5 replies to this topic

[kellakk]

6-10-15

 

I caught 11 Camponotus cf. sansabeanus queens at Icehouse Canyon Road on Mt. Baldy while on an anting trip with Dspdrew and Chromerust on March 14.  9 of them laid eggs almost immediately and reared their first workers a little over two weeks ago.  1 of the ones that never laid eggs died, and one queen that still has a single wing keeps laying eggs but doesn't take care of them.  One of the fertile queens had her test tube flooded and lost all her brood, but hopefully with some feeding she'll rebound.  I gave one of my successful queens to Foogoo.

 

In summary: I have 6 queens with workers, 2 seemingly infertile queens, and one queen recovering from flooding.

Edited by kellakk, June 10 2015 - 10:54 PM.

[dspdrew]

Do yours make a moldy mess of their test tubes, more than any other ants?

[kellakk]

A few of mine have made a mess of the test tubes, but most of them are fine.  The queen that got flooded was trying to get clean water from her moldy cotton, I think, so she pulled out the cotton at the bottom.  So far S. invicta seems to be the best at getting their cotton all moldy and leaving their trash everywhere.

[dspdrew]

S. invicta haha. I can't tell the difference between the trash pile and food pile with those things.

[Crystals]

S. invicta haha. I can't tell the difference between the trash pile and food pile with those things.

That is hilarious. 

[kellakk]

Haha yeah, sometimes I find what I thought was the trash pile has disappeared, and what I thought was the food pile now has trash in with it.