209 replies to this topic

[FeedTheAnts]

This is just a quick video of my Aphaenogaster colony eating a spider.

(The music is soooooo cringey.... I know.... it was not the one I meant to put in it)

Aphaenogaster Colony Eating A Spider

 

 

[CoolColJ]

Does your Aphaenogaster have what you consider long legs?

I have a ton of Aphaenogaster longiceps nests near my house. These ones have long legs.
The holw bush trail is covered in their nests.
Their flight season is in Septmber. So it won't be hard to get a few queens if I turn up at the right time

[FeedTheAnts]

Does your Aphaenogaster have what you consider long legs?

I have a ton of Aphaenogaster longiceps nests near my house. These ones have long legs.
The holw bush trail is covered in their nests.
Their flight season is in Septmber. So it won't be hard to get a few queens if I turn up at the right time

Sure. I'm pretty sure all aphaenogaster ants are considered long legged.

[FeedTheAnts]

Update:

the two Carpenter Ant colonies were looking very cramped in their new small test tubes(diameter wise that is), so I bought five very large glass tubes. I only have three now because two of them broke in the first hour even though they are pretty good quality, guess I'm just bad with glass.

I gave the Aphaneogaster colony one of them to live in as well, and they moved into it super fast. I haven't posted a picture of the Carpenter Ants in a while so here are some to update you on the development of their brood.

But first, the populations of the colonies are:

Camponotus castaneus - 7 workers

Camponotus chromaiodes - 16 workers

I say this so you can know that a lot of the workers are out of the pics foraging sometimes

 

 

(five ants are drinking honey out of the pic here)

 

 

 

Edited by TennesseeAnts, May 22 2018 - 3:00 PM.

[FeedTheAnts]

The Abdo-Lemons terrarium has been redone due to mold issues. It turned out that I didn't even need to remove the ants to add a drainage layer and bake almost all of the dirt. I just removed as much dirt as I could without breaking into the ant nest and then added a drainage layer to the now exposed bottom of the tank and then added the dirt back after baking it. Unfortunately, my AntsCanada Hybrid Nest got left out in direct sunlight and well... got completely ruined(I'm still evaluating whether or not it is still usable). It warped and shrunk. I didn't like it anyways, it wasn't a formicarium I would recommend buying(even if it was still sold). I was probably not going to use it again, at least not for a while.

[FeedTheAnts]

Update:

The Valentine Soldiers population has blasted through the roof! They have an easy 175 workers at least, with no less brood than before. In fact, colony now has a whole new pile of 150 or so eggs. The main reason why is that there are a lot of houseflies flying around in my house right now... and some of my ant colonies get to eat two or three of them every day!

 

Like I mentioned, the Hybrid Nest got ruined in the sun, but I've contacted AntsCanada about getting a replacement. They've already got back to me, but just without an answer at the moment. Fingers crossed!

 

The queen of the Camponotus castaneus colony has laid five eggs in the past two days, and I actually got to see her laying one. Nearly all of the current pupae have eclosed, and so they are up to eleven workers.

 

The Camponotus chromaiodes colony is doing crazy good. Lots of brood, big appetite, and around 40 or so eggs. There also appears to be two pupae that look like they could be majors... can't wait till they eclose!

 

Luckily, there has also been no mold sprouting up in the Abdo-Lemons terrarium since it got redone. I'm sure this is mostly due to the dirt being baked.

[FeedTheAnts]

Update: 

Yay! I found an unidentified Pheidole queen! I'm really lucky because there are no Pheidole that I've seen around here that are of any good size, but this queen is actually not all too small. 

 

Also, I know I haven't mentioned them at all, but I still have the three Winter Ant queens that were caught about three months ago. They actually have a worker now and all three queens are still alive. I may or may not keep them. The only reason I've kept them up to this point is because I didn't have to do anything with them. Not too interested in Winter Ants anymore.

[CoolColJ]

Got any pics of her?

[Aaron567]

I somehow just discovered this journal and I am in love. 

[FeedTheAnts]

I somehow just discovered this journal and I am in love. 

Thanks a lot. Love the support.

[FeedTheAnts]

 

Test tube wasn't the right temperature

Edited by TennesseeAnts, June 3 2018 - 9:44 AM.

[TennesseeAnts]

Whoa! Those Crematogaster have a TON of brood!

[FeedTheAnts]

Whoa! Those Crematogaster have a TON of brood!

They should, I work full time just catching them food

Edited by TennesseeAnts, June 3 2018 - 1:12 PM.

[Dotdispenser]

Hey, man! Love this journal. I recently captured my own Camponotus Castaneus queen (MY DREAM SPECIES) and am about to create my own journal for her. Keep up this awesome journal, can't wait to see what colonies you get this year and how your current colonies expand!

Edited by Dotdispenser, June 3 2018 - 7:35 PM.

[FeedTheAnts]

As you can see from a recent picture, I've been having some trouble with the Crematogasters leaving their tube and moving into the outworld( I way overheated it), which meant that I had to make some temporary changes to their setup to get them back into their tube. Afterwards, I went ahead and moved them to a more simple setup of one of my small cube containers with dirt in it. I'm still waiting on AntsCanada to contact me about sending me a replacement for my Hybrid Nest. If they do send me one then the Crematogasters will be moved into it, which I'll be no problem because these guys are absolutely the most heat loving ants of all, and will do anything to nest where it is warmest(not too warm though, as I now know). I'll just move the dirt nest off of the mat and the new nest onto it. The second they crawl through the tube and find the new nest they'll start moving in.

 

[MegaMyrmex]

Amazing ants, just look at all that brood!

[FeedTheAnts]

Two more Camponotus castaneus workers have died since this morning. I hope this isn't anything bad. They have twelve workers though because some more pupae have eclosed.

 

There is some good new though, the Pheidole queen laid three eggs. I'm still skeptical that it could Pheidole dentata. It's a little larger and darker than dentata. I guess I'll just have to wait for workers... maybe they will make identification easier.

 

[FeedTheAnts]

When you bear in mind that this colony only had about forty workers five weeks ago then this is a pretty awesome sight to see!

Sorry, I just love posting pics of the Valentines

Edited by TennesseeAnts, June 7 2018 - 3:59 PM.

[FeedTheAnts]

My "Pheidole" queen turned out to be a Tetramorium queen

I'm really disappointed. I decided though that I wasn't going to keep any queens or colonies that I didn't absolutely want. Tetramorium are definitely not an ant that I care to keep and so I got rid of the queen. Really hope there are some Pheidole queens out there for me to catch though.

 

As some more unfortunate news, the Camponotus castaneus colony lost another worker. It was in the outworld acting completely normal and drinking honey like normal, and then when I came back a few minutes later it was weak looking and half dead. I hope this doesn't continue.

[FeedTheAnts]

The Valentine's little temporary dirt nest turned out to be kinda hard to hydrate so I connected one of my 1" diameter tubes to it. They moved themselves in by the end of the day. I almost feel like I'm keeping a Fire Ant Colony when I look at these guys. They have gotten way more active foraging and more ferocious in general. They now have the ability to make a spider "disappear" in no time. The queen really does get a lot more of attention by her workers as well.