154 replies to this topic

[anttics]

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.

Crap. My brother messed up then. the previous set up. was super moist. and some tiny amounts mold appeared. to me it was no issue since I could open the cover and clean up anythime. he made some vents. after that the brood started to fail. thanks for the info. I would have never guess. since they had plenty of water to regulate their moisture. I though harvesters ants. like messor barbarus could regulate their moisture, by bringing water into a dry nest. I'll update how this new batch looks.

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

lol. that is the life of the super majors. they do not do a thing. all they do is eat, sleep, look at the whole colony break their backs then repeat the next day.

here are some promised pics. of egg tunnel



here is the tiny pupa. I think won't make it



I hope people learn from my mistakes. i like to write them down as reference. some other journals never mention their mistakes.

ahhh. crises. got home an hour ago. to find the vinyl tube of the out world disconnected. hundreds of ants out side. most were chewing up the cotton on my fruit fly culture container. got them all back. I counted yesterday 350+ ants. just count them right now. there are only 330 ants. I hope the other 20 come back to the nest. I left a test tube outside with seed for them to go in. I'll check every hour to see of the missing 20 ants return. I'm glad I came home. to pick up my car. other wise. I would have come back around 12pm. lucky, and unlucky at the same time. I also found an ant on the floor twitching. I kept it out the nest not to introduce some decese. I hope the ones I put back in are not carving some mites or something else.

Edited by anttics, February 9 2018 - 5:33 PM.

[anttics]

Update on the Xenomorph colony.
For a 2 weeks. the ants where discarding 1 to 2 failed callow workers on their trash.
it's been now 3 days with out any failed workers. their numbers have reach 400+. here are some pics if the brood.






The colony has also started to throw away all sand from the new test tube I gave them. they made a ring type line on their nest entrance.



I have also been giving them salt for a few hours everyday. they seem to love it. there is always 1 or 3 ants liking salt. I have some pics.







empire fought wars over salt. I thought ants will appreciate salt.

the colony seem in good health, and very kick back. they barely go out in numbers. it's too cold here 45 to 65 at the hottest part of the day. development has slowed down a bit. queen has not laid for a few days. their protein intake is minimal. 2 meal worms a week for a 400+ colony seems small. number of larva is low. less than 100 that might be the reason. anyways.
will report soon.

[YsTheAnt]

You should heat them up

[anttics]

ystheant you are correct. I changed them to a previous formicarium. I fixed little bugs it had. it transfers heat better as well. so they took their first cricket in months. they took it around 8pm. by the morning it was completely gone. I have a video. enjoy



They love those crickets. I have figured out why they do not take big insects. I think their tubes connecting the out world, and nest are small. I guess they do not see it's tight, but crickets will fit. instead of using the out world I used the test tube. to introduced then the cricket. in 5 minutes 8 ants drageded it out side. in 30min. all limbs were gone, had cut the gut open. it took them 8 hours to finish the whole criket. it's not fun really it was inside the nest pretty much. I guess I will have to fit larger tubes so they feel confortable taking big insects. I will work on it today, and have a solution by tomorrow. maybe get it fix on the weekend.

I was reading drew journal. on his pergandei colony. look at this major. my majors are not that size. I blame it on lack of proteins. hopefully. I will get super major one day. I guess I have majors no super majors. this girl is as big as the queen. mine are almost 3/4 the size of the queen.

Edited by anttics, February 26 2018 - 9:34 AM.

[anttics]

Update on the Xenomorph colony. Something bad happen. I was on a hurry. Friday weeeee you know. I got tire of the fog on the formicarium. so I forgot to cool the ants in the fridge, and open the container. it's very compact. I open it to clean the water on the lid. here is a picture.



this is before I fix the fog. now this is how it looks with the fix



unfortunately. I killed one of the majors, and a minor. you can see the major on the second top cylinder coming from the right. the minor. whose gaster got stuck on the cylinder for hydration. Was removed, but it gaster it's still stuck. the major. I will have to open it again, and run the chance to kill more. almost 50 ants woke up in a week. last time I open it. I had no problems. I do not know how many ants are there. my estimate is 400 to 450. I have a question. how long can I leave the dead major in there. is there any danger of sickness or, parasites.???

[anttics]

big update. so as I said before I had a dead major inside. so I made a replica of the used formicarium.



unfortunately. I was not able to get pics or videos of them moving. I went to have lunch. by the time I came back they started to move the seeds. which I dumped on the out world.



the way I moved was simple. I'm sure it will work with any ant. I put the new formicarium with the heat pad on top. and an ice pack on top of the old one. by the time I was back they had moved all brood.





all larva are in the middle. pupa are on top closer to heat pad.




no dead ants. the queen was sleeping when the moved finished. right about now she is being fed. I did not took pics. I just left. the colony is eating protein like crazy. a giant meal worm every day. plus a cricket every 3 days. here they are eating their daily giant meal worm. they are done by morning.






the colony has had 10 to 20 workers waking up each day for a whole week. I'm not sure how many ants are there. I estimate 600




inside nest and out world. it's hard too count them. Got to go. till next update of the Xenomorph colony.

Edited by anttics, March 10 2018 - 10:06 PM.

[anttics]

Well the colony has reach good numbers now. this next batch will fill the nest as it should. I thinking can hold 3 times more ants. here are some pics.


I have not been able to count them. there are hundreds in the out world harvesting seeds.


a few hundred brood. I'll say 2 weeks max for all to wake.


Larva numbers have shrunk. well that is not an issue. If you look closely. you can see. the biggest egg pile the colony ever had.


a pic of the eggs a few hundred. May I exaggerate. maybe close to 1000.

In 2 weeks. let's see how many more join the Xenomorph colony.

[anttics]

Well. I thought it will take 2 weeks for previous shown brood to wake up. they are starting to wake up on Wednesday 10 at the time. every day. here are some pics.




this generation of larva. are fed crickets and meal worm only diet. I want to see what food makes them grow bigger workers.




this brood was chicken fed only generation. the smallest ants are around 3mm, while majors are around 5 to 6mm. very few major though. I have seen only 3 at the time. ants keep.moving them so.its hard to be accurate

[anttics]

A short update. the xenomorph colony has read the 1000s now. the largest Major I have seen so far. should wake up in a week or 2. the colony has breach the plaster ground making a hole all the way down to the plastic. I have some pics. I will use grout for the next. I will move them out next week.




about the same size of brood as this pic woke up in less than a week

Edited by anttics, April 9 2018 - 12:53 PM.

[anttics]

Well I had to update. the number of brood almost double in 1 or 2 days. they are growing too fast now. I notice they were at 93 degrees these last heat wave. and over accelerated their production. I plan to remove their new to g source. I'll see how much they slow down. or if causes ants to die. so far I have 2 dead ants in a period of 2 months. they're in superb shape. here are some pics compare it to last update.



let's see how they do with 80 degrees. I expect a 50% reduction in proteins. which they take 2 crickets a day. as well as 1 giant meal worm every day. first super major also enclose. 7mm minimun.
I have proven that crickets are way more nutritious than chicken breast. much larger ants and faster growth compare to chicken.
next batch will.be a mix of chicken and insects.

Edited by anttics, April 11 2018 - 12:18 PM.

[anttics]

Hello every one. I won't be posting much from the xenomorph colony. My brother is taking them. He had bad luck with novomessor cokerelli. He had very little time. Half the colony died. I'll be taking care of them until they reach the 100s. I will also open a journal for them.

[anttics]

I got this colony back. I returned the Novo colony back to.my brother. They are at 20 workers now. Healthy as they can be. With 30 pupa ready in 2 months.
Back to the xenomorph colony. They have reach 1000s mow. Here is a pic of the out world. With hundreds of ants chilling.



There are 1000s inside the nest. Ill take pics of them in next post. I will also make a huge formicarium for them. Ill take pics so you get an idea. It will be a 4 sided grout nest. With a 13x11x6 inches clear container on top as an out world. Which i will use as a mold to make the grout nest. I'm still deciding on the hidration method. Kb gave me an idea from his formicarium. I will place a plastic container with a silocone tube where i can refill it. Recomendations will be appreciated

[KBant]

I will try my luck with this species this year. I hope I’m as successful as you!

[anttics]

They are easy. It will take some time to reach 100s. Once you get 300 or so they explode in size every month. I went from 600 at the end of the year. Now there are 1000s.

Well here are some pics of the nest









There are hundreds maybe thousands of brood and larva.

They are taking 2 to 1 large crickets a day. They go through seeds once a month.

[anttics]

Big update. This colony keeps growing hundreds at a time. I just build a ne w giant formicarium for them. I thinkmit can hold 20000 ants or more. AlsoI saw some larva I have never seen before. They are the lenght of a mediam. But fat extremely fat. I believw the first super majors the max they can grow will be born soon.
Here are pics of the formicarium. Is still in prosses.







U will continue next week. It will be complete by then.

Here is a pic of the xenomorph colony.




There are maybe 1000 kore ants in outworld.



Ill. Nexr week with finish product. And maybe the big nove un 2 weeks when grout is dry. Thx for watching yall.

[KBant]

Holy F#%^

All that brood

Daaammmnnn boiiiiiii, very impressive

In the future though, copy what you want to type into Microsoft word, and let it correct your grammar and spelling.

Let your grammar and spelling be of the same caliber of your pictures/content.

[YsTheAnt]

Nice looking formicarium. You may want to coat the chambers with grout, as veromessor can chew through the firebrick like it's butter. Keep up the great work!

[anttics]

I'm too lazy. I see your point. it can be hard to read. Yeah they grow way too fast after they reach certain numbers.

About the formicarium. I though about that. This k23 fire brick is too soft. k26 sound better if you have the tools. They will defenetly chew this with easy. I was thinking about cement. Since I plan not to water the nest. I will use a container inside the nest. which will have a fine mesh on top. Evaporation will give the humidity they need. I doubt they could chew cement. I'm Not to sure. Does anyone has a better suggestion?. I need some type of coat they could never chew.

[YsTheAnt]

Grout is fine, but cement might also work. Grout is the "tried and true" method, but it could work with cement. I vaguely remember someone saying it poisoned their ants though, so proceed with caution.

[anttics]

Grout is fine, but cement might also work. Grout is the "tried and true" method, but it could work with cement. I vaguely remember someone saying it poisoned their ants though, so proceed with caution.

You might be right. Cement might have chemicals that could hurt ants. I will stay with the proven method. It works fine with a brush right. I plan to do it right now. Ill use grout to coate it. Any ideas what to use to give it a nicer look.