49 replies to this topic

[Crystals]

Despite puling them out of hibernation, they decided that they had plenty of reserves and had no intention of waking up.  They finally decided that it was spring around early October.

The larvae started growing again, and spinning cocoons.  Queen is laying eggs again.  So they are now in a reverse hibernation, and I am quite enjoying seeing ants when the wild ones are sleeping.

 

There are about 100 workers, and I didn't even bother to try and count the brood.

 

[dermy]

Whatever happened to this colony?

[Ants4fun]

Update?

[Crystals]

Thought I updated this.  Guess not.

After all the pupae eclosed, I put them into hibernation on Jan. 30.  They are still in hibernation enjoying a good nap.

[dermy]

Some more Reverse-Hibernation? Sounds good! Hope they do well for you once they wake up!

[Crystals]

These were brought out of hibernation in the middle of May.

The larvae that had overwintered quickly started growing, and growing.  Most of the pupae are very large, possibly 3/4 of them are majors.

A few weeks out of hibernation the queen started laying eggs.  They keep them mostly in one clump.

 

[dermy]

Wow are they ever filling that thing up!

[Crystals]

Some growth, they have all different stages of brood.

 

I usually feed this colony with drops of nectar, and since I was going away I put in a feeder.  The way they swarmed it, I suspect that they really missed their old feeder and I may have not been offering enough.  They drained it in 4 days, and all ants in the nest have distended gasters now.

 

Turns out they seem to like those little meat pieces from Friskies cat food.  This was the first (and thus far, only) time I offered them this.  Usually the dog cleans the cats leftovers before I get to them.

[dermy]

Wow that is a lot of brood! They are going to be eating a lot soon when those larvae start growing more!

[Crystals]

The pupae in the previous picture have eclosed, and the larvae have grown a bit and have stopped growing.  The larvae now sit in a cooler part of the nest.  All of the workers have heavily distended gasters.  Which means they are ready for hibernation.

I will give them lots of protein this week since there are still 8 or so workers in the foraging area, then into the wine cooler they will go.

 

Update: They are in hibernation as of October 5, 2015.

[Crystals]

Barely into hibernation one week and what do I see when I glance into the cooler today? (glass doors are great for idle checks)  One or two small workers roaming around the cooler.  Unusual, but not the first time, I originally figured it was one of the extra Camponotus herculeanus colonies that were about due to come out.  They sometimes slip out if the lid isn't on tight in the one type of container.  I ignored them, hoping they would eventually hang out on the cotton plugging the test tube that they belonged to.  Terrible to stick them into the wrong colony, and I have 7 or 8 of that species in hibernation right now, most with under 10 workers.

 

I came back later that evening to see more ants out - including several huge majors.  That is not good, majors can't squeeze out of anything.  And I have only one colony with majors that large - this colony.

 

I grabbed my trusty featherweight tweezers and a dusted escape proof bin and grabbed every loose worker I saw in the cooler - 12 in total.  Carefully pulled out the nest to see that they chewed through a 3/4" cotton plug in the main entrance.  Removed the now-useless cotton and quickly replaced it with a new cotton ball. 

Do you need to get by entrance guards to stuff 10 workers inside a piece of tubing?  Distract them - throw in a 3/4 dead mealworm.  It keeps most of them busy.  I managed to get them all inside the tubing without incident and plugged the entrance behind them.

 

I found a small test tube that just barely fit over the tubing and filled it 1/4 full of hummingbird nectar.  Quickly removed the cotton and capped the tubing with the test tube, leaving about 1/2" of room in front of the test tube cotton for turn around room.  They may chew threw cotton, but not through glass or vinyl tubing.  Now they can get snacks and cannot escape. 

 

I will have to make a mental note to do this for all larger colonies...  I did it last year for most colonies in case they ran out of reserves, they had so many fat workers this year I wasn't worried and didn't cap the tubing with test tubes. Lesson learnt. 

Now I just hope they don't realize that the side entrance is only plugged with cotton, although I only use that entrance to move the colony and they have never chewed on it.  I doubt they even realize that it is a potential exit.

[Crystals]

I went to pull them out of hibernation and the queen and about 50 workers were dead.

Not sure why so many died, I have never had this kind of problem in hibernation before.  I suspect that the corner they were in dried out a bit too much.

 

I will keep the workers, and when the queens fly in May/June I will see if they will accept a new queen or two.

 

In the past I introduced 1-3 workers to a workerless queen and they accepted her.  These were workers who had been without a queen for over 4 months, and they all accepted a new queen.  It worked as long as the new queen was without workers - otherwise her workers (even if it was just one small nanitic) would try to fight off the "invaders".  I did remove the lone nanitic and the queen accepted the 18 new workers (when I tried to re-introduce the nanitic after a few days, she kept trying to pull the workers out, so I ended up removing the nanitic).

[dspdrew]

Well that sucks.

[Miles]

Are you absolutely sure they are dead? Camponotus ants often curl up and look like they are dead during hibernation, and can take as long as a week to wake back up.

[dermy]

I've heard about this too, don't throw them out just yet, put in some water [moisture] and let them sit for a bit checking on them. Maybe offer them some liquids too

[dspdrew]

I'm guessing Crystal has enough experience with hibernating Camponotus that she probably already knows this.

[Miles]

I'm guessing Crystal has enough experience with hibernating Camponotus that she probably already knows this.

That would be my expectation too, but I think it's better to play it safe than sorry and make sure she does.

[antmaniac]

Check for the heartbeat. On a serious note, sorry for your lost.

[Crystals]

I know that Camponotus can curl up during hibernation and can take up to 5 days to wake in extreme circumstances.  The queen sometimes takes longer than her workers.

But she has not moved for over a week and all of the workers are up and about.

 

I will keep the workers and see if I can get them to accept a new queen when they fly this spring.

[Miles]

I'm very sorry to hear that.