172 replies to this topic

[dermy]

If you can set your water on fire, you shouldn't be drinking it in the first place...

 

 

Drew I will keep that in mind, no more drinking water for this guy!

[dspdrew]

It depends where you live.  

 

Here, my TDS (total dissolved solids) meter measures less than 10 PPM (parts per million) impurities, whereas average tap water contains between 150 and 250 PPM minerals and other stuff.  Even bottled water is usually pretty high, since minerals are often added to the water, and most bottled water comes from municipal water sources, anyways.

 

Distilled water measures 0 PPM out of the bottle, but when left in a borosilicate glass beaker for several hours exposed to air, measures up to 3 PPM.

 

The point is, that I can use my tap water here, and always do, without issue.  If you live in a place where you can set the water on fire, you should probably keep it away from your ants, however.

Minerals are fine, it's the "other" stuff that isn't. Perfluorinated compounds, herbicides, solvents, caffeine, antibacterial compounds, metals and antidepressants, all of which have been found in tap water, are probably not the best things for you or your ants to be consuming.

[dean_k]

Just an update on the colony.

 

I will never 100% sure that it was tap water, but so far no ants are becoming crippled and that is all I want. I've already lost 4 foragers in a month and this is a small colony of 15ish (now 10ish). I cannot afford to lose more and I am glad that I am not losing anymore at the moment.

 

There was a pupa from my previous video. Now I see 2 pupae. I've also given them Byformica blue 100. It's been a month since I gave them that.

And something that hasn't happened before happened. They ripped the chunk of Blue 100 and took into the food storage room. Before when I gave them Blue 100 few months ago, they ate it in outworld.This is presumably because they were still new to the nest and didn't decide on which chamber was which.

Now it looks like they've decided on which chamber is which.

 

The nest is AntCanada Omni nest and the nest is divided into small chambers. Furthest left chamber is queen's room where the 2 queens, eggs, larvae, and etc are in. Next 2 chambers are food storage room where they store food. There used to pieces of incests in there but they tend to clean once they feel they are wastes by bringing waste to outworld.

 

You can see the 2 pupae being tended by workers in early part of the video.

 

3:44 : A worker is consuming Byformica Blue 100.

 

4:30 : A view of the nest, including queen's chamber & food rooms.

 

6:13 : More close-up view of a worker eating Blue 100.

 

Edited by dean_k, November 18 2014 - 7:11 AM.

[Gregory2455]

I do not think you will have an issue with these being successful.

[dean_k]

I was lucky to have caught them performing a mining operation on Byformica Blue 100. Their behavior has changed 180 degrees now.

 

When I gave them Blue 100 in Oct (not long after I got them from Crystals), they ate it in outworld while it was moist and it was discarded when it became hardened.

 

Now, they do not bother with it while it is moist. They wait it until it loses moisture and starts to mine it, taking it apart into smaller pieces. I have no idea how they decide on which piece to take inside but most of pieces are discarded and they take only few pieces into nest food room.

 

The video is mostly about their mining behavior. During the video, they took 2 pieces into food chamber.

 

Edit: I realized that there was actually an ant deep inside of hardened Blue 100. I will have to be careful when I take the Blue 100 away to make sure there is no ants inside.

 

Edited by dean_k, November 19 2014 - 7:19 AM.

[drtrmiller]

I have observed most ants exhibit this "mining" behavior, however myrmicine ants are most likely to actually transport bits of gel back to the nest, where they are assumingly then fed to larvae.

 

I personally haven't had any issue with the behavior.  I keep roaches and crickets in my 10 gallon setup that houses my Camponotus colony, which end up eating all the scraps, so I have zero cleanup.  I do have anecdotal reports that small bits of food will mold if kept in a constantly moist, stagnant setup, but I don't think that AC nest will be an issue.

 

Personally, I like the behavior.  It's a guaranteed confirmation that they are eating the stuff and deriving nutrients from it, since ants aren't known to play with their food.

Edited by drtrmiller, November 19 2014 - 9:11 AM.

[dermy]

 

Minerals are fine, it's the "other" stuff that isn't. Perfluorinated compounds, herbicides, solvents, caffeine, antibacterial compounds, metals and antidepressants, all of which have been found in tap water, are probably not the best things for you or your ants to be consuming.

Come again? If your water has caffeine in it, then no wonder why your never sleeping drew!

[dean_k]

I have observed most ants exhibit this "mining" behavior, however myrmicine ants are most likely to actually transport bits of gel back to the nest, where they are assumingly then fed to larvae.

 

I personally haven't had any issue with the behavior.  I keep roaches and crickets in my 10 gallon setup that houses my Camponotus colony, which end up eating all the scraps, so I have zero cleanup.  I do have anecdotal reports that small bits of food will mold if kept in a constantly moist, stagnant setup, but I don't think that AC nest will be an issue.

 

Personally, I like the behavior.  It's a guaranteed confirmation that they are eating the stuff and deriving nutrients from it, since ants aren't known to play with their food.

 

AntCanada Omni nest seems to have a surprisingly good airflow which is both pro and con. I can tell from how fast the water foam get dried and it has only an 1mm water injection hole. No food I've placed in there ever had mold (so far) and a piece of mealworm has been there over a month (2+ months now) and no mold yet. The ants haven't taken it out of nest, so I assume it has some nutrition value to them for now.

They tend to take out bad food out to outworld from time to time, so I simply pick what they take out from outworld weekly.

 

A con is that eggs & larvae must stay very close to moist foam, making them stay far away from exit hole to outworld but it's not really a con once they get used to the nest layout.

 

They tend to place fresher food in 2nd chamber and 3rd chamber seems to act like a reserve food chamber which is where the piece of mealworm is. Queens are sometimes seen in 2nd chamber also.

[dspdrew]

I was lucky to have caught them performing a mining operation on Byformica Blue 100.

My ants like to mine inside large creatures like beetles, scorpions, tarantulas, and lizards.

 

Come again? If your water has caffeine in it, then no wonder why your never sleeping drew!

Haha, I don't drink tap water.

[drtrmiller]

My ants like to mine inside large creatures like. . .lizards.

 

Uhm. Drew feeds lizards to his ants.  

 

At that rate, I expect when you get a 50,000-member-strong Solenopsis invicta colony, people should think twice before walking their dog anywhere near your apartment.

[dean_k]

I've caught them in mass feeding frenzy. Almost all available ants were in queen's chamber and feeding larvae or performing regurgitation. They were eating stored blue 100 and feeding larvae. They've consumed most of stored blue 100 now. Time for a new chunk within few days.

 

Some of eggs have turned into small larvae and they are blue now since the only protein source I've been giving them as of late is ByFormica blue 100. I see a pupa clearly. Another pupa is nearby but I can't see where it is. Some of larvae seem to be ready to turn pupae.

 

There are two egg files. One file of 10ish is by blue foam also next to the visible pupa. Another small file of 10ish is buried under larvae.

 

11:35 : Performing regurgitation

 

Edited by dean_k, November 24 2014 - 6:45 PM.

[dean_k]

Well, these girls love to destroy blue 100.

 

 

The food chambers were nearly empty when I placed a new chunk of blue 100. It's now filled again.

 

 

A queen is out feeding.

 

[drtrmiller]

Talk about hoarding!  At least they seem somewhat organized about it and actually eat the stuff once it's hoarded.  

 

My Solenopsis invicta enjoys putting the bits in the trash pile when they're done playing with it.

[dean_k]

It's been 2 days and the food chamber is looking empty now. Time for a new chunk of Blue 100.

 

I am getting used to how I should feed these girls. Just wait for food chambers to go dry and put a new one in.

 

[drtrmiller]

Some of the loss in volume, by comparing your pictures, may be attributed to evaporation of the liquid inside the chunk of gel.  Certainly they're deriving benefit from it, and it's actually a good thing that there is sufficient ventilation so that the hoarded food does not mold.

 

It's a shame these are messy ants that like to play with their food, much like my Solenopsis invicta.  As the brood increases in number, they'll be able to metabolise more of the actual gel itself, and you'll have less dry waste inside the nest.

 

Sounds like they're still doing well, however!  Best of luck :~)

[dean_k]

I don't think they have enough mouth to feed everything they bring in before it dries out. Right now, the colony have only 2 active foragers due to sudden loss of 4 foragers recently but it seems 2 are enough to "hoard" food.

A piece of very dry mealworm has been cleaned inside out meanwhile. I could not believe they still ate that stuff. It was there for nearly 2 months.

 

A pupa is very dark in color now. I think it's about to eclose soon.

[Crystals]

Interesting.  None of my colonies in test tubes have mined the gel, or brought any inside the test tube.

Look forward to seeing how this colony does in the years to come.

[dean_k]

A pupa eclosed as seen from the video but it's not the pupa I've been watching because there is another maturing pupa near blue foam, which is the one I've been watching. So, I have no idea where this ant is from apparently but it did eclose this morning. The newborn is acting as if wanting to be left in solitary.

Bad news is that they've taken out of a dead pupa which is really tiny (half of normal size). I picked it up from outworld and threw it away. The ants tend to throw garbage onto the furthest corner of outworld. This spot is also where they throw dead ants or dead larvae. It's very convenient for me to pick them out of outworld.

Most of eggs turned into small larvae but there is still an egg file. Not sure whether that's still the same file or one of queens laid more.

Meanwhile, I also placed a much bigger chunk of blue 100 to see what they do with it. They are mining tunnels into it. There are at least 4 ants working inside that chunk. You can see 2 outside at 2:29. 2 are inside.

 

Edited by dean_k, November 29 2014 - 3:21 PM.

[drtrmiller]

Newly eclosed workers, or callows, take a while to figure out the rules.  

 

It's like the computer is in the last stage of booting up and loading your desktop icons after logging in :~)

 

Looking at the ants on the gel, it doesn't appear that they're moving or doing anything.  Can you confirm the smell of the gel?  If it is something other than the sweet odor, or has a pungent, almost vinegary smell, try to describe it.

[dean_k]

The distinctive sweetish odor tends to weaken over time especially when refrigerated for over a week.

 

The food is about 2 weeks old in a fridge and I am sure the odor has weakened greatly by now.

 

From my observation, they wait for the right hardness before starting to mine it and they leave it alone when it becomes completely dry.