70 replies to this topic

[fortysixandtwo]

Progress on the lid has stagnated. Been busy and working on other things. I'm also into 4x4 RCs so those take up a lot of time too lol.

 

Went hunting yesterday. Found a lot of Monomorium sp, but was after Camponotus. Found none, figured they were all in deep for the winter. So I decided I was going to build a Mono mini formicarium. I looked around the house and found a picture frame I wasn't using and many other supplies. I'll start a build for that one as soon as I have more progress. Its raining so I dunno now if I will find any suitable Mono colonies at this point. But then again I didn't think I'd find any Camponotus either this late. 

 

Today I went out looking for Monos and low and behold, I found a first year Camponotus queen and 5 nanitics. However I could not find a single brood. Either way I secured them. I was pretty happy. We will see how they do.

 

 

 

Edited by fortysixandtwo, October 24 2016 - 2:02 AM.

[fortysixandtwo]

These are perfect candidates for the Tar Heels mini formicarium I got recently. I made some slight modifications by sealing a larger diameter plastic tube around the backside of the colony and the watering port.

 

Placed about a 1" layer of extra virgin olive oil around the top and also coated the lid. 

 

I put together a small tray of food items for the colony. Some crushed up sunflower and other seeds, a small bit of raisin, and some sugar water. Ran out of honey apparently. No idea if they will even care for the seeds though there was some interest in the raisin. 

 

 

When I first aspirated the ants into the formicarium, one accidently landed in the olive oil barrier. I freed her, but then she got covered in sand. Initially 3 workers found the colony and went in. Two other nanitics were small enough to squeeze under the very back of the colony. The queen just sat in the corner. After a while all but the queen and one nanitic were inside. Finally, the largest nanitic came out and dragged the queen by her antenae until she was at the nest entrance. Then she went inside. They are all now inside. 

 

The duties seem to have broken down as follows:

 

1 ant (largest) worker forages. She was seen making multiple trips to the sugar water and returning to feed her sisters and the queen. 

1 ant guarding the nest entrance.

1 ant tending to the queen in some way, cleaning perhaps.

1 ant cleaning the oil covered ant.

1 ant getting a bath.

 

We shall see how they do. They seem quite happy in the nest already, and this formicarium is the perfect size for a colony this small. They seemed quite malnourished based on how much the ant was going back and forth for sugar water, so maybe this colony was not doing so hot. If they do well in here over the next few months maybe eventually I will just place the colony in the formicarium I built and let them move in when they decide to. Or I will find another colony. Don't want to get ahead of myself, lol.

 

 

 

 

I'm not sure the species yet. I've narrowed it down to Camponotus pennsylvanicus, C. quercicola, or *possibly* C. modoc. 

Edited by fortysixandtwo, October 24 2016 - 2:18 AM.

[Miles]

This is certainly not Camponotus pennsylvanicus, which does not occur west of the Rocky Mountains. This is possibly C. modoc, C. laevigatus, or C. quericola.

Edited by Miles, October 24 2016 - 6:56 AM.

[Crystals]

Good to know. Thank you. Do you have any advice on working with acrylic? I bought a cutting blade tool when I bought the material but you are basically just supposed to cut grooves then snap it. I want to cut out something similar to you are describing but am afraid a grinder with a cutoff wheel will just destroy the material. 

 

 

I paid a glass shop to cut the one I was playing with. They used some sort of heat cutter.  I have also used those clear stiff page protectors as a much cheaper alternative

[fortysixandtwo]

This is certainly not Camponotus pennsylvanicus, which does not occur west of the Rocky Mountains. This is possibly C. modoc, C. laevigatus, or C. quericola.

 

Yeah, I didn't think C. pennsylvanicus was found this far west, but I was basing it off the ant distribution map on AntWiki, which is evidently quite wrong. Makes me question any of the info I got from there.

 

I missed C laevigatus as I was going through a list of US species. Thanks. I'll try and get better photos once they've settled in. 

Edited by fortysixandtwo, October 24 2016 - 10:03 PM.

[fortysixandtwo]

I left the colony alone in the dark all last night and all day today. Just checked on them and they seem to be doing well.

 

All the ants look much fatter. They were obviously quite hungry. 

 

I tried to take pictures through the plastic colony lid but most didn't turn out that great. I'll try again tomorrow. I'm afraid if I pop the magnetized lid off it will tick them off and I won't be able to take a picture anyway lol.

 

Any ideas on exact species I'm all ears. 

 

Looks like it has been narrowed down to:

 

A) Camponotus quercicola

B ) Camponotus laevigatus

or

C) Camponotus modoc. 

 

 

Edited by fortysixandtwo, October 24 2016 - 10:12 PM.

[fortysixandtwo]

So the consensus seems to be that these are Camponotus vicinus. Still working on better photos. 

 

The ants still seem to be doing some foraging. About to put some cotton and bark shavings in there in case they want to plug their nest.

 

So far, I have provided them with some crushed bird seed and sunflower seed, raisin, a dead dubia cockroach, sugar water, and honey.

 

I have observed them eating or at least nibbling on all of them. They seem to favor the sugar water, seed, and cockroach at the moment. Have not seen them actually touch the honey. 

 

All the ants appear much healthier than when I found them. Nice full gasters now. I've also realized my queen has some kind of battle wound scar on the left side of her abdomen. You can see it if you look through the pictures. Seems to have some whitish scar tissue and a dent on her abdomen. All healed but wonder what happened.

 

 

 

Edited by fortysixandtwo, October 30 2016 - 7:21 PM.

[Solenoqueen]

Nice formicarium there!

I'll try that next time I make a formicarium

[fortysixandtwo]

Nice formicarium there!

I'll try that next time I make a formicarium

 

Thanks. With the right size colony I hope it works out. 

 

Added some nest plug materials to see if they want to plug their nest so I can put them into hibernation. Some cotton, shredded bark and shredded moss.

 

 

[Solenoqueen]

Nice! Have you considered hibernating the ants anytime soon?

[fortysixandtwo]

Nice! Have you considered hibernating the ants anytime soon?

 

That is the goal. I just found them a week ago and they were pretty scrawny. They seem to have spent the last week fattening up. Hoping they plug up the hole, otherwise in a week or so I plan to hibernate them. 

 

I've also bought a lot of raw materials the last few weeks to build a variety of formicarium and starter colonies. Haven't been too happy with the difficulty I have had finding small plastic containers. But until I find better materials I will play with these over winter. Make some prototypes that I can experiment with come spring.

 

Edited by fortysixandtwo, October 30 2016 - 11:04 PM.

[fortysixandtwo]

I am about to put my colony into hibernation. I have a mostly empty fridge in the garage I can put them in. Just need to verify the temperature.

 

I've been building a lot of prototypes and trying different materials and methods to build up equipment so I am prepared for spring. I wanted to test some designs and get a feel for the easiest materials to obtain locally. I will just keep all my builds in this thread for now until I obtain more ant colonies.

 

This is the final prototype I've done for a small-medium formicarium and outworld. I am finalizing the jig tonight so I will be able to whip these out pretty quick with different tunnels for different species of ants.

 

[Alabama Anter]

I am about to put my colony into hibernation. I have a mostly empty fridge in the garage I can put them in. Just need to verify the temperature.

I've been building a lot of prototypes and trying different materials and methods to build up equipment so I am prepared for spring. I wanted to test some designs and get a feel for the easiest materials to obtain locally. I will just keep all my builds in this thread for now until I obtain more ant colonies.
That's really neat! Nice Job!

This is the final prototype I've done for a small-medium formicarium and outworld. I am finalizing the jig tonight so I will be able to whip these out pretty quick with different tunnels for different species of ants.

[fortysixandtwo]

It was a beautiful day so I went for a hike. Ended up finding this Camponotus queen, nanitic and small pile of brood. 

 

Got them in a test tube set up at the moment. Letting my founder colonies air out for another few days then I will move them into one of those.

 

Looking at the coloration, guessing C. vicinus ?

 

 

 

[fortysixandtwo]

Been building a bunch of random stuff. Built an aluminum mold for making more of the smaller formicariums.

 

Also made these mini founding colonies with watering tubes.

 

 

 

 

 

[Jackb3794]

Wow

 

Looks really good. Going to have a go a building a very simple version in December. Stealing lots of ideas.

 

Anthony

 

Jack's Dad

[fortysixandtwo]

Wow

 

Looks really good. Going to have a go a building a very simple version in December. Stealing lots of ideas.

 

Anthony

 

Jack's Dad

 

Thanks! 

 

I live in a rural area so finding raw materials is kind of difficult. 

Edited by fortysixandtwo, November 13 2016 - 2:29 AM.

[fortysixandtwo]

I made a bunch of founder formicariums. Going to move colony #2 into one of these tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

Here are some better shots of the new colony. Pretty sure these are Camponotus vicinus.

 

 

[Apex]

second one is vicinus 1st one is modoc just saying you need to hibernate em

[fortysixandtwo]

second one is vicinus 1st one is modoc just saying you need to hibernate em

 

Yeah I was leaning toward modoc on the first colony but I am not that great at species ID with Camponotus at least

 

And they are going into hibernation the next couple days. Had to clean out an old fridge in my garage and make sure it still worked