39 replies to this topic

[anttics]

next time spray her with some water. it helps them recuperate. I lost 20 ants in a massive escape. I try to put a test tube for then to kick it if they come back. the day I came back home I found them trying get into the nest. Some were not moving. I put then all inside the out world. and spray then with water. with in a minute the slow ones got faster. the once not moving moved slowly. other ants came and feed them. the next day I found 3 ants dead. out of 20. I think she will.get better. queens are thought than workers. and are a priority.

[YsTheAnt]

Nice!!! I didn't know that queens were that tough.

[Jadeninja9]

So after 2 days I found her! She was not in good condition, not moving and dried up. I put her back in the nest and she laid on her back twitching. I left her for a few hours and when I came back I saw the workers decided to build a cave for her instead of digging a nest. She is now back on her feet but not moving much and she is weak, but she should regain her health and start producing eggs in a day or two. I was lucky to find her right before she died. 

That is so awesome! Let's get a comeback baby.

[AntsCalifornia]

Th queen has been getting progressively better and is started to walk instead of dragging herself around, so it looks like she'll make a full recovery. I'll put up pictures later this week of her in the new formicarium, which they still haven't dug out a nest yet in. I accidentally made it a little too wet trying to re-hydrate the queen, and this species really doesn't like water too much. The workers are on the walls holding all the brood and haven't moved for a whole day. Hopefully it dries out soon so the workers can get a nest going. Their previous nests in the other formicarium looked really cool.

[AntsCalifornia]

The queen has made a complete recovery. They still haven't dug a nest, they occupy an area I accidentally made which is sort of like a cave. Here are some pictures.

There is some mold growing despite my steps to prevent it. I'm looking currently for springtails to put in my formicariums, which all seem to be growing the same type of gray bubbling mold.

Edited by AntsCalifornia, March 1 2018 - 10:34 PM.

[AntsCalifornia]

So the ants began digging a nest straight down, but then stopped for no apparent reason. I'm thinking that unnatural nest is the way to go with these guys despite the tunnels I saw them dig in the other formicarium. I'm thinking of trying a ytong nest. Here is the tunnel that was dug straight down. I gave them honey recently and rehydrated their thing, and they immediately stopped digging. It may be because they don't like moisture. They had 3 out of 5 working on it before that day.

(line on the right is tunnel)

 

Here is a picture of the brood. 2-3 large larvae were lost in the queen incident along with a few eggs. Right now they have 1 large larvae left with about 5 more developing larvae. I can't wait for the next batch of eggs. To speed up the process I need heat, but no place in my house is above 75 degrees right now.

Edited by AntsCalifornia, March 8 2018 - 5:14 PM.

[Ants4fun]

Great looking ants. Glad it turned out ok!

[AntsCalifornia]

Since they aren't digging a nest I decided to get supplies to turn one of my containers into a plaster formicarium. I bought the supplies and when they arrive I will begin working on the nest. It should be done in a week or two. Nothing big has happened recently. The brood takes a while to develop for Camponotus I'm learning. I bought a heat cable to speed the process up and hopefully get this colony going again. The queen hasn't laid any eggs in two weeks, and I'm waiting, hoping for her to lay a large batch that will get the colony going again.

Edited by AntsCalifornia, March 18 2018 - 4:49 PM.

[nurbs]

This species doesn't require dirt. All of mine are reared in test tubes with an outworld and do plenty fine. Also, while dirt-based formicariums are great for ants that require it, such as Myrmecocystus, it also hinders visibility and observation.

 

[AntsCalifornia]

So I finished the plaster nest. It was my first time so the design wasn´t that great looking and it crumbled a lot. I hooked up the ants but they refuse to move in. When I hooked them up they moved into the nest they dug a while back. I thought that it might be due to lack of moisture since that´s why they dug that tunnel in the first place. I knew it would help to move out if the nest was dry, but I´ve heard of ants being literally being stubborn to death so I hydrated it and completely flooded the nest. After 20 minutes of spinning up and shoving paper towels down the nest I was able to save all workers and brood, and they moved back to place above ground they´ve been hanging out at for the past month or so. I tried dropping some workers in the new nest, but they ran off the plaster to either the silicone plug or the wall and sat there  not moving antenna down looking super depressed. I didn´t even know an ant could look depressed. I led them back into the tube and they returned to the queen. They never went back down the tube. This whole process is really weird, any suggestions would be nice. Here is some pictures. I´ve known the ants to be stubborn moving out of the tube to the point where iI had to dump them out, so the process could be difficult.

Edited by AntsCalifornia, April 1 2018 - 7:54 AM.

[AntsCalifornia]

So they don't seem to like the plaster for some reason. During this move process they decided to eat all of their larvae, which really bugs me. I decided to move them back into a test tube, they immediately moved in. Not sure what's wrong with the plaster nest. I'm gonna try moving another colony into the nest to see if they like it better. I don't know if it's the material itself or the humidity. I'm going to try moving in a colony that likes high humidity. This really frustrates me, hopefully they can get to be a mature colony sometime. I'm going to try to get more of this species this year.

Edited by AntsCalifornia, April 8 2018 - 7:55 PM.

[AntsCalifornia]

So I tried moving my very expendable rover ants (Brachymyrmex patagonicus) and stick them in the plaster formicarium. They had the same reaction. They hated the plaster and stayed mostly on the walls and i gave them back their dry test tube to collect their brood, and they just moved back in, huddling to the bone dry cotton. I don't know why this is happening. Other people have made plaster formicariums before. I just used the normal plaster of paris. It said that it was for hobbies, not sure what that means. I want to be able to use the supplies I bought for it, so I'm going to try to find out what went wrong.

[nurbs]

You are trying way too hard with this. They don't need a dirt setup or even plaster. Dirt setups makes observation hard. If you do use plaster, it needs a good few days for it to completely cure. Even though the plaster is hard does not mean it is ready for the ants. Uncured plaster can be harmful. Every single one of mine are in simple test tube setups in a plastic bin outworld, and they all thrive.

[AntsCalifornia]

After giving them protein, my queen laid a bunch of new eggs, hopefully I can get this colony going again. I'm also going to try to catch more of this species this year.

[AntsCalifornia]

So this colony is doing good, got lots of eggs, just have to wait 2 months for them to develop. The weirdest thing happened with them lately though. Their large larvae has taken on the shape of an ant and it looks as if it completely skipped the cocoon! Should this worry me? Also, does anyone know if this species requires dirt for their cocoons? 

[CoolColJ]

So this colony is doing good, got lots of eggs, just have to wait 2 months for them to develop. The weirdest thing happened with them lately though. Their large larvae has taken on the shape of an ant and it looks as if it completely skipped the cocoon! Should this worry me? Also, does anyone know if this species requires dirt for their cocoons? 

 

It should be fine. I've had a few of my ants do that and the workers turned out great.

I've had pupa not spin a cocoon even with substrate, sometimes they just need workers to help them spin a  cocoon.

[AntsCalifornia]

Okay, thank you. Thought I might have been doing something wrong.

[B_rad0806]

Update? It’s been a year and 2 days

[Rstheant]

Edited by Rstheant, March 7 2019 - 3:25 PM.

[AntsCalifornia]

Forgot to update, something weird happened and the tube they were in got all sticky, so I moved them, and the same thing happened, and a little later they died. I don't know why it was getting sticky, I didn't even put food in there. Also the queen looked really skinny when this happened. I'm hoping to get more this year as this will be the first year that I'll actually go out looking specifically for queens.

Edited by AntsCalifornia, March 9 2019 - 4:46 PM.