8 replies to this topic

[Californian Anter]

I just caught a queen today before heading into my math class. Accidentally injured a leg while picking her up. Going to look for more this week.

Edited by Californian Anter, August 19 2017 - 4:58 PM.

[Dethundrel]

Pictures and story please! I also have a Tetramorium thread going here and am interested to compare progress with others.

[Californian Anter]

Pictures and story please! I also have a Tetramorium thread going here and am interested to compare progress with others.

I won't have pictures for a while; I'm letting her adjust to the dark for a bit. I was sitting under a tree studying for a math test and just noticed her running by. There were tons of people around, so I was a bit rushed to get her into a test tube. In doing so, I kinda bent her right front leg in a funny angle, so now it's pinned against her body and she can't use it. I really need to work on picking up queens.

[sgheaton]

 

 

 

 I really need to work on picking up queens.

 

My method was to take a piece of paper and coax them to walk on top of it. At that point, simply pick up the paper and bend it into a U-shape and angling it down into your container. Tada!

[Californian Anter]

Update 6/11/17: The original queen has about 30 eggs, no joke. I also caught another queen, she had half a tetramorium worker still attached to her. I also let like 3 queens slide because I couldn't discreetly pick them up.

[sgheaton]

Give them a little heat source/moisture/food and they will explode in population. They are in the "faster growing" category and make excellent "first rounders" because of this. 

[Californian Anter]

Give them a little heat source/moisture/food and they will explode in population. They are in the "faster growing" category and make excellent "first rounders" because of this. 

Yeah I don't think I need to add more heat. It hits around 100 degrees F pretty often right now. She has probably about 17 larvae at the moment.

[Saftron]

Wow you are finding many, I haven't see any signs of a flight or tetramorium at all. I was hoping since it was my birthday today I would get lucky and find one.

Edited by Saftron, June 19 2017 - 8:47 PM.

[Californian Anter]

Update (8/19/17): Pictures probably coming next update, once I figure out the lighting. The colony is doing great, probably over 20 workers now as well as like 7 pupae and tons and larvae. They probably completely hollow out a medium housefly in 2-3 days and return it to the outworld as dust. One thing that is interesting is that apparently Tetramorium can chew through a Type-2 Mini-Hearth. They dug another hidden chamber in the back wall; that's where most of the workers hang out. On occasion they move the larger larvae there for some reason, any ideas why?