29 replies to this topic

[sweetgrass]

I have a C vicinus colony I removed from a piece of wood.  Hoping they do well.  Can't see queen under all the workers.  They are in 2 test tubes and a portal.  Waiting for my TarHeels formicaria to arrive.  I was able to gently remove many eggs and larvae but they are underneath all the workers and queen.  I don't have them heated.  Its soon time to hibernate them.  Should I wait until the eggs all hatch? Should I get a heat cable?

[Rstheant]

Nurbs, you calling yourself an idiot?

[Straywolf94]

Lol, no Queen #4 is the one you dropped Nurbs, she's doing ok.

[Straywolf94]

11/3/2018 Update:

 

Queen #1:  Decided to put her in the freezer.

 

Queen #2: About 8-10 workers.  No brood or eggs at the moment.

 

 

Queen #3: Doing very well and up to about 20 workers, plus still has some brood which you can see in the last image.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Queen #4: Has maybe 5-6 workers, no brood.

[Straywolf94]

Feeding this species has been a little frustrating.   I've been feeding them either sugar water (200mg sugar in 1mL water) or maple syrup water once a week, which I think they drink.  But they won't eat fresh slices of superworm.  Queen#3 colony did attack a freshly killed cricket when they had lots of brood.  But now, they don't even touch the crickets anymore.  Probably because there is no brood to feed?  They seem disinterested in fruit flies too.

 

Just don't know what to feed them.  Or should I just leave them alone to start hibernating them?

[Rstheant]

Very nice setup. Good luck

[Straywolf94]

I sold Queen #4 so are left with 2 colonies for these guys.   

 

Queen #3 is doing well still and the colony has its first major eclose a few days back.  I am seeing another huge cocoon in the pile which could be  another major on the way.  They have a healthy pile of eggs and larva, so I may need to think about moving them into a larger nest soon.

 

Queen #1: dead from being frozen

 

Queen #2: not doing so well since her formicarium was a bit dirty.  Found a ton of tiny bugs in them (could be springtails?).  Cleaned out the case and put her into a new test tube.  She currently has 2-3 workers and no eggs.

[Silq]

how many workers did queen #3 have before the Major eclosed? that seemed pretty quick timewise.

[PacificNorthWestern]

they didn't need protein because they didn't have any brood to feed.

[Straywolf94]

how many workers did queen #3 have before the Major eclosed? that seemed pretty quick timewise.

 

That colony was the most productive of the 4 queens I got.  In first year, they got up to about 25 workers, but no majors.  Not much activity over winter and the workers slowly died off one by one.  But in the spring of 2019, they rebounded back to about 20 ish workers.  I think the major was from the first batch of eggs hatched in the summer.