372 replies to this topic

[Antking117]

Looks like they are getting bigger MUAHAHAHA

[Serafine]

Well, they finally did it. Straw overflow.


 

[Hikari]

How do they even get in and out with the straw packed like that? lol

[Serafine]

There's still some space above the cocoons and they can squeeze through tiny gaps pretty well.

[Hikari]

That's good. They have enough sense not to block themselves in/out completely.

[Antking117]

I hope they move soon

[Serafine]

I expect them to move after the next big wave of workers eclosing which should start any time soon now (so if they're moving they're probably gonna do it in about 3-4 weeks). The workers don't have to sit on top of each others yet but it's definitely getting crowded.

Edited by Serafine, July 21 2017 - 1:28 AM.

[Serafine]

They must have been really hungry, yesterday there were three ants foraging.




I upgraded their food supply but it's gonna take a while until I can collect the harvest. The reason for this is that most feeder insects you can buy at pet stores are in such a terrible condition (undernourished, dehydrated) that most of the time the ants will outright refuse to eat them.
 
Here's the Locarium featuring some locust nymphs. They are really nice - they don't chirp, don't try to eat each other and they like potatoes. The only issue with them is that they crap all over their setup. It's gonna require some serious cleaning before I can use it again after they got out.





 
And here's the Zophobarium containing superworms. I'm gonna buy a toolbox because you have to separate them and put them into a dry environment for them to turn into beetles otherwise they will just stay larvae forever, but for now it's fine.

 



For Lazy Tube, it looks like there are now so many cocoons that they have to pile them up in the back chamber. And that pupae hull garbage depot starts to become really large. They aren't showing any signs of preparations for a move to a new place yet but I guess when they decide to it will be quite a swift and quick night operation.




 

Edited by Serafine, July 23 2017 - 3:03 AM.

[Antking117]

Very cool Pray for major in the huge one

[Serafine]

Well, I just removed the cover of the tube and my first though was "HOLY CRAP! That's a lot of ants!"



 

And there's some seriously big-headed girls among them. Yes, they have majors (smaller ones though, they can still grow a good bit bigger). I counted three ants with large heads, not sure if they're all majors though (one might be a media, couldn't get a good picture of her).


I tried to feed them some various stuff over the last week like apple bits and a small potato slice - they're not interested in anything that's not bee pupa. Even spiders are hit and miss, half of them they just ignore.



The Superworms are doing fine. They sleep during the morning and afternoon hours and come out at evening (it doesn't need to be dark, they come out when light is on as well) which makes maintenance extremely easy.
Contrary to what people told me they're not eating each other, they like apples though - I've actually read this up and they mostly cannibalize on each other when they lack water, as long as you provide them with enough juicy vegetables, fruit or water gel it's unlikely to happen.
I can't recommend the water gel though as these guys dig a lot and will make any dish sink into the oat flakes after a while where the water gel actually makes the oat flakes wet and mushy (= not good). Apple slices work much better as they can't fall off the dish.


I separated nine of them into a small tool box (one superworm per chamber) and three are definitely preparing to pupate, not sure about the others (can't see them when they're lying under the oat flakes).



The Locusts on the other hand... they're dead. I froze what was left of them. If you ever think of breeding locusts as ant food or even just gutloading them, forget it.
They smell (not strong but pretty unpleasant nonetheless), half of them dies anyway - either they just die or they fail to get rid of their old skin and die in the process, which means you have to get the dead bodies out without having the others escape - and they crap all over their entire setup (even on the ceiling). I had to completely clean out the glass container and wash out all the substrate as well.

The good news is that means it's ready for this nice lady and her (hopefully) many children when they need it.

Edited by Serafine, July 29 2017 - 11:07 AM.

[Antking117]

Very cool, all of my super worms co cannibalistic, i shall try what you are doing. I SEE THE MAJOR! Very cool journal

[Serafine]

Those Superworms are idiots. They managed to lift apple slices off the dish by crawling under them, as a result the oatmeal flakes became wet, mushy and started to smell.
Now I relocated all of them to a new box and give it a try with a more advanced "hydration system". Maybe this works better.





Huge foraging party of three ants outside today:




A few days ago all the ants started congregating at the front end of the tube. This might be caused by the insane humidity (it's been warm and raining for the last days, humidity is above 70%) but it somehow looks like they're up to something. There seems to be a drag towards the front end of the tube, so maybe they are preparing for a move. They also have entrance security now, one of the majors usually does it.

Edited by Serafine, August 3 2017 - 4:07 PM.

[Antking117]

Very cool, i wanna see them in the new formicarium you setup, how is the other outworld going?

[Serafine]

Today the colony has burst into acitivity. There was a steady stream of workers consuming both sugar water and food with 4-5 ants out at almost all times. Additionally, over the course of the day they removed everything that was in the tube entrance area - spider roadblocks, pebbles, they even tore down the sand wall.








Inside the tube they have moved up even closer to the exit, the eggs are now in the cotton ball. I think they are ready to leave.






The smaller glass outworld was cleansed from all the dirt the Locusts had left and then given to this lady (she already has a bunch of pupae but they're all naked). If I'm gonna add another arena to the Lazy Tube setup I'll order a larger one becaue this thing is ridiculously tiny.

Edited by Serafine, August 4 2017 - 4:22 PM.

[Serafine]

Well... over the last few days the colony's outworld activity has exploded. They have eaten one of the bee pupae down to the exoskeleton but don't seem to be interested in the superworms (maybe they'll like the adult beetles more). This is what it usually looks like as soon as it gets shady or dark.





However... they're not moving. At least not for now. It was probably the insane humidity that drove them towards the front end - since it got less humid (down to 50%) at least a part of them moved a bit back deeper into the tube again.





The queen is still up front, always accompanied by at least one major. Larvae and pupae are pretty much mingled together with some of the eggs, the larger egg piles though are kept separated more at the back end.




The Superworm farm is doing great, with the new "cup hydration system" and cucumbers instead of apples stuff doesn't get wet and smelly anymore. In the pupating station the first superworms are slowly developing into darkling beetles (they are surprisingly big).
Sorry for the blurry pictures, it wasn't visible on the cam screen and I didn't want to disturb them again.






The Lasius queen is doing great as well, she has a bunch of larger brood (I think they're naked pupae but not sure) and a few smaller coming. She didn't seem to have laid any more eggs after the initial pile and is probably waiting for her first browncoats to arrive.

Edited by Serafine, August 7 2017 - 6:40 AM.

[Antking117]

Very cool, oddly my tetramorium diddn't like my superworms which was weird.

[Nathant2131]

For Lazy tube's outworld -  Which one on Antstore is it?

[Serafine]

"The young must move out of their cramped tube and see the world! Travel to new places! Make new experiences and get some education!"
That might have been what my ants must have thought. Or the humidity levels were just bad. But the first one makes a much better story.
 

Anyway, over the last days I've recognized a bunch of ants outside the tube doing nothing. They just stood there, waiting for... something.

 
 
Then, this morning they started doing this.



They established a forward base in front of the entrance where they piled up most of the brood (larvae and pupae). The eggs and the queens are still inside the tube.





Since they started to run low on food (they became quite hungry lately) I gave them two new bee pupae and a dead spider. The bee pupae didn't cause any reaction but the spider was encountered by two workers - one ran away instantly and caused a slight panic outbreak at the forward base (which lead to half of the brood pile getting transported back into the tube), the other one ferociously attacked the dead spider, dragged it away from the brood pile and "defeated" it with help from another minor and one of the medias.
Here you can see them tearing apart their prey.



This last picture is a close-up taken about ten minutes after I dropped the new food into the outworld so it's only about half of the actually brood. Aren't they beautiful?


I just checked, they already brought the rest back out again.
And no, they're not moving. At least not yet. It's probably just the high humidity that caused this.
However I've turned on the heating cable attached to the SimAnts nest and with a bit of luck they may find it and actually move in.

Edited by Serafine, August 8 2017 - 2:29 PM.

[Serafine]

Disaster struck!
Lazy Tube... is no more.



It must have happened yesterday at about 9am, although it probably started a few days ago and was most likely the reason they decided to dump the brood into the outworld. My guess is that when the water chamber reached a certain point the cotton collapsed and the water leaked into the tube. Unfortunately JUST when I noticed it I had to go because we were about the start a 2 day trip to Neuschwanstein.




However I still managed to catch one of the workers carrying brood to safety.




Just a few tiny steps more...


There we go! Brood saved!





When I came back, they had already become familiar with their new home.




The water tube was quite busy.


Here's queen Barbarianna sitting on her pile of brood like Smaug the Golden on his treasure.




One issue I've noticed with the SimAnts Nest is that you have to be veeery careful when lifting the lid to not cause immediate panic (I guess that's exactly the same with similar nest designs like the AC hybrids). More often than not the ants are already quite agitated when I'm trying to watch them. I guess they'll get used to it.

Now that I've turned on the heating cable all of them moved to the upper part of the nest - even the water tube is empty. I'm curious if this constant heat spot will speed up their development and how they are going to arrange the brood inside the nest.
Well, I guess we'll soon find out in another episode of Lazy... Tube? Nest? Cave? Hm... I guess I'll just stick with the tube, even though they're not really in a tube anymore (also, technically they still have one attached to their new home, so there's that)...

Edited by Serafine, August 11 2017 - 10:29 AM.

[Antking117]

Oh man that scared me xD thought they were all dead! How convenient for them to have another nest ready to move into That queen has an odd butt xD