58 replies to this topic

[AntsMaryland]

 

I agree with ctantkeeper on this one. Even though Tetramorium queens are very abundant. When going through the process naturally, the colony you decide to keep afterwards might be injured and you might not be able to tell. So you would end up raising an injured queen which would end in a shorter life span of the colony. Just be safer and listen to ctantkeeper. He has better research, better support, superior logic, and safer. Best Regards to All! 

 

 

-AntsMaryland 

Thanks man! At the end of the day, I'm just trying to pass down what I know so that I can help people. I am all for further discussion on something like this as long as the points being made are well sound and in the realm of logic. I wish all of you the best of luck with your own Tetramorium sp.e colonies!

 

I 100% agree with you. What troubles me sometimes is that people do these ant experiments and they never consider that they are real organisms. I don't believe it is fair to unnaturally introduce queens that are not polygynous in all knowing that all but one will die and possibly all will. I like ant keeping because I think when I catch a queen that I am giving them a better chance to survive and thrive than in the wild. I do not believe in these pity experiments that are trying to prove or disprove solid scientific evidence. I think if you are going to do this at least make sure that surviving queen has the best possible chance! Please let me know what your stands are on this. I would be happy to discuss this. Please let me know. Best of luck! Best Regards!

 

-AntsMaryland

[T.C.]

I agree with ctantkeeper on this one. Even though Tetramorium queens are very abundant. When going through the process naturally, the colony you decide to keep afterwards might be injured and you might not be able to tell. So you would end up raising an injured queen which would end in a shorter life span of the colony. Just be safer and listen to ctantkeeper. He has better research, better support, superior logic, and safer. Best Regards to All! 
 
 
-AntsMaryland

Thanks man! At the end of the day, I'm just trying to pass down what I know so that I can help people. I am all for further discussion on something like this as long as the points being made are well sound and in the realm of logic. I wish all of you the best of luck with your own Tetramorium sp.e colonies!

I 100% agree with you. What troubles me sometimes is that people do these ant experiments and they never consider that they are real organisms. I don't believe it is fair to unnaturally introduce queens that are not polygynous in all knowing that all but one will die and possibly all will. I like ant keeping because I think when I catch a queen that I am giving them a better chance to survive and thrive than in the wild. I do not believe in these pity experiments that are trying to prove or disprove solid scientific evidence. I think if you are going to do this at least make sure that surviving queen has the best possible chance! Please let me know what your stands are on this. I would be happy to discuss this. Please let me know. Best of luck! Best Regards!
 
-AntsMaryland

Tetramorium are an invasive species. Not worried or concerned at all.

[XZero38]

lets be honest there are lots of species that are invasive

[AntsMaryland]

That is not a good enough reason. They are not listed to eradicate. And not under most government radar. S. Invicta is invasive and harmful. Tetramorium are not harmful to the environment. Hence, that is not a valid justification.

[T.C.]

That is not a good enough reason. They are not listed to eradicate. And not under most government radar. S. Invicta is invasive and harmful. Tetramorium are not harmful to the environment. Hence, that is not a valid justification.

Haha, I don't need to justify anything. Thousands of these where crawling on the ground even being drug in and killed by their own species. These are the same species that in nature have wars right on the sidewalk. There is plenty to go around and I will continue to experiment.

[Loops117]

Very cool TC. I personally think it's pretty cool that you're pushing the boundaries when it comes to "known facts". We all understand that this species is not normally poly, nor does it usually go well when tried. These ants also don't naturally grow up in a glass tube, nor are they confined to a box that's the tiniest fraction of space compared to their natural life as well. So why not try?

 

I think we all need to take a reminder and think about how incredibly low the "natural" success rate for a colony is regardless. With each queen having a half percent if not less chance of survival, taking a small quantity of an abundant ant isn't going to hurt. Had we all stuck to what we were told, we would still be housing our ants in uncle milton ant farms, or sticking our ants in plaster formicariums. The wild world of ants is very cruel regardless of human interactions.

Edited by Loops117, August 30 2017 - 10:57 AM.

[sgheaton]

Suuuuree... you all do experiments on ants and you're called "hobbyists" but I do a few tests on some people and suddenly I'm on the run....

[ctantkeeper]

 

 

I agree with ctantkeeper on this one. Even though Tetramorium queens are very abundant. When going through the process naturally, the colony you decide to keep afterwards might be injured and you might not be able to tell. So you would end up raising an injured queen which would end in a shorter life span of the colony. Just be safer and listen to ctantkeeper. He has better research, better support, superior logic, and safer. Best Regards to All! 

 

 

-AntsMaryland 

Thanks man! At the end of the day, I'm just trying to pass down what I know so that I can help people. I am all for further discussion on something like this as long as the points being made are well sound and in the realm of logic. I wish all of you the best of luck with your own Tetramorium sp.e colonies!

 

I 100% agree with you. What troubles me sometimes is that people do these ant experiments and they never consider that they are real organisms. I don't believe it is fair to unnaturally introduce queens that are not polygynous in all knowing that all but one will die and possibly all will. I like ant keeping because I think when I catch a queen that I am giving them a better chance to survive and thrive than in the wild. I do not believe in these pity experiments that are trying to prove or disprove solid scientific evidence. I think if you are going to do this at least make sure that surviving queen has the best possible chance! Please let me know what your stands are on this. I would be happy to discuss this. Please let me know. Best of luck! Best Regards!

 

-AntsMaryland

 

Yeah, It just makes logical sense to give the surviving potential queen the greatest chance of living a healthy life. This in turn leads to a longer lived and healthier colony complete with a queen that exhibits typical queen behavior, characteristic of her species. I also do not like seeing animals (big or small) suffer, but then again in the case of pleometrotic founding you have to "crack a few eggs". This however, gives the colony as a whole a greater chance of survival. To quote Spock : "The needs of the many out way the needs of the few.". Doing so only exploits an already well documented behavior in Tetramorium colonies that they already preform in the wild. I feel as though the benefits more than make up for the death of a few individuals (whose offspring still get to live a healthy, natural existence within the colony their queen helped to establish). This is actually one of the few cases in life where it is best to put all of your eggs in one basket! Also, Tetramorium sp.e may be an invasive species, but a naturalized one at that. This means that they have successfully found their particular niche within our ecosystem in a way that does not displace large populations of any given organism. They even have formed relationships with other organisms in which the other organism benefits from their presence! To say that we should not give them proper care or treat them as we would when caring for any other species of ant just because they are technically referred to as an "invasive" species is asinine at best. It's a rather flimsy argument. I have to agree with AntsMaryland on this one. 

Edited by ctantkeeper, August 30 2017 - 4:03 PM.

[Leo]

Suuuuree... you all do experiments on ants and you're called "hobbyists" but I do a few tests on some people and suddenly I'm on the run....

lol

[T.C.]

Here are some older pictures. The colonies worker count is much higher as of today. They are being housed in a ant-topia nest.

 

 

 

The MURDER of the two queens!

 

Originally, they kicked them out rather peacefully. but they kept trying to reenter the nest.

 

 

Apparently this annoyed the workers, because they then decided rather than kicking them out, murder would be a more suitable punishment.

 

[sgheaton]

When workers murder a queen, is it as metal as it sounds? 

 

I like that they attempted to play nicely at first. 

[BMM]

I'm very interested in how this journal turns out. Despite the claims that Tetramorium sp. E can be polygynous, there are very few accounts of how successful it is. I currently have a polygynous Tetramorium tsushimae colony going, so it's very cool to see how the two compare.

[T.C.]

UPDATE: 9/8/2017

2 more queens were pinned down in the outworld by several workers!

[T.C.]

Picture update. The two queens in the outworld, where new ones that they decided needed to go.

[Goldsystem]

I had an 11 queen colony, they ended up killing all but one queen. I have a theory that the queens have to be kept in different chambers in order for them not to be killed, I'm looking forward to see if your colony develops any differently than mine

[Solinopis]

Cool my tetramorium caspitum has around 1000 to 2000 workers and are giving extreme difficulty to keep

[T.C.]

update: 9/20/2017

 

3 queens left, and worker count appears to be just shy of a 100.

[ctantkeeper]

update: 9/20/2017

 

3 queens left, and worker count appears to be just shy of a 100.

Congrats man!!! Glad to see that it was worth it .

[Connectimyrmex]

T.C, you have the same tubes that I use! Are they the plastic ones from Michaels'?

 

Also, the rare cases of Tetramorium polygyny normally result in disaster (the queens both starve themselves or start fighting the workers). Anyways, best of luck for your remaining queens!

 

[T.C.]

I have no idea where the tube came from.

Update: 9/27/2017

Three queens left standing. It's always the workers doing the killing. I never observed aggression between the queens themselves. There is definetly a queen they seem to prefer however. The other queens generally were just treated like workers although they do lay eggs. Only one of the queens gets cleaned and just generally gets treated like a "queen."

Edited by T.C., October 6 2017 - 10:21 PM.