157 replies to this topic

[anttics]

So this colony is a certified Nurbs colony. Bought it for my bro to take them to college. So school. Hopefully chicks kept him busy. Half the colony died. He messed up. It was at 10 went down to 5 one enclose a few days ago. Numbers at at 6. The colony is active and the queen is laying eggs all the time. They have at least 8 form brood, and 3 larva ready to pupate. There are 13 larva of all sizes, And 30 or more eggs. I had then for a week. And they recovered.
I stuffed them with crickets. And apples. I will not have pics. Until the end of the weekend. Keeping them at 90 to 93 degrees. I hope I can make them grow to maturity. This ants are funny. I open the lid. 2 seconds later a worker. Comes out to the out world. And waits for food to rain. It takes them another 2 seconds to drag it inside. I believe these ants can count, and recognise movements or sounds to collect food.
Veromessor pergandei seem dumb compare to these quick smart ants. I recommend to get a colony. They are the most fun ants to watch in Cali.

[anttics]

Here is a pic of their brood. And a new born worker. There are 11 pupa. 2 are orange. A few days from waking up. Around 15 larva all sizes. And a ball of. Eggs
Previous set up. Was too humid. I changed it back to my original design. A week later they are thriving.

last set up. It was too humid. You can see larva who drown inside that cricket food. Now they it's not too humid they do not stick and from anymore

Edited by anttics, April 30 2018 - 10:05 AM.

[anttics]

Hello. So I check on this colony today. It all seem normal. Until I notice this.



It looks like its mold. On one of the pupa. The one next to the worker. I took a few pictures after a few hours. Later I notice the side little black patch is almost gone. And it is not mold. It's inside the pupa.



I have a bad feeling. that one is a gonna.
We will see. I feed them a piece of cricket. It's almost gone when I checked them the second time. For close up pics of the pupa.



I'm also glad to say. There are 2 developed pupa. One of them is moving slowly. By tomorrow morning there will be 2 more Workers. Count will be 8 by tomorrow.

Edited by anttics, May 1 2018 - 7:35 PM.

[CoolColJ]

The black bits inside the pupa is food the larvae has inside it.

If you feed it coloured sugar water you will see this

[anttics]

The black bits inside the pupa is food the larvae has inside it.
If you feed it coloured sugar water you will see this

I KNOW they are transparent. If you look closely. On the lower right side. Where the larva are in pic. You can see it died. It got darker and shrieked.



Also if you look to their pupa sector. There is a larva stuck inside the skin of a cricket.

In this next pic you can see the larva that got stuck. Next to the queen. eating with a smaller larva who is gone some how. This pic is 12 hours earlier.



I had to open the nest and I was able to get that larva unstuck. This is pissing me off. I'm not an ant to be saving their larva. These ants are smart yet extremely stupid. I never seen veromessor pergandei let their larva drown inside the food.


This pic is a perfect example. look at larva sector. I'm sure a few larva will die inside that cricket skin. There are like 3 larva inside of it. I'm not saving any of them anymore. Ill let nature take its course if they dumb like that. Well Darwin at its best. Stupid animals die. Smart one make it. The only precaution I'll do from now on. It's cut their food in tiny parts or just give them fruit flies. If they mess up on well.

Good news is at least 3 out of the 15 larva made it to pupa. Plus the one I save. The other ones died or were eaten.

One thikng I notice the more humid the nest. The more the larva got stuck inside their food. Then drown. They also throw away the trash with larva still inside. This set up I have them in is much more dry than test tubes. I think I might take all humidity away, and see what happens. I'll place their water in the out world. Nest will be at ambient humidity. 20% or less.

ANY body with these species that had this issue and solved it please let me know. My gut tells me its the humidity.

Edited by anttics, May 2 2018 - 7:41 AM.

[YsTheAnt]

I had the same problem. I honestly think it was lack of humidity. The larvse will not get stuck in the cricket skin, they tunnel in there to eat the insides, it's a behavior with novomessor.

[anttics]

So you added more humidity and fixed the problem?
My brother try that. His set up was more humid than mine. And more than 50% of larva died inside the crickets, and mealworms. After returning them to the original set up. The larva death lower a bit. I guess I'll have to experiment. If extreme humidity kills them. I'll try low humidity. I'll post here the results. I'll place the water in the out world. I'm ok with sacrificing a few larva. I'll do it when they have low larva numbers. Thx for the quick respond

[YsTheAnt]

Yeah, mine only got four workers now , but tons of eggs!

Edited by YsTheAnt, May 2 2018 - 1:58 PM.

[anttics]

Something is killing them. Change seeds. This colony had always a slice of Apple in the out world. I would change it every 2 days or 3.

[anttics]

ANY body knows of this species have a social stomach?. I hear am genus lacks one.

[KBant]

They don't

[anttics]

Update. I was having some issues. Before with larva dying inside their food. I lower the humidity and if fix the problem. They are at 30% to 40% humidity Max. They colony has bounce back to 11 workers.

They have small larva for now


Brood are low as well. 1 or 2 more will wake up in the nexr day or 2


This is 12 houts earlier form above pics. They are safely eating their dayly cricket




They seem to be back to normal. I think its time for them to go back to their original owner. Thei water resveroir has smaller holes. And from what i have seen almost 2 weeks have pass. The levels of water have not droped at all. I'm happy woth th os hydro system. Simple and efficient.

[anttics]

Well this colonynis returning tonits owner. I discover this ants do share food. My guess is they have a small social stomach. Here is a pics. Of them feeding each other.


They aint lesbians

The colonynis at 17 workers now. And have 25 larva. 12 formed pupa. And 5 young pupa.


Tons of eggs at the top you can see one egg ball they have 2.


pupae

I have also discover a way for them to go crazy over their seeds. I mix them with hum bird nectar. They love tgeir seeds now.



Advise for people who has this species. Do not pass 50% humidityband obove. You will encounter failed larva. 30% humidity seems perfect for them. They are now healthy no dead larva. They consume a cricket a day. I exoect this colonynto reach hundreds by the end of the year.

[anttics]

I will gey this species for my self. And steal brood from my bro. Hehehehehe

[anttics]

Again my brother is having problems. Mass brood deaths. Lost almost 10 larva. Lost 4 workers down to 17. He is in Santa Crus. Close to the beach. Humidity is higher there. Plus his dorm is always close. so no good ventilation. I keep my colonies in the garage. Is dry, and warm. And a window is open 24/7. I believe. I won't be successful with mountain camponotus. Desert species trive in my garage. I had his colony for 2 weeks. And they bounce back with brood. I will be getting this colony from him. He will take 2 camp vecinus I have. By the end of the month. i will continue this journal. I also bought a camp fragilis. A Nurb's certified colony. They are at 50 strong and growing fast. From now on I will only keep desert species. For people with cockerelli problems take in consideration were you live.

[anttics]

I have this colony back. I gave my brother 2 camp. Vecinus queens with larva to my brother. I will keep this ants from now on. They seem to do so much better under my care. Here are some pics.

3 more ants woke up when i had them i think they are at 20 workers now. With tons of pupae. Almost 1/3 of larva were lost under my brothers care. This are the few larva that survive.



They are not eating as much as when i had them. Well they did have like 30 or more larva eating at one point.

Edited by anttics, May 25 2018 - 9:58 AM.

[anttics]

Wow. This colony has a growth hormone I'm not aware of. In like 2 days. Their larva number triple. And the are almost as big as fully grown larva. I even think they multiple as fast as veromessor pergandei. I think there are 24 ants. With 40 larva, and 30 pupae yeap I'm not making it up. Count them your self.


There is one larva close to the queen that did not make it. I blame my bro. Lol


I'm really exited to get this colomy to maturity. Ill have them in my living room. Along with fragilis.

Edited by anttics, May 29 2018 - 10:34 AM.

[KBant]

i have a new colony of these guys. 

 

can you link me what seeds you feed? also what protein and how often?

 

also what is your hydration source? just the water towers?

 

also a picture of your nest from higher up? i might try to replicate what i see.

 

i might have to use a heating mat for my colony to get them to be as warm as they like. 

 

thank you!

Edited by KBant, May 29 2018 - 2:34 PM.

[anttics]

Sure kb ill post pics, and how I had then tomorrow. Unfortunately. When I got home i found a note with 2 testubes. My brother left for school today. And took this colomy back, when he saw they were doing so good. I got the vicinus queens back. Ill get one from Nurbs one of these day. This ants are the funniest to look at. A must have in my opinion

[anttics]

This is how i had them. Its composed of 2 4x3 inches by 1 inch or less high. I joined both. one for their nest, the second one for their outworld. The nest is divide it in 2. It has 2 little beat containers. With a small whole with cotton covering it. For hydration and humidity. I also connected a test tube in case i forget to add water to the conatiners. Which i did twice.











Do not exede 70% or higher in humidity. I advice 40% humidity. Keep at 90 to 93 temp. Make sure heat comes from above. The way i feed them was depending how much food they had left. Once they had 20% left of a cricket i put a new one. They ussually eat a whole mideium cricket in 24 hours with 20 or 30 larva present.

For the workers food. I put crashed sunflower seeds cover in hummingbird nectar. aples slide every 3 or 4 days.

Edited by anttics, May 30 2018 - 9:24 AM.