amount of posts but I am still curious to know whether anyone has caught a small colony in a log and successfully raised them. Again, we are in need of feedback. 

 

Thank you all.

[ultraex2]

I caught a colony of camponotus nearcticus from a log back in august and have been raising them - I've moved them into a couple different formicariums and they seem to be doing well - there was about 60-80 and their first batch of cocoons just eclosed into alates.

I would expect some die off, but 2 dozen workers should be plenty for a formicarium.  Just give them water/sugars/protein and raise them like you would a normal colony and they should be fine.

[VoidElecent]

Thanks ultra,

 

For those of you wondering, we've actually ID'd this colony as Nylanderia faisonensis, not Nylanderia terricola.