5 replies to this topic

[noobkeeper]

Hi everyone, since I just took my Solenopsis Fugax queen out of hibernation I thought it was the right moment to start the journal. Hope to get a colony out of my queen, I'll keep this updated for sure.

 

 

16th October 2016

 

So, this day I found 3 queens and put them in test tubes. That's one of them in her temporary setup.

 

 

 

24th October 2016

 

Checked on them, and sadly 2 of them were dead. New test tubes got shipped and I moved the remaining one in a setup identical to the picture below, however I didn't take a picture at the time.

The test tube was put in a cardboard box in my bedroom, at a chill 10,5-12,5°C. I guess I can say hibernation started. 

 

 

 

25th February 2017

 

With temperatures outside raising up to 18°C, I decided it was time to take my lady out of hibernation. As my house is very cold (not even warm!) I had to engineer a ghetto solution to keep the test tube warm.

The result was a styrofoam box (ice cream box) with a resistor in it and an aluminium heat spreader, all wired up to a power supply. In order to know how much voltage to feed to the resistor (and so how much heat to produce) I made some testings, which turned out to be pretty cool: https://docs.google....dit?usp=sharing . The measurements spots align perfectly and they make a beautiful curve 

This way the inside of the styrofoam box is about 22°C. I raised it at various stepping, check the link above if you are interested. Every 36 hours I'd increase the voltage by a step, now I'm up to 7.5V and so the box is quite a bit hotter than the ~13°C room.

Also, the old test tube got moldy so I replaced it with a new one. This time I didn't put the cap on as the queen was always hanging out on the driest part of the test tube and I though she didn't like that much humidity. I even made some beautiful test tube holders to stop the test tube from sliding around.

 

Low quality test tube holders

 

There she is, brushing her antennas!

 

Here is a picture of the new setup. This is temporary, I should soon get a thermostat and a better thermometer to monitor the temperature. If anyone is interested, I'll post more pics of this setup later.

Should be obvious that there usually is a lid on top of that to keep everything warm and dark.

 

Hope to have some eggs next time I update, wish me good luck! 

Edited by noobkeeper, March 3 2017 - 1:44 PM.

[Leo]

good luck

[noobkeeper]

7th March 2017

 

After just a bit more than 1 week at 22°C, we finally got some eggs! Yeee!

Low quality pic below. The eggs are so incredibly small that I can't take a proper picture of them right now. They're at least 3 and one of them is stuck on the queen's gaster, as you can see below. Hope she notices 

Will update this Saturday, when my microscope gets home!

 

Edited by noobkeeper, March 9 2017 - 9:20 AM.

[noobkeeper]

10th March 2017

 

So, here are some better pics. Can't use the microscope as the test tube can't fit under it. Still, you can see the brood pile much more easily. The eggs are incredibly small and I'm scared they will fall through the 100 micron mesh I'm planning on using in their nest.

 

 

I'm letting her alone for at least a week now. In the pictures you can see at least 12 eggs, but I think there are more stuck in the cotton (she started putting some there after I put her in the light).

In the meantime, the nest should get 3D printed. The mesh won't get here anytime soon (march-april, thanks free international shipping!), but I can still buy and cut the acrylic cover and start to make a small outworld.

Edited by noobkeeper, March 29 2017 - 6:51 AM.

[noobkeeper]

29th March 2017

 

Things are going well. I think we have the first larvae!

 

 

There are also a lot of eggs.

 

 

Next time I hope for workers!

Edited by noobkeeper, March 29 2017 - 7:06 AM.

[noobkeeper]

18th April 2017

 

Small update today. I spotted two small yellowish dots, I guess they're naked pupae. No pictures because you can see nothing from them.