7 replies to this topic

[StopSpazzing]

Going to start journal my information regarding my all my Formica francoeuri. So here goes:

 

I caught 150 Formica francoeuri on May 27 @ 9-11pm. This was off on Route 66. They were all over the asphalt where you park.

 

Out that 150 I caught, I only have 35 left, due to combination of giving away, trading, and about 1/3 die off's or not being fertile so I froze them.

 

They are in standard test tube setups with filtered water and prewashed test tubes.

 

 

 

About a week ago, I fed all the queens in the test tubes sugar water to keep them going. They cautiously drank all of the fluid I provided them.

 

Last night, checked on them. Most of them have their nanitics. Couple have 5+!

 

One of the queens seemed to have died too, while still having brood, new eggs, and 3 nanitics, with one dead nanitic body. I am unsure of the reason why. Nanitics were caring for the brood still and one of them was dark, and the other 2 were much lighter in color. Not sure the exact date the queen died but must have been very recent. I felt bad for the nanitics... so made a decision. I wanted to test merging a colony without a queen with one that did. This has been done with other species but not many records of Formica.

 

I will continue what I did and the outcome when I get home tonight.

Edited by StopSpazzing, September 24 2018 - 3:00 PM.

[StopSpazzing]

Continuing from previous post...

 

Now, after making that decision, had to figure out best way to make this happen successfully. Tried putting the test tube with no queen in fridge to slow them down. didn't work as expected. So then moved to testing it with one of the workers, chose the newest nanitic, which was the lightest one, since thought behind it was less likely to have the scent of the old queen and put up a fight. 

 

At first thought the queen was going to kill her cause she immediately grabbed her with her mandibles and the nanitic was helpless, flailing its legs around trying to get away. But then queen put her down and started to clean her and I'm guessing put her scent on her. Was weird. Nanitic seemed tramatized and didn't really move much after that, so at first though she was dead, then after a few minutes, she started to care for the brood. Proceeded to move the rest of the 2 remaining nanitics one at a time, and she excepted them also with less fuss than the first one. Moved the eggs with wet qtip which nanitics immediately moved to brood pile, queen ignored the eggs oddly. They all seemed happy and content with having a new queen. So, seems you CAN merge nanitics to a new queen for Formica.

 

Tonight, have to feed ALL 35 queens, all of them have 3+ nanitics; Which is going to be a massive chore. I'll add more to this once I'm finished. Going to be feeding them B. patagonicus queens I caught the other night and froze, since they are small and have 100+ of them.

[StopSpazzing]

Want to update this and add that they loved the B. patagonicus queens. Just fed them sugar water last night; Thank god for the dull tipped needles I got, else would probably have a bunch of escaping ants.

 

Found out that these species are farmers and tend to aphids and mealy bugs. Some people put plant pieces that have aphids in outworlds to feed them. Will probably do this in the future once they move to formicariums.

 

They are also classified as C "pest" rating: http://blogs.cdfa.ca...ion3162/?p=1131which is interesting to know.

[YsTheAnt]

Hah, they even include us hobbyists' shenanigans... How thoughtful.

[StopSpazzing]

Hah, they even include us hobbyists' shenanigans... How thoughtful.

Yeah, thanks Drew!

[TheAntGuy]

Hey, I have 4 colonies of my own, was wondering what you use as a barrier for them. I tried vaseline, and although it detours them from wanting to walk on it, they still can walk over it.

[StopSpazzing]

Hey, I have 4 colonies of my own, was wondering what you use as a barrier for them. I tried vaseline, and although it detours them from wanting to walk on it, they still can walk over it.

 

I use Olive Oil currently. Just keep an eye on it and make sure it's a good thick coat. Some of my colonies like to stack sand onto it. Probably better to use baby powder with alcohol, so they can't stack sand on it.

 

 

 

 

Also update on my ants:

 

Due to selling bunch, finally down to 14 which is manageable but still a lot (ignore the Camponotus in front):

 

 

2 colonies with most workers trying a Mason Jar setup with dirt/sand mixture from a trail I frequent.

 

One of them have been in there for well over 2 weeks and just watered it yesterday and they are digging more tunnels:

 

The white you see is several sheets of printer paper to keep the outside edges of the jar darker so they tunnel along the edges and not just center. Will be probably trimming this back soon so I don't have to keep looking over the paper to see what they are doing on the top soil.

 

The other Mason Jar just had it finish drying day ago, wet the soil top and waited for it to seep in. I then coated the top part of the "lid" area, both inside and out with olive oil. I then set the test tube in at the angle you see it at which is the shallowest I can get it. This was done earlier today and and you can see the ants are already moving the brood and digging tunnels to migrate into. The water was going to need to be changed soon in the test tube so was a win win for me.

 

 

That's fresh new sugar water too... looks like a weak ant already fell into it.

 

Keeping them in the dark area of my cabinet for now until they move, not sure if I'm going to add paper to keep sides dark on this one or not.

Edited by StopSpazzing, September 24 2018 - 3:01 PM.

[StopSpazzing]

So one of the queens died with tons of brood and workers. Testing theory again about merging colonies without queens with one that does tonight. Going to record the results and post video here. I tested dropping one of the workers into another container with few workers and they seems confused at first and then accepted her. Hoping can get all the workers and brood to merge without casualties. Only doing this cause of the previous attempt without problems.