625 replies to this topic

[CatsnAnts]

I think my temnothorax queen may be laying eggs soon! Her gaster has really expanded (partially from the honey, I assume)!


EDIT: also, I convinced my parents that these specific ants aren’t going to do any harm to our house or us, it took like 30 minutes, but now I’m allowed to keep this colony inside! One step further!

Edited by CatsnAnts, May 26 2019 - 3:09 AM.

[CatsnAnts]

Figured I’d show you some pictures of my aphenogaster colony and my new Camponotus chromiades queen! Originally, I found four of them, but I only kept the most vibrant one, and she’s already had two eggs. Also, my aphenogaster colony is having some dye offs. Any idea why? Do they just need to be fed a lot? It won’t really matter too much though, because that queen lays eggs like crazy:

Edited by CatsnAnts, May 26 2019 - 12:22 PM.

[Acutus]

Wow! that is a beautiful C. chromaiodes Queen! Awesome!

[CatsnAnts]

Wow! that is a beautiful C. chromaiodes Queen! Awesome!

Thank you!

[CatsnAnts]

Time to do an update as well as go through my procedure on cracking open stick/logs. First we’ll go through all of my colonies from most favorite to least favorite:

Temnothorax curvispinosus:
Doing very well, Queen has laid an egg. They drank most of the honey I gave them and are munching a a fly that I prepared for them. Even the queen was going at it!



Camponotus subbarbatus queens:
#1
Has like 8 eggs, maybe she has larvae, can’t tell.

#2
Same as number 1.

#3
Same as number 1.

#4
Has one egg.

Camponotus chromiades:
She has three eggs now, but is spooked very easily.

Aphenogaster fulva:
These guys are not doing the best, and I have no idea why. I think the dye offs have stopped, and I fed them a fly today.

Tapinoma cf. sessile queen:
Probably not going to keep her if she ends up being tapinoma sessile, found her today. I have an ID thread up if you want to check it out!


COLLECTING AND SEARCHING THROUGH STICKS:

It was requested that I share with you guys how I go about collecting and searching through sticks/logs. Sorry it’s a bit late, but here it is now.

I live by a wooded area that has a forest extending far back:


As you can see, we have a pickleball court (have you heard of it?) and it comes in handy when collecting sticks (it’s where I crack them open) because if you do happen to come across a colony, they are easily visible when you find them or if they try to escape.

I never actually go into the woods to collect sticks, (although I’ll get there one day, it’s just I have an EXTREMELY IRRATIONAL fear of spiders, and they are everywhere in there) so I just collect them along the edge of the woods:




The very last picture above is the spot where I have found BASICALLY all of my queens.

Here is a size comparison with my hand of the sticks that I collect, normally, they are about 1-2 inches in diameter. Sometimes bigger, and sometimes smaller. Just make sure that the sticks you use have holes in them or are partially rotten, otherwise a queen will probably skip over it and will continue in her search for a suitable home:


Lastly, when searching through the sticks, I usually take an ax or hoe and split the log/stick in several places. Take care to check the split locations to see if any ants are crawling out. Then, move onto the smaller sections of the sticks and pull them apart one by one with your hands or a pocket knife. Be careful to get even the smallest pieces, because I have found a lot of my queens hiding in small, inconspicuous broken off pieces. When you find the queen, you obviously want to catch it (self-explanatory).


When collecting acorns. Find the ones that have a small hole in them. What I do is blow into them, and a lot of times if an ant colony is living inside, a worker will come to check out what caused the disruption (but not always)! I hope this helped, and I am still new to doing this, so some things may not be right or there could be a better way! good luck!

Edited by CatsnAnts, May 27 2019 - 12:19 PM.

[Acutus]

Thanks for the visual! I do about the same thing. I don't have a pickle ball court but use either a cement foundation that use to be a cabin or I use a wheel barrow.

[CatsnAnts]

Now I’m debating on whether or not my temnothorax queen really did lay an egg, or if it’s just a small larvae that’s been here all along, OR if the egg hatched? Look to the right of the ants and you’ll see it:


EDIT: also, these gals are really chill, they don’t freak out at all when I check on them. I’m slowly everyday giving their test tube more light than the day before, although it’s still pretty dark, I want to eventually keep them in moderate light so I can watch them!

Edited by CatsnAnts, May 27 2019 - 2:22 PM.

[CatsnAnts]

Okay, I’m really excited right now because today my dad was cutting down limbs on our trees. While I was walking by looking for acorns, I noticed an odd deformed acorn on one branch that was cut and lying on the ground. On closer inspection, I saw an ant at the little tiny hole that lead to the hollowed our inside! I quickly broke it off and ran back to inspect it! I opened about a .5 cm hole into it and discovered a queen!! There were also about 10 eggs, 4 larvae, and two pupae, as well as 5 workers. I literally have no idea what species this species is right now, and I even got a good look at the workers and queen. Currently, I have them in an outworks with a test tube setup, because I know their “acorn” will dry out and they will seek a new home, so until then, does anybody have any suggestions of what species lives in trees like that? (Sry, no pictures for now, but they seemed to resemble Formica, while the queen almost looked like a Camponotus queen?)

[TennesseeAnts]

No way to tell without pics.

[CatsnAnts]

Geez these unknown ants are stubborn. I have their “acorn” cracked open amp most half way with bright light shining into it, and they refuse to move. I almost lost one of the three workers this morning when it got in some olive oil that dropped from the barrier. I rinsed it off and put it on a paper towel. 10 minutes later it started moving, phew.

ALSO, in my temnohorax colony, that thing that I thought was an egg yesterday was actually a small larvae, BUT last night she laid some eggs, I think 3, but I’ll have to check!

Edited by CatsnAnts, May 28 2019 - 5:02 AM.

[CatsnAnts]

Okay, WELL THEN, I literally just taped the acorn to the test tube so they couldn’t escape, and then I put an ice cube touching the acorn and shined a light on the test tube (it was wrapped in aluminum foil, so that it would absorb the heat and not the light). Literally in 10 minutes the whole colony was moved. I will definitely use this method next time!

Edited by CatsnAnts, May 28 2019 - 5:32 AM.

[TennesseeAnts]

Pics of the unknown species? I could probably help.

[CatsnAnts]

Alright, so I just posted an ID thread, but here are the pictures that I posted there for the journal aspect:





EDIT: also, I’m not sure if those are eggs in my temnothorax colony, it’s all just so tiny.

Edited by CatsnAnts, May 28 2019 - 7:00 AM.

[TennesseeAnts]

Camponotus. From the Myrmentoma subgenus. Probably C. hyatti.

[CatsnAnts]

The workers are definitely full on honey.

Please, if you have any ideas or thoughts on what this species is, visit the ID thread I made!

Edited by CatsnAnts, May 28 2019 - 12:02 PM.

[CatsnAnts]

Quick update (I’ll make a bigger update at the end of this week) in saying that I released my Camponotus chromiades queen (since it’s a bigger Camponotus, my parents realized it’s a carpenter ant, but not the small ones, so I can keep my C. caryae and my three C. Subbarbatus!), my tapinoma sessile queen, and I’m thinking about releasing my aphenogaster fulva colony because aphenogaster just haven’t really ever excited me. That would leave me with my favorites:

A single Temnothorax colony who I’m trying to leave alone for a week in hopes that the queen lays eggs.

Three Camponotus subbarbatus queens who are ALL doing really well.

And finally my newest colony of Camponotus caryae. There isn’t much info on them, so I hope I can raise them to reach a large colony size!

Miscellaneous:

Lasius umbratus queen who I plan on attempting to raise.

Termite pair with lots of eggs.

Edited by CatsnAnts, May 29 2019 - 10:26 AM.

[CatsnAnts]

Welp, I was looking through acorns and found another Temnohorax curvispinosus colony with a queen and a worker, but I accidentally squished the queen .~. Whoops...

[ForestDragon]

you are from down south right? that Formica pallidefulva is pretty light, I have the northern local myself and she has workers and is on her 3rd batch of eggs now

[Martialis]

You, uh, might want to slow down on catching new ants. It's very possible to get yoo many than you can take care of.

[CatsnAnts]

you are from down south right? that Formica pallidefulva is pretty light, I have the northern local myself and she has workers and is on her 3rd batch of eggs now

Wait, hold up, are you talking about my one from last year? I live in Indiana.


And also yes, I should probably slow down on catching new ants! my goal is to have three to four colonies. Preferably three.