90 replies to this topic

[Mettcollsuss]

Nice! So you’re not hibernating them? Are you heating them, too?

In the past when I've tried to hibernate them, they stay active, so I'm not going to hibernate them. No, they aren't being heated at the moment but I might get them a heating cable soon.

[Mettcollsuss]

I just added a heating cable to their setup, and they seem to like it. There's always a few ants in the room just sitting around and warming up. They then return to the queen and/or brood chambers. I think they might do this to carry heat with them to warm the brood and queen.

 

I've started feeding them some waxworm pupae, which they love. Only 24-48 hours after I place it in, it's completely hollowed out. They usually leave a few leftovers on most insects, so they must really like them.

[ANTdrew]

Any chance you could post a photo of how you set up your cable?

My two Tetra colonies finally gave up and are hibernating, which is kind of a relief.

I have an idea of turning my downstairs bathroom into an ant room by running a space heater down there. It's pretty easy to crank it up to 80deg. like that. I wonder if that is kind of a wasteful way to heat, though?

[Mettcollsuss]

They have a ton of brood at the moment (mostly larvae). They love waxworm pupae. They hollow the whole thing out in a day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mettcollsuss]

They have a ton of brood at the moment, mostly large larvae. They should pupate any day now. The queen also just laid a new really large batch of eggs. Looks like there's a big population boom coming.

[Mettcollsuss]

 

 

[Mettcollsuss]

I just sold my one remaining polygyne colony.

[Mettcollsuss]

[Mettcollsuss]

About half the colony and brood have moved into the test tube I had attached to the other end of the outworld for emergency hydration in case I forgot to water the nest or something. There's nothing wrong with the nest that I can see. The queens still in the original nest. I'm not worried, it's just strange.

[Mettcollsuss]

And now they've all moved back.

[TennesseeAnts]

How many workers do you think?

[Mettcollsuss]

Like 300 about. But they're about to hit a growth spurt.

[TennesseeAnts]

Ok, so in a week they will be at 600? Man I wish mine lived through hibernation!

[Rstheant]

All of mine died. Sold 3, all others I froze.

[Mettcollsuss]

Ok, so in a week they will be at 600?

well, I hope so, but maybe not quite that fast. but definitely in under a month. they have about 150-200 large larvae and pupae, and lots of eggs. I've upped their feeding schedule to a cricket a day plus a sunburst feeder in the outworld 24/7. They pile all their brood right on top of the heating cable.

[Rstheant]

Nice! These sometimes take to seeds, and apple slices are good too. They also like dubia roaches.

[Mettcollsuss]

I do give them seeds occasionally, and I wish I could raise dubias as feeders but my parents won't let me  : /

Edited by Mettcollsuss, March 8 2019 - 5:25 AM.

[TennesseeAnts]

I wish I could raise dubias as feeders but my parents won't let me  : /

If you lived in Tennessee, you could go catch huge 4 inch long forest roaches inside logs!

[Mettcollsuss]

that would be awesome. 

[TennesseeAnts]

Feeds ants for weeks! Gotta freeze the meat you don't use though. Meat flies are everywhere here...