111 replies to this topic

[Connectimyrmex]

Good luck with queen catching! Here's some queens to look out for:
Pheidole sp. (afternoons)

Camponotus pennsylvanicus (evenings and mornings)

Solenopsis molesta (afternoons and evenings)

Crematogaster sp. (afternoons?)

Formica sp. (mornings)

Lasius parasites [Acanthomyops] (early evenings)

 

You should try keeping a parasitic Lasius queen! I'm having great success with them so far (murphyi, latipes, and interjectus seem to be the easiest for me).

[Hikari]

Good luck with queen catching! Here's some queens to look out for:
Pheidole sp. (afternoons)

Camponotus pennsylvanicus (evenings and mornings)

Solenopsis molesta (afternoons and evenings)

Crematogaster sp. (afternoons?)

Formica sp. (mornings)

Lasius parasites [Acanthomyops] (early evenings)

 

You should try keeping a parasitic Lasius queen! I'm having great success with them so far (murphyi, latipes, and interjectus seem to be the easiest for me).

Thanks! I haven't had any luck today, but it was windy so the ants may not have flown because of that. Got the blacklight going tonight. Lots of bugs, but no ants so far.

I'd love to keep a Lasius parasite, tbh. I found two L. umbratus this year, but didn't have any luck with either of them. I'm thinking maybe I'll have better luck if I find one next year, since I'll have my own Lasius colony to pull brood from, instead of trying to introduce workers.

[Nathant2131]

 

Good luck with queen catching! Here's some queens to look out for:
Pheidole sp. (afternoons)

Camponotus pennsylvanicus (evenings and mornings)

Solenopsis molesta (afternoons and evenings)

Crematogaster sp. (afternoons?)

Formica sp. (mornings)

Lasius parasites [Acanthomyops] (early evenings)

 

You should try keeping a parasitic Lasius queen! I'm having great success with them so far (murphyi, latipes, and interjectus seem to be the easiest for me).

Thanks! I haven't had any luck today, but it was windy so the ants may not have flown because of that. Got the blacklight going tonight. Lots of bugs, but no ants so far.

I'd love to keep a Lasius parasite, tbh. I found two L. umbratus this year, but didn't have any luck with either of them. I'm thinking maybe I'll have better luck if I find one next year, since I'll have my own Lasius colony to pull brood from, instead of trying to introduce workers.

 

I agree, don't bother with Lasius social parasites of you're not ready. I kind of jumped the gun early after catching a bunch of L. umbratus queens. I planned on using captive Lasius cf. neoniger colonies (started from a single queen) as hosts, but uhhh... those host "colonies" at the moment didn't even have brood or workers at the tiime I caught the parasites .

 

So start catching the parasites once you are positive you are ready for them and have hosts more or less at the ready, or else you risk them randomly dying before host introduction. This was in my experience at least.

[Connectimyrmex]

This might be better in a different thread, but after experimenting with the tamer Lasius parasites (murphyi & latipes) I learned that they will coexist happily with founding queens. I don't know if this relationship works out, but I stored my Lasius parasites in the same test tube as my Lasius nearcticus AI queen for a couple of days. I typically put a tiny drop of honey onto the parasitic queen's thorax to make the parasitic queen more attractive.

[Hikari]

This might be better in a different thread, but after experimenting with the tamer Lasius parasites (murphyi & latipes) I learned that they will coexist happily with founding queens. I don't know if this relationship works out, but I stored my Lasius parasites in the same test tube as my Lasius nearcticus AI queen for a couple of days. I typically put a tiny drop of honey onto the parasitic queen's thorax to make the parasitic queen more attractive.

 

Founding queens will act differently than established queens. They might tolerate another queen's presence til the first workers arrive, but usually after that, all bets are off. It's why I separated my Lasius queens. They probably would have fought, but instead they are both quite happy and healthy with their respective workers.

I checked on them after feeding them their first meal of honey via q-tip, and the queens' gasters are so big now that you can see the in-betweens of the sections. XD One is actually due to go to her forever home tomorrow morning. I'll let the kid decide which queen/colony he prefers. They're almost the same, but one has more eggs/larvae, and one has more pupa, because it was hard to separate things evenly. Both got brood-boosted with wild pupa to make up for it though.

[Hikari]

(8-21-17) - It's been a while since I've updated on Maya specifically, so tonight is for her. I saw her out and about in their tiny outworld tonight:

 

She was so chill, I got a lid-less close-up shot too:

 

I wish I could say she's been doing better, but unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case. She's just barely hanging on with one worker. She never bothered to eclose the new pupa. I eclosed them myself and found out why. Most were already dead. The sole survivor lasted a few days before also dying. Her last worker is still hanging in there though. Her larvae are turning a slight honey-ish color. I hope it's more due to the fact that they've been getting honey-water for sugar as of late. There are still two pupa in the tube, lighter colored, so they won't eclose soon, but I'm hoping they're healthy.

She got fresh honey-water tonight, as well as a cricket body (the legs went to the smaller ants). At this point, I'm just doing what I can, and hoping for the best.

[Connectimyrmex]

Try just giving her plain honey without water, so they can get more nutrients with limited stomach space.

[Hikari]

Try just giving her plain honey without water, so they can get more nutrients with limited stomach space.

 

I would, but she lost honey privileges when I found her nanitic floundering around in it one night. Luckily, I was able to scoop her out and clean her off, but I can't afford to risk losing her right now. There's not a lot of water in the honey anyways, I only water it down just enough for it to soak into the cotton more easily. 

[Connectimyrmex]

Just give her tiny amounts at a time (you require a toothpick and good hand-eye coordination for this)

[Hikari]

Ok, so I've been slacking on updating this, but I've also been busy. I've met with two people this week to sell ants. They were both from the Ohio ant discord chat, so they knew what kind of ants I've had for a while. We didn't just exchange ants though...oh no, I gave them a tour of the local park (since I meet there for GAN stuff anyways). Showed them the Formica pergandei mixed-species nest, which is always fun to visit. It's gotten even more extensive. I want one of those queen so bad. XD Today I caught a new Formica queen. This one's quite a big bigger than my other one. I'll try and get pics once she decides to hold still long enough. She's super pretty. She did have a small dent in her gaster (I'm hoping not from me catching her, I kinda had to scoop her up), but I'm hoping it's minor enough to not cause issues. Though, it could have been from the fact that she was seemingly casually strolling through the F. pergandei colony of all things x_x Kinda surprised she wasn't attacked. But yeah, the person I was with today spotted her first, but was kind enough to let me keep her. I'm going to give her the new formicarium that's almost finished. She also got most of the pupa and some callow workers from the other Formica I have. Gave me a chance to clean out their filthy bead container formicarium. The put the dead bodies and pupa scraps on the cotton wick...you can imagine how funky that got. They recently got a new outworld, and that's where I sorted the workers into. A quick clean and the formicarium was back up for them, and after some confusion, they moved back in. They also now know their outworld (and honey waterer inside it) exists too, cause they've been too skittish to explore it otherwise. Win-win!

Anyways, quick update on Maya. Her last worker is gone, her most recent pupa was also dead, and she only has one pupa and some not-great-looking brood left. At this point I know it doesn't look good, but I'm still feeding her and taking care of her as best I can. Meanwhile, Terra has lost a few workers, but is still at four, so fingers crossed she can at least pull through. I wish the C.pennsylvanicus were as easy to care for as the Formica... *sighs* Oh! Freya was given to someone who's colony lost their queen, so here's hoping she can integrate with that colony. She was in even worse circumstances than Maya, with no brood at all, so I figured it was my last ditch effort for her.

Anyways, yeah, it's kind of a jumbled update, but hope it gives you an idea of what's gone on lately.

[Hikari]

I've had two updates to make while the forums were down

(9-2-17) Video update



(9-4-17) Regrettably, as seen in the video, Maya was not doing well, and early this morning has finally died. I am saddened. She was my first ant, and really kicked off this hobby for me. She had been doing so well, but life, as always, is unpredictable. She will be fondly remembered.

 

As for this journal, I am debating on what to do with it. It originally started as a way to track Maya's progress, but even though she's now gone, it ended up including so much more. Should I just keep on going as it has been, but re-name it to something more appropriate to cover all my ants? Or, continue this as a C. pennsylvanicus thread only, and make separate topics for my other species. What do y'all think?

[TheAntGuy]

Wow what an amazing journey through ant keeping. I just read that entire journal start-to-finish and It was kind of an emotional rollercoaster XD. As for the future of the journal, I say rename it and keep it going as normal. Good luck with your adventures (not like you need it, you have already surpassed me)!

[Pleming]

This has been a great Journal.

 

I can't help but wonder what was the downfall for Maya's colony. It brings back memories of when I lost four workers within days from my Camponotus species. I couldn't think of anything that could have triggered it. The only thing that made sense to me was the crickets I bought and fed them that week. I noticed the crickets were dying really fast and turning black in the container I keep them in. I didn't feed them the rest and had no deaths after that. I still don't know if it was the crickets or coincidence that caused the deaths. 

 

I think you should continue the Journal!

[Hikari]

Wow what an amazing journey through ant keeping. I just read that entire journal start-to-finish and It was kind of an emotional rollercoaster XD. As for the future of the journal, I say rename it and keep it going as normal. Good luck with your adventures (not like you need it, you have already surpassed me)!

It makes me so happy that people have enjoyed reading this journal. I'm usually just writing the first things that pop into my head to update about, and I'm glad people find it interesting. It really has been an adventure though. I never thought I'd get into so much in my first year of keeping ants!

 

This has been a great Journal.

 

I can't help but wonder what was the downfall for Maya's colony. It brings back memories of when I lost four workers within days from my Camponotus species. I couldn't think of anything that could have triggered it. The only thing that made sense to me was the crickets I bought and fed them that week. I noticed the crickets were dying really fast and turning black in the container I keep them in. I didn't feed them the rest and had no deaths after that. I still don't know if it was the crickets or coincidence that caused the deaths. 

 

I think you should continue the Journal!

 

As I've done more research, it seems some Camponotus species are just prone to collapses for no apparent reason. It happened to Freya as well (who is currently with a new owner who is trying to integrate her with her queen-less colony). Terra lost several of her original workers as well, but one seems to still be doing well. I do hope I can keep my freshly-caught wild C. pennsylvanicus colony healthy.

-----
Looks like so far the general consensus is just to keep the journal running as-is, so I guess I should start thinking of a new title for it. Maybe "Hikari's Ant-ventures"?
...
...no, that's stupid. Maybe just keep it simple with something like "Hikari's ant journal".

At any rate, I'll come up with something. In the meantime, I have a happy update. Where there is death, there is also birth, and many of my Temnothorax caught earlier in the season are starting to get their first nanitics, including my lone T. longispinosus! They're so tiny! I will be feeding them honey via q-tip tomorrow during feeding day. Maybe I'll record that this time. It's fun watching the Myrmica on feeding day. They adore food.

[Satlan_Leng]

Hikari's Ant-ventures. doo ittt

[Hikari]

Hikari's Ant-ventures. doo ittt

 But it's stupid! XD

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Feeding day vid that got a little long, cause I get side-tracked easily, but you'll hear me talk about my experiences with my Myrmica.

[Connectimyrmex]

Your ants look 10x better than mine (my Myrmica just sit in the tube with the queen shooting out eggs like a machine gun)

[Satlan_Leng]

 

Hikari's Ant-ventures. doo ittt

 But it's stupid! XD

 

 

You know you secretly love the name.

[Hikari]

(9-12-17) Terra has been acting oddly, and today when I checked on her, she was dead on her back   None of the founding C. pennsylvanicus queens from this year have made it. Well, maybe Freya. I'm awaiting word from her new owner how the integration with the queen-less colony went. I hope she managed. Now, that isn't to say I am now lacking in C. pennsylvanicus. I did catch that wild colony around two weeks ago. They're still doing well enough, and seem to be adapting to captivity. I gave them a whole cricket a few days ago, and they devoured it. They don't have brood either, far as I know, but they didn't seem to care one way or the other, lol.

Today was also the first time I've gotten to see nuptial flights in the wild! Of course, I also caught a TON of queens as well around the sidewalks of the nearby high school. Most still have wings (I caught them anyways, just in case), but I also caught several wingless ones as well. I'm guessing they're Lasius, but I'll have to try and get an ID for species. There's one in particular I caught at my blacklight that's different than all the others though. Wondering if she might be a parasitic queen. If she is, this time I'm ready! My current Lasius colony is small, but could still spare a few pupa (I brood-boosted her earlier anyways). Anyways, I'll get an ID thread up once I get all the pictures edited in photoshop, and let y'all know the verdict.

[Hikari]

So, got an ID on the queens. Lasius neoniger, Lasius umbratus, and one lone Lasius claviger. I'm going to try my best with the parasite queens, and hoping I can get the L.claviger going, cause they're the ones that smell strongly of citronella! XD