154 replies to this topic

[anttics]

the larva are eating some fish flakes on the last pic.

[anttics]

Update. I checked the colony today. and inside their nest I found ants torn apart. they look brownish and small. I though they were Argentine ants. I checked the tubes. in each tube there are 2 or more dead ants being eaten by the workers. took macro videos. they look to be their own. they were too black to be argentines. these ants are cannibals surprise right. I will post videos of them eating their sister soon.

They have also change their behaviour. All of the pupa were brought back to the tubes they used to keep them next to the heat pad oitside. for some reason they now keep them inside the cold tubes. something had happen not sure what.

Well I just gave them a cricket in case they are too hungry. unfortunately they seem to hate defrost insects they do not touch them. if they are eating ants. I'm hopeful they will take the defrost cricket.

I'm puzzled. I hope anyone can check these ants being eaten. to see if they are a different species they look to be Veromessor pergandei. I could be wrong. I will keep recording them.

Edited by anttics, December 22 2017 - 8:57 PM.

[anttics]

video of them munching on their sisters.

[YsTheAnt]

To me looks like deformed callow workers.

[anttics]

since last update. I have found every single day. 1 to 4 dead workers in the trash pile. I take then out everyday, but they keep bringing more. they are not doing well at all. the queen has not lay eggs in many days. I can exclude dying from old age. since all colonies get 3 to 5 nanitics the first month. so they should die in 5s and then skip a few weeks. not every single day with out fail. so far I have lost 50 ants. in a period of 3 weeks. I threw the towel trying to find out the reason they are dying. I'll just let them be. hopefully they will survive. ill update if deaths stop if not. then one last post to give them a farewell to ant heaven.
so far They are at 250 strong. with lots of brood. that for some reason keep dying, and become larva food. in last 3 weeks only 5 workers have woke up successfully.

good sings are. They are taking proteins, and seeds. test tubes and nest have no mites or weird smells. temperature inside the nest goes from 78 at the coldest and 85 at warmest.

Edited by anttics, December 28 2017 - 5:40 PM.

[anttics]

To me looks like deformed callow workers.

I hope you are right. I'm at a lost as to why they are dying. or being deformed. I believe humidity was the factor, and once they realize that. they brought them back to the cold test tubes. to ensure their success at a lower pace, but still success. I hope they get better. my last resort or move if this keeps going. will be to change them back to their original set up were they were driving. its hard to record them, as well as temperature reading. their survival is more important than recording them or study them. will see if 2018 brings them luck.

Since you mention deformed ants. I have not seen ugly betty. the only deformed ant who serves the Xenomorph colony. the colony has 3 noticeable characters. the queen, ugly betty who is missing . she is my favorite. I almost decide to kill her when she was born a month ago, but she moved funny and was super active so I kept her alive. I fear she is among the 70 dead ants since I change them to their new setup, and Hercules the biggest super major still alive.

oh well I wish all happy New Year. ant season is coming soon be ready.

Edited by anttics, December 28 2017 - 6:03 PM.

[nurbs]

Yeah something is killing them. Did you wait til the plaster was completely dried and cured after pouring? I usually wait a week. And yeah, the smell of strong vinyl can harm them as well. Maybe let it air out more.

 

All of mine are doing well, no dead workers. 

[anttics]

well deaths have stop. 3 days with no deaths. I think the honey was killing them. the only issue is the amount of failed callow workers. still the ratio of success is higher. at least they have a dead callow being eaten once every day or 2 days. the brood pile.is big as well as the egg pile. here are some pics.

[T.C.]

They are looking good!

[anttics]

Update. Colony is stable now. no more deaths in then last week. I have stop giving them honey. which is what was killing them. the Xenomorph colony has reach 320 workers. there 3 super majors now. and hundreds of majors and very few minors. ugly betty is 100 percent dead now. I have not seen her since the deaths started.
unfortunately I can not tell Hercules apart from the other 2 super majors.
Queen has at least 100+ eggs with some tiny larva inside the cluster. at least 100 almost fully grown brood. who are waking up 1 to 3 callows. per day.
this summer they will reach the 1000s. so I have to start thinking of a large fish tank. I'm not sure if do terrarium. or some plaster or fire brick set up.

[StopSpazzing]

Nice, congrats. Why name your ants when you can't tell them apart because they are literally the same? colony sure, but idk about individual ants.

[anttics]

I know. at the bigginging you can. first super major. born at thx giving. and the only deform worker born a few days after. now there are 3 super majors so names are obsolete now. thx. I'm glad they recovered. I'm sure the old ants were the ones dying in mass. the young ones were able to resist the crap honey I gave them. I am the worst unnatural disaster for these poor colony. from now on I won't give them any sugar waters or honey. they are only eating blue grass seeds and sunflower seeds. they do not accept. chia seeds, poppy seeds. I will try nicer seeds soon. Nurbs told me these ants can live with only those 2 seeds and insects of course.

[YsTheAnt]

These seem fun in a natural setup, but it needs to be big, as these have huge mounds of dirt

[anttics]

Well. no dead ants in almost 3 weeks now. they have reach 350 ants. they also have almost 150 grown pupa. hundreds of eggs and larva in 5 test tubes. they will explore in summer. only thing I notice. my super majors do not do a thing. they only walk around smell the insects and keep walking around. the minors are the ones that struggle to carry the food. when a super majors could do it in a few seconds. what is worst. when the minors can not bring the food inside. they leave it in the out world. again super majors do nothing. even when they have the power to carry the food inside. has anyone experience this with their colonies. i mean they try for 24 hours to move it to the vinyl tube entrance. after that they give up. here are some pics of nest. with





here she is staring at the wall it's the last ant on the top. lol she just eats, sleeps, rave repeat.

Edited by anttics, January 15 2018 - 6:40 PM.

[anttics]

News from the colony. they had some mold on a few of the test tubes. they kept parts of meal worm for weeks. so I decide to move them to an experimental formicarium. its made of a beat container with removable walls. here are some pics.



as you can see there is good humidity in the first row. it's still a bit humid they have not gone in there yet. unless they need to drink water. there are also 2 test tubes attached with water in case I forget to hydrate the nest. I was worried it won't be enough. but they have not gone inside the tubes in almost 2 days. so they are ok with water. more pics of the inside.


eggs and larva are kept here with the queen




here they keep the fully develops brood. so far there are 350 to 400 ants.

Edited by anttics, January 24 2018 - 8:19 PM.

[YsTheAnt]

Nice idea for a formicarium!

[anttics]

so I changed them to a new formicarium. the one before was leaking some water. the sand saved the ants from drowning. so this is the new one. smaller. and with better humidity. there are 4 little containers with water inside. They have cotton coming out of the side for the ants to drink. no leaks no issues.



dirt is wet cause I drop water by mistake.



the next morning half of the formicarium dirt was wet. I thought there might be a leak. but I double triple test the water containers.





When I looked closely. I notice this ants engineer the water to come out and wet half the dirt. they stick dirt to the cotton. which humidifies it and spreads to all dirt in contact.



They are loving it and not a chance of them drowning.



the container in the middle. was supposed to humidity the nest. it has openings cover with mesh at the top. but it is not necessary now after the ants engineers the nest to hydrate better.

you can also.see them doing ant bread. which is being fed to the larva. they have not taken any insects in almost 2 weeks. I noticed lots of small brood. weird. they do not want to make majors. I'll update when this tiny brood become ants
a short video. of them making ant bread into squares.

Edited by anttics, January 30 2018 - 2:27 PM.

[anttics]

update. the colony seems to have problems rearing healthy brood. I have counted at least 30 ants who became black as regular ants, but never woke up. then find them.in their trash torn to pieces. I think they are not feeding the larva properly. this fail brood are tiny. I have not seen a callow workers in a month. at least 10 adult ants died in this past month. numbers are close to 350 ants.
I moved them back to their previous set up. just in case. the colony has taken only 4 meal worms in a whole month. they refuse to eat crickets, and any other insect they used to love. they only seem to accept only fruit flies 100% of the time. the queen seems in perfect shape so does the colony. she has hundreds of eggs. they have made tunels inside their egg ball. it's funny. ill post pics. not so many larva maybe 100. and I'm being generous. pupa close to 100. all tiny as the failed pupa from before. so I can expect these 100 pupa never to wake up. I have faith they will come back up this summer.

[dspdrew]

Sounds to me like they don't have enough moisture. When a few of my V. pergandei nests went dry, all their brood turned to tiny pupae, while all the colonies that didn't dry out were still small larvae. From what I saw, the brood develops very quickly and remains very tiny when they don't have enough moisture.

[StopSpazzing]

Love the updates! For everyone that doesn't have it stuck in their head yet:

Edited by StopSpazzing, February 8 2018 - 10:34 PM.