209 replies to this topic

[Jadeninja9]

Update:
The ants are out of hibernation again. This time I am heating them with a heating lamp as they are in my house, which only stays at 73-75 degrees. I don't intend on ever keeping them in my garage again in the summer like I did last year. Today I bought three beautiful cube containers made out of crystal clear acrylic or Plexiglas(I'm not really sure). They are all different sizes. The largest one I will be turning into a little planted terrarium for my Centipedes. The other two I turned into outworlds for my Crematogaster and Carpenter ant colonies, and they look great.... just wait till I decorate them! The Crematogasters are currently in the process of moving into a hybrid nest of mine.
I'll upload pics tomorrow, I just don't have time tonight.

Are you sure you should be heating them right out of hibernation?

I'm not heating them just yet, I'll wait till tomorrow to start adding heat. It would be okay if I started right off the bat anyways because the last couple of days they were hibernating it wasn't very cold, so they had already warmed out of hibernation slightly.

Ah I see

[AntsMaryland]

My Lasius species and tetramorium are now out of hibernation (they are small 5-20 worker colonies and a lasius neoniger queens). When will they start eating? Should I be worried? They've been out of hibernation for about 1 week. I'm thinking baout offering them some peanutbutter as they are not accepting mealworms at the moment. Any advice?

Thanks.

[FeedTheAnts]

My Lasius species and tetramorium are now out of hibernation (they are small 5-20 worker colonies and a lasius neoniger queens). When will they start eating? Should I be worried? They've been out of hibernation for about 1 week. I'm thinking baout offering them some peanutbutter as they are not accepting mealworms at the moment. Any advice?

Thanks.

I was thinking the exact same thing! I'm almost in panic mode flipping out thinking that I've been hibernating my ants wrong. They won't eat, they haven't laid eggs, they look like they still want to be hibernating even though they were hibernating for months... I need to get my mind off of everything and stop worrying that I'll just have to start all over this year... I'll check back up on them in the morning and hopefully things will be looking up.

[FeedTheAnts]

Update:

I thought through my options when it comes to] the Abdo-Lemons, and decided to remove them from the terrarium permanently. I had no real way of heating the tank without buying another heating mat(I bought one two days ago for my other ants, I'm not going to use the heating lamp like I said before), and I just don't have the space or time for a terrarium right now. I realize that it is not ideal to cause a lot of stress to your ants, especially the on the same day that you take them out of hibernation, but it was either take them out of the tank or get rid of them..... and ermm ermmm.... that was not gonna happen. Anyways, I was able to do it without a single casualty(not gonna go to in depth about how), and now they are in a test tube. My Crematogaster colony was not moving in to the Hybrid Nest so I didn't force it, they are in a new tube though. None of my ants except for the Abdo-Lemons are foraging, which is kinda weird because they have now only been out of hibernation for one day. This is my first hibernation I've done, so I'm taking it day by day just hoping that things turn out right and there are no die offs and that they get active again.

Having the Abdo-Lemons in a tube is cool because I can finally see the growth of the colony. Check this out!

 

June 2017

 

 

​February 2018

Edited by TennesseeAnts, February 26 2018 - 2:26 PM.

[FeedTheAnts]

Sorry, forgot to mention. The Crematogaster queen has started laying, which is good news, because they had a slight die off(about five workers). Here's a pic of the colony, you can see the new brood.

[AntsMaryland]

Sorry, forgot to mention. The Crematogaster queen has started laying, which is good news, because they had a slight die off(about five workers). Here's a pic of the colony, you can see the new brood.

Wow they lay a lot of eggs at a time!

[FeedTheAnts]

 

Sorry, forgot to mention. The Crematogaster queen has started laying, which is good news, because they had a slight die off(about five workers). Here's a pic of the colony, you can see the new brood.

Wow they lay a lot of eggs at a time!

 

Well, there was already some eggs that have been there since hibernation, but there wasn't as many as there is now.

Edited by TennesseeAnts, June 10 2018 - 10:00 AM.

[AntsMaryland]

Is crematogastor polygenous?

[FeedTheAnts]

I think that some species can be.

[CamponotusLover]

Is crematogastor polygenous?

I would deeply advise AGAINST putting multiple queens together of Crematogaster though. As they are a more rare species to find so each Crematogaster queen is more special. For me I find like one Crematogaster queen in every 30 other ants.

[FeedTheAnts]

So the heating mat came in the mail, and let's just say that the ants love it. I plugged it in and turned it on low and before it was even fully heated up the Crematogasters had already moved to the side of their test tube that was over the mat(literately an immediate reaction). The Abdo-Lemons as well are responding to it, they started to unhuddle and a worker left the tube to forage. Their joints were making robot like clickity click movements, which I thought was interesting.

Edited by TennesseeAnts, February 21 2018 - 10:13 AM.

[FeedTheAnts]

Update:

I just caught three Winter Ant queens!!! Here's a pic. I've got big plans for these as far as housing, something natural.

[Jadeninja9]

Update:
I just caught three Winter Ant queens!!! Here's a pic. I've got big plans for these as far as housing, something natural.

Nice dude!

[FeedTheAnts]

Update on the Abdo-Lemons:

They are very active now, they forage all day long. I've fed them a ton of honey and given them three live spiders(judge me if you want to, but I like watching them hunt like they would in the wild). It gets pretty crazy in their when a bug gets found in their outworld, ants just start pouring out of the nest. The workers have also been loading up on water from their test tube, and some of them are looking like miniature repletes. I'm not sure if the queen has laid any eggs yet, but I do see her a lot, usually sitting on top of the huge ball of ants that is this colony. I'm sure she will start to lay eggs very soon because this colony is eating a lot of food and looking very healthy.

 

Update on the Valentine Soldiers:

I've taken a picture showing the brood that the queen has laid so far, It's a pretty nice pile of eggs actually. They have been connected to their outworld but haven't been foraging at all, which is kinda weird because they have been pretty active inside of the nest. Everyday when I turn on the heating mat they quickly move to the side of their tube that is over it (I don't put the whole tube over the mat), and every night when I turn it of they move back to the tubing which connects them to their outworld. they definitely love heat.

 

 

[FeedTheAnts]

I've moved the Abdo-Lemons to my formicarium. I figured the varied environment of the formicarium would be better then the one tube. I was really excited to see a few workers carrying eggs, the queen has already started laying!

Edited by TennesseeAnts, April 6 2018 - 3:39 PM.

[FeedTheAnts]

Update: 

Yippee! the Camponotus queen has laid 3 eggs. This is super exciting, it's the first thing this colony has done since hibernation. I'll make sure to keep you all updated on their development.

 

[FeedTheAnts]

Update: 

The Camponotus now have 5 eggs

[FeedTheAnts]

I went out today and caught a lot of termites from a log to feed all my ants. I dumped about 40 in the Abdo-Lemons outworld. It only took one worker to find it and tell the rest, from there it was a feeding frenzy! Ants just spilled into the outworld and carried termites back to the nest. I also gave some to the Valentine Soldiers, and for the first time since coming out of hibernation they took food, which was good because their pile of eggs is pretty huge. There are about three times as many eggs as there were a few days ago in the pic I uploaded. Afterwards I gave the Abdo-Lemons a lot of honey to replenish their energy

[Connectimyrmex]

Your ants look great!

I found that Zootermopsis workers are great feeders for ants (you can buy them online).

[FeedTheAnts]

Your ants look great!

I found that Zootermopsis workers are great feeders for ants (you can buy them online).

Thanks!

It's funny that you mention that because the termites I fed my ants looked like Zootermopsis(I have no idea what they really were, they just looked like it). They were the largest termites I've ever seen, and there were lots of soldiers.