61 replies to this topic

[Ants_Texas]

DISCLAIMER: I've recently bought Spamdy's Camponotus pennsylvanicus colony which wasn't doing so well. Spamdy couldn't easily find food around his location, so I've decided to care for his colony. The colony was up to 15 workers but a starvation period lasting one month got to them. I'm going to start this journal by copying all of Spamdy's posts until I make mention of when the colony was bought. Enjoy the journal! 

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 Camponotus Pennsylvanicus Journal

  7/12/17

  On 4/13/17 I was able to catch this queen in a fallen and decaying log. I have always been meaning to start a journal over her but I always procrastinate. But now, I'm bored so I'll just do it now i guess...

  She laid her first egg 5 days after I caught her and soon more to come. But that generation didn't survive or the next, or the next, or the next. This was caused by me stressing her every day and moving her to 3 different habitats in her founding stages. I was very new to the hobby and I was not very experienced, neither am I now. though lol. Only recently was she able to produce her first worker. She accomplished this on 7/9/17. The colony now has 3 workers.

Queen with first nanitic.

 

The first worker, enclosed at about 8:35 AM. The second worker enclosed shortly afterwards at about 9:10 AM. I'm deeming these nanitics, twins.

 Two days pass, and the third worker encloses (7/11/17)

 

 

Colony at 3 workers. (7/11/17)

 

The colony currently lives in a test tube setup, once bigger I will provide a out world and I haven't thought though much further.

 

 Their Test Tube setup shown below. A cotton ball soaked with honey and water(1:1) and even more honey.

 

 

 

  Yesterday I gave them the cotton ball with honey and more cotton and their gasters all ballooned up, especially one worker and the queen. After the workers enclosed I couldn't see any eggs, apparently the ants had mushed them all on top of some cocoons that had already been opened up. Today they abandoned the opened cocoon and I could finally get some clear pics of the eggs, even though not visible. Currently they have 4+ larvae, several about to pupate, some new. egg count isn't clear because the queen is always on them.

 remember I am NOT experienced, this is my first attempt to keep ant colonies and I will make MANY mistakes, if I do please kindly tell me. In the meantime the ants are getting better, and the queen is producing fast, I should have about 2-4 more workers before the month ends.

 

EDIT: My Camera isn't good at all as you can tell, I don't have a better one, Its just my regular phone camera, but in the meantime bear with me. 

EDIT2: Shout out to dermy for helping me get these pictures up!

Edited by Ants_Texas, November 17 2017 - 6:10 PM.

[Ants_Texas]

UPDATE 8/1/17

 

 So I haven't updated this journal for awhile. I was on vacation in Canada during this time. Not much has happened, they are still at 3 workers, but now with 4 pupae and a fresh batch of eggs. (4 of them i think) But regarding their nesting space I have been quite busy.

 

 I made an outworld! Actually I'm quite disappointed in myself. My "outworld" is a plastic box with feeders and a tube. The outworld has many negatives.

 Pros: Can provide food and sweets without making a mess      Cons: opening lid is too loud, therefore stressful to the ants and I. Tube rolls around when I open the box.

 

 This is going to be a very temporary outworld, when they get to 10-15 workers, they are getting a new Formicarium, I promise.

 

 

  Here's a picture of their setup.

 

So I gave them 3 spiders before I left, two feeders, a plate their tube and a plastic box.

 

When I go back,.... they plugged the feeders up, probably because their drinking source was too humid for them.\

 

Before: 

 

After: 

 

 As you can see I've always got to clean up after them. But regarding their growth, it has been quite steady and smooth, as I mentioned earlier, they now have 4 pupae and 4ish so eggs, yesterday I saw the queen lay an egg, but unfortunately I couldn't get a photo

 

Their brood

The other 2 ants are outside munching on a massive spider I caught the other day.

I estimate that in 2 or less weeks the worker count will be up to 7!

UPDATE 8/11/17

1 week and 3 days later...

We are up to 4 workers.             

Ha ha, that's over exaggerating it. My response to the 4th workers expressed better with this one emoji.    (and yes I did go through every one to see which one matched my thoughts the best lol)

 

Other than that, not much has really happened Edit: now that I read my post, a lot of things have happened, so I take that comment back. You can keep reading now. except of the fact that the queen has turned into an egg laying machine. The, eggs the queen laid last update have all turned into larvae, and about 5-10 more eggs have been laid. I was really expecting the pupae to enclose into workers soon, but most of them have only developed eyes, and started to turn black.... guess I have to wait, another week.

 

 Brood count:

 

   -3 pupae, one of them are darkening, and the other 2 have just developed eyes.

   -3 larvae

       -1 stage 2 larvae

       -2 stage 1 larvae

    -5-10 eggs, hard to see exact count because the queen is always hovering over the eggs, and some are stuck to the pupae, I want at least 4 of these eggs to be able to mature into workers.

 

Sorry no pictures this time, I am ashamed of myself.  

The pictures I took weren't that good, once I move them into a new formicarium the picture quality should increase by a lot. The main reason the photos I take are bad quality is because I have to take the pictures through a layer of plastic and glass that has insect guts everywhere, and.... my phone.

 

But pics are coming next update no matter how bad they are.

 

On a side note, I forgot to write in the main body of this post, I fed them fruit flies and crickets for the first time, they were getting bored of spiders every day anyway. The nanitic that is always foraging, is crazy, I suppose she drinks too much sugar water, anyway, she's always running around top speed for no reason, and when I happened to dump a bunch of live fruit flies into the outworld, as soon as the fruit flies came out, this serial killer did too. She was running around spraying formic acid everywhere, within seconds she had killed 5 fruit flies.The 2 poor fruit flies that had survived the massacre are now cowering on the lid, it won't be long before the nanitic finds them, and they like their fruit fly friends too, will be fed to the hungry larvae. The End. 

[Ants_Texas]

UPDATE 8/14/17

 

Early update! This time with bigger and better pictures! 

For a 3 day time period, things have been busy. I've attached the test tube to the new formicarium! I wanted them to move in, but after a bit more research, I figured it would almost be impossible to actually get them to move. So I stopped the move, but I didn't detach the tube from the Formicarium, instead I replaced the dinky old box outwold for the new cleaner outworld with actual decorations! I won't force them to move anytime soon, when the ants feel too crowded or something else, they can feel free to move. By the way, the Formicarium is a Tar heel ants fortress, Yeahhhh I'm lazy...

 

 I took a lot of pictures to make up for the last post. With the tube outside, instead of being stuck inside a box, it allowed me to have a better viewing experience and also better pictures!

 

I could get some bad macro pics( Just my phone Camera, no actual macro. )

But it was clear enough so that I could count the eggs. 

 

More egg pics, you can see the giant worker/replete in this picture. Its the biggest worker and enclosed last update. I don't even understand why the worker has red fluids in her gaster, I suppose it's Cricket juices. 

 

More pics:

Notice in some of these pictures, look closely at the pupae, you can actually see the shape of the worker, which was really cool.

Trophallaxis being performed between a queen and worker.

 

Brood Count:

 -2 pupae, find out what happened to the other two later 

 -About 5 larvae all in different stages 

 -15-20 eggs

 

 And yes, we have 2 new members of our colony, 2 new workers!    Which means the worker count is up to 6!

Here is a bad picture of all of them huddled together in the tube somewhat close to each other.

I have high hopes for this colony, the amount of eggs this colony has right now is phenomenal! When all of these hatch, in about 2 months, I think the worker count will be somewhere in the upper 20's and lower 30's. Also since I live in Houston, I don't need to hibernate my ants, so they can grow all year long, even if the slow production, I think the main reason of the queen laying so many eggs, is so that when winter comes, the colony has a bunch of workers to go through, so I'm pretty sure these eggs will enclose before winter. Also school starts this week for me, so updates may be shorter than they usually are. 

 

 

EDIT: I forgot to post some pictures. lol, Here they are.

 

 

Um, I forgot to add, but I actually got to watch my 5th worker enclose, I forgot to document it but I still took pictures of it starting when I saw a bunch of workers crowding on one pupae. Sorry for the bad pictures, it wasn't an ideal time to take pictures.

 

I'm ready to enclose!

 

 

 

 

My feet are stuck to the floor...

 

 

Almost there...

 

 

I didn't get a picture of the worker out and ready, but that doesn't really matter, she's out and ready in the other picture where all 6 workers are shown.

I can't believe that I forgot to post this.     

UPDATE 8/17/17

 

They finally moved into the new Formicarium! It's a bit big though, they are basically all crammed into one chamber on top of the water tower, and the two oldest and smallest workers love the top two chambers where it's dryer than the rest of the formicarium. The day after they moved in, I fed them a spider, workers rushed out and devoured it. I didn't expect the to be so hungry, I never saw a worker even forage after they moved in. So I fed them another spider and again, half the colony rushed out and ate it. They spent awhile trying to stuff it into the formicarium but they couldn't because it was so big, so they just sat outside and had a picnic. On a side note, another worker enclosed, boosting the worker count to 7.

 

In the morning after they moved I found the queen hanging down like a replete. I don't even understand how she's going to lay eggs in that position, if she even will.

More pictures.

Even more pictures.

And more.

Pictures right before they moved.

Counting brood will be harder because the chambers are deep and these ants decided to block the brood from view so I can only guess and estimate.

 

Brood count:

 -2 Pupae

  -1 has eyes, the other just developed into pupae

 -5-10 larvae

  -2 stage 2 to 3 larvae

  -5-10 stage 1 larvae, some of them just turned into larvae

 -15-20 eggs, these just keep coming.

 

I made a few short clips of this colony.

 

 http://<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lm6jJVmJv6E" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

http://<iframe width...creen></iframe>

(at the 15th second you can get a glimpse of the queen going into the formicarium.)

 

That's all for this update.

 

EDIT: I don't think the links work, try this:

UPDATE 8/30/17

 There are 2 reasons why I haven't updated this journal, not because I don't have time but but because nothing exciting has happened with this colony.  There has not been any worker boost since the last update. Lets do a brood check.

 

 Brood Count

  -7 Pupae, one is black and is almost ready to enclose

  -7ish Larvae 

     -About 7 stage 2 and 3 larvae

     -About 20 eggs

 

Now all they do is sit around the nest... doing nothing. So I don't have much to report on. But outside of that I've got some more stuff. I caught 4 Pheidole cf. constipata queens. 3 have died already, but they were infertile. 

 

 After Harvey I walked in my neighborhood trail and found some ant species that I've never seen before. I'll be posting their ID threads later today. 

 

I just saw the 8th worker enclose so yay. Sorry for the short post, when something more exciting happens I'll be posting pictures.

[Ants_Texas]

Update 11/16/17

The colony was brought to my house on this day. I will be paying Spamdy for the colony soon. I continue this journal on as he wishes! 

[Ants_Texas]

Update 11/17/17

Today the colony was spoiled! They've received a moth and a cut up grass spider. They have a great, healthy brood pile going and I hope they will nurture them using this food.

 

Queen w/ Workers

 

 

Brood Pile Shot

 

Worker Guarding Nest Entrance

 

Expect some pretty frequent posting from me this time, I'm excited to restore this colony's former glory!

[Ants_Texas]

Update 11/20/17

I'm not entirely sure if I counted the workers wrong or if a new worker eclosed, but we're up to nine workers!   I'm sure many more are on their way. I've also got some quite nice pictures this time:

 

I'm about 90% sure this queen actually thinks that she's a honeypot ant. I've only seen her off of the ceiling one time so far. 

 

In this picture it appears that they've moved the brood a bit. Hopefully this means that they're feeding them. I'm just hoping that the queen doesn't fall at this point.. 

[T.C.]

Awesome, species to keep. Great pictures.

Edited by T.C., November 20 2017 - 11:33 AM.

[Ants_Texas]

Awesome, species to keep. Great pictures.

They sure are, they've got quite the personality.

[Ants_Texas]

Update 12/19/17

The colony has been doing fine since the last post, but they haven't been making any progress. The Fortress that they're in seems to be too big (as they're only occupying one chamber and dumping garbage), so I'm going to move them into a cloned setup of my other Camponotus pennsylvanicus colony tomorrow. It's going to be one of my larger test tube setups placed inside an outworld with sand. My other colony has 21+ workers and seem to prefer this setup over a nest. More on this tomorrow! Now for the pictures.

 

Not the best quality picture, but you can make out the brood. Looks like a few larvae, one pupa, and a couple batches of eggs. 

 

Here's a slightly better picture of the ants. I just couldn't get the lighting right today. I'll be sure to get some good ones tomorrow.

[Ants_Texas]

Update 12/20/17

Turns out they're going to be harder to move than I thought. I'm hoping that they'll move into a tube setup over night, right now they don't seem keen on moving.

Edited by Ants_Texas, December 20 2017 - 8:55 PM.

[Ants_Texas]

Update 12/23/17

I got them to leave the fortress by coaxing them out with a stick. Now they're in a way more suitable setup. The tube that they're in is foggy though, so I'm going to set in another one and move them into that, this way I'll actually be able to take pictures.

 

Here's their setup. They've been enjoying some nice honey and spider today.

 

This is what I mean by the tube being foggy. Luckily I'm going to spare your eyes for the next update.

[Ants_Texas]

Update 12/23/17 #2

Forgot to mention that we're up to 10 workers.

[Ants_Texas]

Update 12/24/17

The population explosion is on its way.  Also, they've been transfered to a much more clear tube.

 

Kind of blurry, but you can make out all of that tiny larvae!

 

Here's a shot of all of the brood and the queen. Brood Count: pile of Eggs, 2 large Larvae, pile of small Larvae, and one Pupa.

[Ants_Texas]

Update 12/26/17 

Over the past couple days they've denied a cut up spider and a green insect, which my other Camponotus pennsylvanicus colony loves. I have to say, this worries me. Check out all of this larvae!

 

All I can do is hope that they'll accept protein on a later date. That is a ton of larvae to be denying it. 

 

Sometimes I completely forget that my colonies need fruit, like apples. Today I gave all of  my colonies a cut piece of apple. Some interest was shown earlier by them, but I'm not entirely sure if they'll accept this either. On the bright side, it seems a couple workers are adopting the replete status in the colony.

[Derpy]

Don't these need to hibernate?

[Ants_Texas]

Don't these need to hibernate?

I live in Texas. I don't think any ants require hibernation here.

[Diesel]

Nice Journal. I wouldn't be too alarmed about them not eating something they ate not long ago. this is a very young colony and they won't eat every day. you mention some workers are acting like repletes. their gasters look quite full so that might be all they need at the moment to sustain themselves. think about it like this. if you had a massive stomach that you could store food and you ate an entire turkey at Thanksgiving to feed you and your other 3 friends are you really going to need to go out for a turkey burger when you're still full from that big meal? LOL probably not. they'll eat when they are hungry.

Edited by Diesel, December 28 2017 - 5:02 AM.

[Ants_Texas]

Nice Journal. I wouldn't be too alarmed about them not eating something they ate not long ago. this is a very young colony and they won't eat every day. you mention some workers are acting like repletes. their gasters look quite full so that might be all they need at the moment to sustain themselves. think about it like this. if you had a massive stomach that you could store food and you ate an entire turkey at Thanksgiving to feed you and your other 3 friends are you really going to need to go out for a turkey burger when you're still full from that big meal? LOL probably not. they'll eat when they are hungry.

Yes this is true.

[Ants_Texas]

Update 1/7/18

First update of 2018, and it's boring! Yay!

 

They've been eating some spider and cricket recently. I will update again when the 11th worker ecloses.

[Ants_Texas]

Update 1/13/18

We're up to 11 workers! I also put them into a plain setup because I'm fed up with them covering everything with sand. I've also got some comparison pictures of my other colony. 

 

Here they are in their new tube, and new setup. Couldn't get all 11 workers in frame because they always run around everywhere.

 

 

This is my bigger colony of 30 workers, including one major. Looks like that massive larva in there will become a major as well! This colony seems to have about two times the brood of the journal colony. However, with all of the larvae that the journal colony has, they'll have a population explosion in around two months.