1787 replies to this topic

[CoolColJ]

So far they have dumped some rubbish in the food bottle cap onto the honey, and side of it.
They also have another dump inside the nest, that looks like cotton from my water bottle cap and some dead body parts.
 
They also created a little bubble of water in the large claustral chamber they finally moved all the brood and queen into, against the acrylic wall
 

[KitsAntVa]

There will never be a reason to complain about what ants you have over there in europe and australia because they are all just better replicas of north american species. 

[CoolColJ]

There will never be a reason to complain about what ants you have over there in europe and australia because they are all just better replicas of north american species. 

There are some cool NA species, but I wish Carebara was more common here and we had some of the larger species, we only have some obscure small ones and C.affinis which are only found in torpical areas

[CoolColJ]

Large Camponotus species and Myrmecia are sworn enemies of each other around here

 

Looks like there was a big Camponotus nigriceps raid on my local and friendly to me Myrmecia nigrocinta nest!

And the Camponotus lost out by the looks of things. Lots of dead major bodies and one beheaded head.

 

Surprised the bodies are still around as these big majors, 15-16mm, make a decent feed

 

https://www.instagra.../p/CGUVHyQglkd/

[KitsAntVa]

 

There will never be a reason to complain about what ants you have over there in europe and australia because they are all just better replicas of north american species. 

There are some cool NA species, but I wish Carebara was more common here and we had some of the larger species, we only have some obscure small ones and C.affinis which are only found in torpical areas

 

Well at least you have a chance of keeping them, but on the bright side we have pheidole pilfera and davisi over here.

[DDD101DDD]

 

 

There will never be a reason to complain about what ants you have over there in europe and australia because they are all just better replicas of north american species. 

There are some cool NA species, but I wish Carebara was more common here and we had some of the larger species, we only have some obscure small ones and C.affinis which are only found in torpical areas

 

Well at least you have a chance of keeping them, but on the bright side we have pheidole pilfera and davisi over here.

 

Don't complain about north american species either, we have fungus growers and harvester ants.
 

[Kaelwizard]

 

 

 

There will never be a reason to complain about what ants you have over there in europe and australia because they are all just better replicas of north american species. 

There are some cool NA species, but I wish Carebara was more common here and we had some of the larger species, we only have some obscure small ones and C.affinis which are only found in torpical areas

 

Well at least you have a chance of keeping them, but on the bright side we have pheidole pilfera and davisi over here.

 

Don't complain about north american species either, we have fungus growers and harvester ants.
 

 

Also, we only complain about ants in NA because that's what we see all the time. People in Australia see what they have all the time and get bored with those. It's like how we may get bored over Lasius or something because we see them all the time, and he gets sick of seeing Myrmecia all the time.

 

Lasius are awesome that was just a example.

Edited by Kaelwizard, October 14 2020 - 7:07 AM.

[KitsAntVa]

Yea i understand i know they get bored with theirs and us with ours but i don't see how anyone could complain about the one and only JACK JUMPER ANTS!! Those have got to be one of the coolest looking and have the coolest features of an ant ever.

[CoolColJ]

Large Camponotus species and Myrmecia are sworn enemies of each other around here
 





Looks like there was a big Camponotus nigriceps raid on my local and friendly to me Myrmecia nigrocinta nest!
And the Camponotus lost out by the looks of things. Lots of dead major bodies and one beheaded head.
 
Surprised the bodies are still around as these big majors, 15-16mm, make a decent feed
 





https://www.instagra.../p/CGUVHyQglkd/

 
Absolutely gutted.... the C.nigriceps raiders came back for seconds and this time they won!
Every couple of days I would walk past this M.nigrocincta nest and say hi, and let them walk on my hands.... ahh no more
 
vids
https://www.instagra.../p/CGZloUaAy1W/
 
 
The nigriceps have over taken the nest, and only a few crushed nigrocincta bodies around the place. Legs still twitching on some so the raid was recent.
 
 
 

[Kaelwizard]

NO! Rest in piece. 

 

How are your Opisthopsis doing? Still thriving?

[CoolColJ]

NO! Rest in piece. 

 

How are your Opisthopsis doing? Still thriving?

Yeah, they have a massive stockpile of brood over winter, that have just started to cocoon.

Hasn't been warm enough for the population to explode yet.

Looks to be about 50-100 larvae and maybe 30-50 cocoons.

 

Population looks to be down pre winter, so maybe around 100 now.

So numbers will double back up when summer hits.

Which means it's time to move them out of the boring THA Atom C nest  in an outworld setup.

 

The nest has been dry for a while, and it doesn't appear to bother them, so the humidity stays up even without water in the tank...

There is a water test tube outside where some of the workers hang out

[CoolColJ]

Spring 16th October 2020

Pheidole antipodum 14-15mm queens x 2


Queen 10, former member of dual queen - simple tub and tubes
1500+? workers and some majors of all sizes - massive brood pile

They have started a second brood pile in the water test tube
So things are starting to explode a bit
Still no sign of the super majors yet


Queen 5 - 20mm test tube - heat cable
8 donated workers and 1 medium major - some larvae and small clump of brood

I can see some medium sized larvae now, they just suddenly appeared the last week, so the donated workers from the other colony have done their job!
Soon the queen will have her own workers.
Colony will get back on it's feet after the mite disaster wiping out the 500+ workers.

Really surprised how well the donated workers accepted their new queen and just no hostility on either end.
I dumped in a few more in since last time.

Edited by CoolColJ, October 16 2020 - 3:51 AM.

[CoolColJ]

So it turns out fluon doesn't hold my Iridomyrmex colony. I just let them wander about... turns out they found the heat cable and moved most of the brood onto it 6 inches away....
 

 

https://www.instagra.../p/CG7Hia5Ap51/

[Kaelwizard]

Haha! You'll have to find a lid now.

[CoolColJ]

Haha! You'll have to find a lid now.

It has a lid but I took it off to keep the humidity down....

[Ants_Dakota]

1 thing is sure about ants. if you move them into a nice new humidity controlled formicarium, the first thing they will do when they have a chance is move out

[CoolColJ]

Also you can see my strobe ants in the video, they have good eye sight so must be thinking WTF is going on

 

A few  strobes like to hang out near the heat cable and all the brood are placed on the side nearest to it as well

Edited by CoolColJ, October 30 2020 - 2:48 AM.

[ANTdrew]

1 thing is sure about ants. if you move them into a nice new humidity controlled formicarium, the first thing they will do when they have a chance is move out

True. That is what I call “Myrmy’s Law.”

[KitsAntVa]

You give them a nice place to live and wander around but as soon a crack in the system leads to a open world with dangerous animals and winter cold they will leave. But if you want them to move into a giant outworld that’s not happening.

[Ants_Dakota]

You give them a nice place to live and wander around but as soon a crack in the system leads to a open world with dangerous animals and winter cold they will leave. But if you want them to move into a giant outworld that’s not happening.

them little stinkers.