25 replies to this topic

[MrCobalt]

7/12/19: My colony has exploded over the last few months, after they stopped hibernating. They now have what I estimate to be 50-100 workers! They have a big appetite! I fed them an entire jolly rancher and they ate a decent chunk of it, and also they like the peanut butter I gave them. I don't have any pictures right now but I will soon!

 

 

I'm also now raising a Camponotus pennsylvanicus. queen and she has pupae already, so she should have workers soon

 

Sorry for not updating this in a while 

Edited by MrCobalt, July 11 2019 - 11:30 PM.

[MrCobalt]

8/8/19: My Camponotus pennsylvanicus. queen is doing very well! Last time I checked she had 6 workers with 1 or two repletes that are pretty full. I'm on vacation right now so I don't have any pictures or videos of them. When I get back I'm probably going to make a video for my channel about my ants. My Tetramorium are doing well to. I fed them before I left. They had some sugar water from pieces of cotton, and they enjoyed that, got to see a carpenter worker "holding" a drop of it while she drank it all up. Also I gave the carpenters two small cricket legs which they happily devoured, and overall they are doing well.

Expect a video when I get back

[MrCobalt]

8/11/19: I have come back from vacation and I made a video on my ants, here it is, feel free to skip through it because it is kind of long and not very interesting(I'm still working on making decent videos, I'm kinda new and I don't practice much, i'm hoping to get better at it though):

The ants are doing pretty well, but three of the carpenter workers died, and there were still 5 left, so two new ones came out. Plenty of brood, mostly pupae it looks like, so plenty more workers coming. I hope you enjoy the video! Also, just as a reminder, there is a subscribe button on the youtube webpage. Feel free to click it. Or don't. I don't mind. As long as my ants don't die.

Anyways, I'll make a more detailed update later when something interesting happens.

 

EDIT: oof the video quality is garbage. I hope to get a better camera soon, so I will have better videos. Like probably MUCH better. Expect to see that soon, in maybe a week.

Edited by MrCobalt, August 11 2019 - 3:52 PM.

[MrCobalt]

8/13/19: Never mind I have the new camera now I made a slideshow of some nice 4K and 5K photos of the ants. The only small problem is that the lens that it comes with isn't made for taking pictures of small things, so in a lot of pictures (And frames, when I start making videos of the ants) are going to be a bit out of focus, but they should still be fine.

The ants are still doing very well and they seem happy with their food although one of the carpenters seems to want to escape. The rest are chill though, including the queen which is good because seeing her jaw power she could probably tear through the cotton ball in a few hours if the workers convinced her, so it's good that only one wants to get out.

The tetramorium ants seem happy enough, they are still climbing the levels of the nest, I can usually find 2-3 workers on the 3rd of 4 layers, and more like 5-10 on the 2nd layer, and the bottom layer is usually pretty empty on one side because that's where the ants keep the queen, who is behind a wall they built. I assume a lot of brood and workers are behind the wall to, because whenever I shine a light on them, a lot of them come out and say hello.

Here is the slideshow of the ants:
https://www.youtube....h?v=rccfCYZRYug


Can someone tell me if the things I mentioned are potentially red flags because I'm not confident in my ability to read what the ants want, so when they get upset I just feed them and make sure they have water. Thanks!

Edited by MrCobalt, August 13 2019 - 5:11 PM.

[MrCobalt]

8/14/19: I just saw my Tetramorium queen for the first time in a while, for a while now they kept her hidden behind a wall but I guess it got a bit warm so they moved her out temporarily, but it is good to know that she is alive

[MrCobalt]

2/24/20: My ants are resting happily in their nest, still hiding behind their wall lol
Sadly my Camponotus ants died of lack of water, I also caught a formica ant since my last post, but she lost her worker, no idea why.

Edited by MrCobalt, February 24 2020 - 7:12 AM.