167 replies to this topic

[BugFinder]

When I got home from work today and glanced at my ants, the nest looked different than usual, so I threw it under the microscope and confirmed it was different:  I'm missing 2 pupae!  They must have eclosed today while I was at work.  There looks to be two young ants in the nest.  It appears that I now have 3 larvae, 1 pupa, and 8 workers.  There is a dead worker in there too, I think that's the same one I saw dead a few days ago, unless they did something with that one, which leaves me 1 ant short.  Either she is still a pupae and I didn't see her, or there are two dead and I didn't notice one of them, or I miscounted somewhere.

 

 

The ants are trying to climb the sides of the container, and having some success as there is some debris stuck to the sides, but they can't seem to make it up high enough to get out.  I suspect they will eventually.  I think I need to get them into something will slightly taller sides.

 

A photo of my dead ant: 

Edited by BugFinder, December 29 2014 - 5:12 PM.

[BugFinder]

Waiting for Blue 100 to arrive in the mail.  Added about six basil seeds hoping that will tide them over.  As soon as I dropped the seeds in they started fussing over them and carrying them around.  Probably because it's something new in their foraging area.

Edited by BugFinder, December 30 2014 - 8:03 PM.

[drtrmiller]

Waiting for Blue 100 to arrive in the mail. 

 

Shipping to California residents usually takes 2-3 days, but the holidays have kind of screwed with the timing.

 

You'll get it by the end of the week :~)

[dspdrew]

Waiting for Blue 100 to arrive in the mail.  Added about six basil seeds hoping that will tide them over.  As soon as I dropped the seeds in they started fussing over them and carrying them around.  Probably because it's something new in their foraging area.

You'll find they will horde all sorts of food items you give them, but it's hard to tell exactly what they do with them.

[BugFinder]

 

Waiting for Blue 100 to arrive in the mail. 

 

 

 

You'll get it by the end of the week :~)

 

 

My mail is screwed up right now (has been since July) so there's no telling when or if I'll get it, and it's certainly not your fault

[drtrmiller]

Hmm...it was actually delivered in your mailbox yesterday, the 31st.

[BugFinder]

I received it yesterday!  I just cooked up my first batch and it's cooling in the refrigerator.  I hope I didn't screw it up.  We'll know in about 10 minutes.

[BugFinder]

Todays count:

 

1 Queen

6 workers

3 dead workers

4 larvae

0 eggs that I can see/recognize

 

I cooked up the blue 100 and gave it to the ants.  It looked like 1 one them started feeding immediately, and one of them (a new worker) kept approaching it but leaving.  It did this repeatedly.  I think my ants are crazy.

 

Anyone, it took her much longer than I expected to finish feeding, and she didn't seem to go back to the nest to feed her sisters and the brood like I expected, so I don't know what's going on.

 

Photo of my first feeding with blue 100

 

Photo of the brood today

 

If someone sees any eggs in my photos please let me know.  I'm not confident I would recognize what I'm looking at if I did see them.

Edited by BugFinder, January 2 2015 - 3:15 PM.

[dean_k]

As long as one worker eats, all ants will get the stuff because they share food which is known as regurgitation.

 

You need better lightning into the tube.

[BugFinder]

Remembering something Andrew said a few days ago, I bet the gel will be more popular with them once it has dried out some....

[Gregory2455]

When did two more workers die?

[Gregory2455]

Also I suggest putting the formula onto some tinfoil or something- it should not come in contact with the sand.

[BugFinder]

I'm not sure exactly when they died, or why, but you can see two of them in the photo of gel.  The view of the third one of obstructed by the gel.

[Gregory2455]

I suggest taking them out, and like I said before, putting the gel on a sterile surface.

[BugFinder]

Thanks.

[BugFinder]

Well I took my eyes off them for a few hours and when I checked back the gel is all gone and the larvae are blue so I guess they liked it lol.  I had no doubt they would, and preparing it is not as big of a hassle as I worried it might be.

 

I think I'd like to try the liquid feeder so they can self feed and I just have to worry about keeping food in the feeder for them.  I'd like to see if that is less maint than dealing with the gel.

[LAnt]

Are you giving them anything else?

[BugFinder]

I have given them some seeds and some food scraps, but nothing since I gave them gel this morning.

[InsideAntz]

Hi BugFinder, i had a Pogonomyrmex colony in the past that grew into rediculous numbers. i'll share with you the number one food that they just loved. it was the niger or nijer seeds. They also liked poppy seeds. I tried EVERY seed and they chose the niger/nijer seed (sorry, I beleive it's spelled both ways).

Happy to help with what worked for me if needed.

Good luck with them and enjoy.

[LAnt]

there's a whole thread with Pogonomyrmex tips including these seeds