209 replies to this topic

[FeedTheAnts]

Well, if the Valentines are escaping that much, I'm not sure if I will be able to contain my Crematogaster colonies when they get workers... Also, I just caught a colony of Camponotus chromaiodes with around 80-100 workers and majors! They also have around 150 pupae!

lol. Well, the colony was totally manageable about 400 workers ago... their growth has been a little too fast, and that is what's hard to deal with. Maybe a moat would be a good way to keep them in?

[TennesseeAnts]

Well, if the Valentines are escaping that much, I'm not sure if I will be able to contain my Crematogaster colonies when they get workers... Also, I just caught a colony of Camponotus chromaiodes with around 80-100 workers and majors! They also have around 150 pupae!

lol. Well, the colony was totally manageable about 400 workers ago... their growth has been a little too fast, and that is what's hard to deal with. Maybe a moat would be a good way to keep them in?

A moat would probably work. Make sure it is flowing though!

[TennesseeAnts]

I have a Monomorium minimum colony that I no longer want. Do you want it? I will trade/sell them.

pm if you are interested!

Edited by Ant_Dude2908, July 29 2018 - 4:38 PM.

[FeedTheAnts]

The Solenopsis molesta queens have been doing great so far. They still have 20 queens!

 

 

More pics of the Valentine's brood piles. They still keep most of their brood in this uppermost chamber.

 

Some of the Colony's young larvae.

 

 

[FeedTheAnts]

Since I baked the dirt in the Abdo-Lemons terrarium I haven't really done anything with it. The colony has been doing good, but the tank was just bare and ugly. 

I've just now added a lot of things back to the tank. I didn't really care about the aesthetics of the terrarium, I just wanted it to be super natural. A lot of things were added to it, but especially leaf litter and sticks. Of course I added a lot of different organisms to the tank as well, including millipedes, springtails(finally managed to capture a bunch), isopods, and even two Stigmatomma pallipes queens. I'm hoping that finally the terrarium will be a loaded miniature ecosystem, because up to this point it had basically been a bucket of dirt.

 

I have a question though. Would it be a good idea to add the tube of Solenopsis molesta queens to the tank? If not, what about the Aphaenogaster fulva colony? I don't want to create an ant war, and I would like to know which species would be the most likely to not compete with the Abdo-Lemons.

 

One of the Stigmatomma pallipes  queens

 

 

The Abdo-Lemons eating apple

 

 

Edited by TennesseeAnts, July 31 2018 - 7:56 AM.

[FeedTheAnts]

These are the new organisms introduced to the Abdo-Lemons terrarium. 

 

(for all you earwig lovers out there)

 

This is an interesting little bug I found. I think they are called Pseudoscorpions.

 

 

 

[FeedTheAnts]

Just installed a piece of wood into the terrarium!

 

I think this terrarium is beautifully ugly. What do you think?

 

[EthanNgo678]

Noice

[Canadian anter]

That is not a queen

[FeedTheAnts]

That is not a queen

Your right, it isn't. I was mistaken about that one, it's a worker. The other ones could have been queens though, but I didn't get pics.

[FeedTheAnts]

Sweet! I just checked up on the cockroaches and there are lots of springtails! I guess that is a good thing, because there has been a little mold coming up. 

It seems that every time I look in their setup there is one laying an ootheca. There is a lot of little roaches now. 

I've been feeding them apples and dead grasshoppers, much the same diet as my ants.

Edited by TennesseeAnts, August 2 2018 - 12:29 PM.

[FeedTheAnts]

I've moved the Moss Monsters in with the Abdo-Lemons(hoping I made a good choice). I first tested the two colonies reactions to each other by putting an Abdo-Lemon into the Moss Monsters mossy little terrarium. They were a little aggressive at first, but then the Moss Monsters all vanished back into their nest. They were definitely very scared of the one Abdo-Lemon. Any agreesion afterwards was just a little mandible locking, followed by both ants running away as fast as possible. After this little test I just decided to go with it, and I stuck the Moss Monster's setup inside of the Abdo-Lemon's terrarium(on it's side), and scraped away the barrier. At first I was kinda worried I had made a mistake because they were more aggressive than I thought they would be, but things settled down. All of this was a few days ago, and as of this morning the Moss Monsters finally moved in. They decided to nest under a second piece of hollowed wood that I had placed in. I haven't seen much of them and don't count on them doing much foraging with so many Abdo-Lemons around. Maybe they'll come out more at night.

 

The whole tank now.

 

 

Where the Moss Monsters are nesting.

 

 

An unidentified queen I caught yesterday, it is really small.

Edit: it is Myrmecina

 

A Strumigenys colony I caught yesterday. Really pumped about this colony because I'm hoping to catch A Stigmatomma colony also, and make a cryptic ant terrarium.

(I tried my best with this pic, they are the size of dust)

 

The current state of the Valentines.

 

And finally, a male and female cricket.

Edited by TennesseeAnts, August 6 2018 - 4:39 PM.

[FeedTheAnts]

I've made a little terrarium for the Strumigenys colony using the dirt from my cockroach farm. I think it will be good for them because my cockroach farm soil was LOADED with springtails. They haven't entirely moved in yet, but I did get some pics of some of the colony. It looks like some of their larvae may be alate larvae?

Edited by TennesseeAnts, August 7 2018 - 6:25 AM.

[TennesseeAnts]

I've made a little terrarium for the Strumigenys colony using the dirt from my cockroach farm. I think it will be good for them because my cockroach farm soil was LOADED with springtails. They haven't entirely moved in yet, but I did get some pics of some of the colony. It looks like some of their larvae may be alate larvae?

OMG! THAT IS WHAT I FOUND IN THE PECAN I OPENED! They were so tiny I couldn't ID them! I released them after the queen died. I am definitely going to find more!

Edited by Ant_Dude2908, August 7 2018 - 7:19 AM.

[TennesseeAnts]

So why do Strumigenys have such elongated mandibles?

[FeedTheAnts]

So why do Strumigenys have such elongated mandibles?

Not really sure. But they sure do look cool.

[TennesseeAnts]

Are they a type of trap-jaw ant?

[FeedTheAnts]

All is still going well in the terrarium. No aggression or fighting between the two colonies. It is probably like this because the Moss Monsters are never out foraging much when the Abdo-Lemons are. The Abdo-Lemons take random breaks from foraging some days though, and when they do then the Moss Monsters come out and eat almonds.

 

The Valentines of course have put their thinking caps back on and figured out another way of escape. This time they took advantage of the fact that I didn't glue down the glass. Workers started crawling underneath the glass, and out through tiny gaps. The problem was a pretty simple fix, just a little hot glue did the trick. It's on the exterior of the nest so I don't think moisture will get to it(hot glue is terrible with moisture).

Just some more pics of their brood.

I also added a second outworld/nesting area to the setup. So far the workers like hanging out in the extra tube, but there is no brood that has been moved into it.

I found this millipede a few days ago. I also found another one exactly like, but smaller. They both are in the terrarium now, and I see them every once in a while.

This is a Lasius interjectus Polyergus queen I caught about a week back. I spent quite a while getting some workers ready to introduce her to, but then realized I had accidentally threw her away earlier that day(I was cleaning out my garage, and threw away a bunch of ziploc bags).

Edited by TennesseeAnts, August 25 2018 - 2:37 PM.

[FeedTheAnts]

It seems that every time I pass the terrarium the female cricket is laying eggs. I took some video, and also took video of the interior of the Moss Monsters nest. 

Aphaenogaster fulva Colony Update + Large Cricket Laying Eggs - YouTube

[CoolColJ]

Is that cricket in with the ants?