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Dspdrew's Acromyrmex versicolor Journal [119] (Discontinued)

dspdrew acromyrmex versicolor journal fungus growers leaf cutters

469 replies to this topic

#341 Offline dspdrew - Posted January 13 2018 - 9:59 AM

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Update 1-13-2018

Bad news. I don't know why, but the large colony I bought back from Vendayn has pretty much died off. First the fungus started turning brownish, and the workers stopped putting anything on it. Eventually it was all dead, along with most of the workers. I still have the queen and a few workers left, but I don't think they're going to last. Right now the have a small piece of healthy fungus I gave them, but it doesn't seem to be getting any larger.

 

Most all the other new colonies have suffered the same fate. I had two left with healthy fungus, but now it looks like the largest of the two is dying off.

 

I think next year I am going to sterilize everything and keep them completely quarantined. It just seems like some sort of pathogen is responsible.



#342 Offline nurbs - Posted January 13 2018 - 12:26 PM

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He should have given it to me.


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California Ants for Sale

 

Unidentified Myrmecocystus

https://www.formicul...ls-near-desert/

 

Undescribed "Modoc"

https://www.formicul...mp-ca-5-4-2017/

 

Camponotus or Colobopsis yogi:

https://www.formicul...a-ca-1-28-2018/

 
Camponotus us-ca02
https://www.formicul...onotus-us-ca02/

 

Unidentified Formica

https://www.formicul...l-ca-6-27-2020/

 
Pencil Case and Test Tube Formicariums
https://www.formicul...m-and-outworld/
 
Bloodworm Soup
https://www.formicul...bloodworm-soup/


#343 Offline dspdrew - Posted January 13 2018 - 12:40 PM

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He should have given it to me.

 

:lol: Aren't all of yours dead too?



#344 Offline nurbs - Posted January 13 2018 - 12:45 PM

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He should have given it to me.

 

:lol: Aren't all of yours dead too?

 

 

They're dead because they didn't have fungus!


Instagram:
nurbsants
 
YouTube
 
California Ants for Sale

 

Unidentified Myrmecocystus

https://www.formicul...ls-near-desert/

 

Undescribed "Modoc"

https://www.formicul...mp-ca-5-4-2017/

 

Camponotus or Colobopsis yogi:

https://www.formicul...a-ca-1-28-2018/

 
Camponotus us-ca02
https://www.formicul...onotus-us-ca02/

 

Unidentified Formica

https://www.formicul...l-ca-6-27-2020/

 
Pencil Case and Test Tube Formicariums
https://www.formicul...m-and-outworld/
 
Bloodworm Soup
https://www.formicul...bloodworm-soup/


#345 Offline YsTheAnt - Posted January 14 2018 - 2:14 AM

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What is Vendayn's secret... I really want it raise these someday.

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#346 Offline dspdrew - Posted January 14 2018 - 2:43 AM

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  • LocationSanta Ana, CA

I don't think it's any kind of secret. I had a bunch of huge colonies for quite a while before, but they eventually died off too.



#347 Offline YsTheAnt - Posted January 20 2018 - 1:03 PM

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Yeah, after reading his whole journal I feel like the key is keeping their humidity and temperature consistent, which can be hard at times.

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#348 Offline Vendayn - Posted January 20 2018 - 1:35 PM

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65q24g4g5f


Edited by Vendayn, March 9 2018 - 7:16 PM.


#349 Offline YsTheAnt - Posted January 21 2018 - 12:16 PM

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Yeah... I feel like trying my hand at these now, just to see if I can do everything that I have seen work and see if I can sustain them.

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#350 Offline dspdrew - Posted February 16 2018 - 7:23 AM

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Update 2-16-2018

The last of the remaining colonies finally died.



#351 Offline sgheaton - Posted February 16 2018 - 7:29 AM

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what did you do with the nematode?

 

Put it in the trash.

 

You mean murder-burned with fire?


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#352 Offline AntsCalifornia - Posted May 4 2018 - 3:14 PM

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Update 1-13-2018

Bad news. I don't know why, but the large colony I bought back from Vendayn has pretty much died off. First the fungus started turning brownish, and the workers stopped putting anything on it. Eventually it was all dead, along with most of the workers. I still have the queen and a few workers left, but I don't think they're going to last. Right now the have a small piece of healthy fungus I gave them, but it doesn't seem to be getting any larger.

 

Most all the other new colonies have suffered the same fate. I had two left with healthy fungus, but now it looks like the largest of the two is dying off.

 

I think next year I am going to sterilize everything and keep them completely quarantined. It just seems like some sort of pathogen is responsible.

I used to be really interested by this species and I used to look up the mega colonies people would make with Atta. After looking at all these huge successful colonies, I realized that all of them had tons of ventilation holes in every part/chamber in the nest. I haven't ever seen anyone with a huge successful acromyrmex versicolor colony except one time, and it was filled with ventilation and had computer fans to blow air through the nest. I know that in a science documentary said that atta build their nests a specific way so it will even capture the slightest breeze and use it to filter out the CO2 the fungus makes. I noticed that your nests have no ventilation except through the outworld. Is it possible that your large colonies are suffocating as well as the fungus? Maybe you should try replacing the ceiling of the nest with mesh and see if they do any better in that.



#353 Offline dspdrew - Posted May 6 2018 - 7:33 AM

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  • LocationSanta Ana, CA

Nobody makes these modifications to the nests in the wild and they seem to survive. My largest colony made their own nest, the same way they do in the wild and eventually the fungus died.



#354 Offline YsTheAnt - Posted May 6 2018 - 7:37 AM

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Nobody makes these modifications to the nests in the wild and they seem to survive. My largest colony made their own nest, the same way they do in the wild and eventually the fungus died.

Then again, there is probably little to no breeze in your home, so maybe breeze might be a key factor for these. The air circulation thay is provided by a computer fan can't just be provided by Oxygen diffusion, it needs something actively moving air through the tunnels. Just a thought...

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#355 Offline dspdrew - Posted May 6 2018 - 8:00 AM

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I don't think a breeze is going to blow down the entrance of an Acromyrmex nest like a computer fan. If the 5% humidity desert air was blowing through the nest, I'm sure the fungus would be dried out in no time. I'm not saying the CO2 doesn't need to go somewhere, but I'm not sure computer fans are needed. I also don't think this is why my colonies eventually died.



#356 Offline Vick09usmc - Posted June 29 2018 - 1:12 PM

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It would have been interesting to send some of the dying fungus from the different colonies to see if there were any heavy metals/contaminants that are building up within the formicarium/plaster. Maybe test during different points of the colonies development? (year 1, year 2, year 3)  Where as dirt is porous and allows heavy metals to seep down - the plastic which the enclosures are made out of is not, allowing for said buildup. I know there are soil sampling companies as well as water sampling sites like this https://watersag.com.../soil-analysis/or https://www.karlabs.com/analyses.htm. I have kept saltwater reef tanks for years and I know that over time, a seemingly perfect tank can come down crashing and bleach out because of chemical or metal buildup- not exactly the same but there are certainly some parallels. Not sure if this has been mentioned before, excuse the redundancy if so. 


Edited by Vick09usmc, June 29 2018 - 1:15 PM.

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#357 Offline Straywolf94 - Posted June 29 2018 - 1:51 PM

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Are you collecting more of these this year?  They are flying soon. :)



#358 Offline Zeiss - Posted June 29 2018 - 2:34 PM

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Are you collecting more of these this year?  They are flying soon. :)

It all depends on whether or not the weather wants to cooperate with us and the ants this season.  So far I think nothing seems like it will rain until past July 8th.  



#359 Offline dspdrew - Posted August 28 2018 - 10:29 PM

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  • LocationSanta Ana, CA

Update 8-28-2018

A pretty decent storm went through the area near Desert Center, California, August 16th. I couldn't drive out the next morning because of work, but I went Friday night expecting to find Acromyrmex queens, I just didn't know whether they would still be carrying their fungus or not. I ended up collecting a whole bunch of them, but not until the next morning, so I was pretty sure they weren't carrying their fungus any longer.
 
Luckily my friend Chad W still had some fungus left from a colony I sold him a couple years ago. I think this might be the only fungus left from all the colonies I originally started, so hopefully one of us gets a successful colony out of it.

 

I put a bunch of the queens in the starter formicariums I had ready for them, and a bunch in test tubes. I didn't have enough test tubes for all the rest, so I left them in their collection containers over night. The next day, after washing enough test tubes for all the rest, I discovered that half of them were dead. This seems to happen a lot to people and everybody always has their theories, but if I remember right, I think they needed a lot of moisture which they did not have. I won't make that mistake again.

 

I decided to drive back out Friday to grab some more queens to make up for what I lost, and also to collect a bunch of workers from a wild colony to see if I could use them to grow more fungus. (For those who don't know, these queens will come out and forage from around 10:00 pm until it gets light, probably for up to a month and a half, when they usually start getting workers) Well it was a quick and efficient trip. I managed to grab a bunch more queens and tons of workers before it got light.

 

Once I got home, I took 4 pea to grape sized pieces of fungus and gave them each a few large and really small workers. Two of the groups seemed pretty interested in the fungus, while the other two didn't at all. This time I made sure to hydrate the collection containers that the queens were in really well.

 

By this time, most all the queens in test tube containers pretty much destroyed their fungus, while some of the ones in the formicariums seemed to mostly be taking care of theirs. All the queens collected the second time that were still being kept in collection containers, were alive and well this time, so I'm quite confident it was desiccation that killed all those others.

 

Tonight I noticed that most of the queens actually DO seem to be taking care of their fungus now, they just have very small pieces. There are a few queens in the formicariums that still have the full-sized pieces I originally gave them. As for the four groups of workers I gave the larger pieces too, they have pretty much just let their fungus die. I'm not sure if they just ate too much of it or what, but it's just all turning brown and looks the same way the fungus always looks as it dies. I removed the workers, and put a queen in with each of those fungus pieces instead to see if they might revive them.

 

At this point, I have about 30 queens in test tubes inside containers, and 30 in formicariums.


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#360 Offline Nare - Posted August 29 2018 - 1:26 PM

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Nice. Glad to see a legendary journal return. Will be following this closely, can't wait to see if you succeed this year. 







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