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So Far, What's The Neatest Thing Your Ants Have Done?


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#1 Offline cap_backfire - Posted July 21 2021 - 12:40 PM

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I think mine were my Camponotus Discolor when they escaped.   I came home to feed them, checked their nest and it was EMPTY.   Well, two dumb stragglers left, looking very confused but EMPTY.   I searched EVERYWHERE.   Where could they be?   There's 300 of them so they have to have lines or scouts somewhere, right?   Well, after I located a few they weren't going DOWN the shelf unit but UP.   Above them I had a potted plant and I decided to overwater it to see if they came to the surface (mistake.   these Camponotus were too stupid to climb out of the water with their brood, I probably lost half of the brood doing this) but had no ant reaction.   I kept looking.   Later I see several ants going into and out of that same potted plant so I grabbed the plant around the stalks and lifted it from the pot and... was instantly swarmed by ANGRY discolors.  Their bites weren't totally painful but they were unexpected so I probably lost a few to being a little um... vigorous in getting them off of me before I realized what was happening.   Since then I keep a potted plant near all of my enclosures, just in case thjey escape there will be a VERY close alternative available to them.  

 

Besides that watching my tiny Trachymyrmex haul around steel cut oats that are three times their size is about as cute as it gets.  


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#2 Offline zA-Z0-9 - Posted July 21 2021 - 1:10 PM

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that's hilarious :lol:


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I LOVE ANTS!!!!


#3 Offline zA-Z0-9 - Posted July 21 2021 - 1:18 PM

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one time i was listening to music in my room and my ants came out and i though i wonder if ants respond to music so i put a speaker next to my ant nest and played it  and literally nothing happened so i guess i was wrong but it was still cool to see my ants come out in such a large mass  just all of a sudden like thati wonder if it was the music :music:


I LOVE ANTS!!!!


#4 Offline DDD101DDD - Posted July 21 2021 - 1:29 PM

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one time i was listening to music in my room and my ants came out and i though i wonder if ants respond to music so i put a speaker next to my ant nest and played it  and literally nothing happened so i guess i was wrong but it was still cool to see my ants come out in such a large mass  just all of a sudden like thati wonder if it was the music :music:

 

They might've just felt the vibrations from the music.


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He travels, he seeks the p a r m e s a n.


#5 Offline zA-Z0-9 - Posted July 21 2021 - 1:34 PM

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one time i was listening to music in my room and my ants came out and i though i wonder if ants respond to music so i put a speaker next to my ant nest and played it  and literally nothing happened so i guess i was wrong but it was still cool to see my ants come out in such a large mass  just all of a sudden like thati wonder if it was the music :music:

 

They might've just felt the vibrations from the music.

 

youre probably right


I LOVE ANTS!!!!


#6 Offline TestSubjectOne - Posted July 21 2021 - 1:40 PM

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My favorite ant behavior is how my Novomessor cockerelli process prey. They will work together to swiftly immobilize and kill insects much larger than themselves then break it into pieces small enough to carry back to their larvae, who will eat the entire insect exoskeleton and all. It's much more satisfying than my other species who will leave only eat some parts of their prey while leaving the rest as waste. Here's a GIF of them hunting a Dubia roach.
ezgif.com Gif maker

 


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TestSubjectOne's Experiences in Antkeeping General Journal

 

Currently Keeping:

- Veromessor pergandei (1 queen, 600 workers)

- Novomessor cockerelli (1 queen, 200 workers)

- Myrmecocystus mexicanus (1 queen, 100 workers)

- Brachymyrmex patagonicus (3 queens?, 2,000 workers? & alates)

- Crematogaster sp. (1 queen, 600 workers)

- Liometopum occidentale (1 queen, 800 workers)

- Camponotus absqualator (1 queen, 130 workers)


#7 Offline eea - Posted July 21 2021 - 3:05 PM

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two workers from my colony became best friends and sometimes they separate from the colony and stay close to each other


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-camponotus sansabeanus: 20 wokrers


#8 Offline zA-Z0-9 - Posted July 21 2021 - 3:18 PM

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two workers from my colony became best friends and sometimes they separate from the colony and stay close to each other

 

two workers from my colony became best friends and sometimes they separate from the colony and stay close to each other

that's so cute


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I LOVE ANTS!!!!


#9 Offline ANTS_KL - Posted July 22 2021 - 12:11 AM

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For me it has to be my Nylanderia. The queen lost almost all her workers but made a big comeback and now has around 86.

Sent from my CPH2201 using Tapatalk
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Young ant keeper with a decent amount of knowledge on local ant species.

YouTube: https://m.youtube.co...uKsahGliSH7EqOQ (It's pretty dead. Might upload again soon, don't expect my voice to sound the same though.)

Currently kept ant species, favorites have a star in front of their names (NOT in alphabetical order, also may be outdated sometimes): Camponotus irritans inferior, Ooceraea biroi, Pheidole parva, Nylanderia sp., Paraparatrechina tapinomoides, Platythyrea sp., Anochetus sp., Colobopsis sp. (cylindrica group), Crematogaster ferrarii, Polyrhachis (Myrma) cf. pruinosa, Polyrhachis (Cyrtomyrma) laevissima, Tapinoma sp. (formerly Zatapinoma)

Death count: Probably over a hundred individual queens and colonies by now. I cannot recall whatsoever.

#10 Offline NPLT - Posted July 22 2021 - 5:25 AM

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My Myrmica queen pretty neatly utilized the substrate I gave her and lined her whole test tube with it, all on her own. I like that colony in general, they're a bit like ghosts, never saw them eat anything, still progresses onwards.


Edited by NPLT, July 22 2021 - 5:26 AM.

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Um, uh, Ants!

 

link to journal: https://www.formicul...lt-ant-journal/


#11 Offline antsandmore - Posted July 22 2021 - 7:22 AM

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I think... the neatest things that my newly caught queens have done is just staying alive honestly.

 

Its always cool to see my crematogaster colony wave their gasters in the air.


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Ants I am keeping:

 none for now, planning on being more active this year


#12 Offline Fatatoille - Posted July 22 2021 - 8:08 AM

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It’s quite hard to limit it to one thing, but I recently purchased an iridomyrmex anceps colony with 20 or so workers from a store called mierwinkel which is notorious for selling cheap colonies that come in poor condition. I decided to give the store the benefit of the doubt, but the colony still arrived in a moldy test tube with no brood at all and most of the workers dead, only the queen and 3 workers survived. I wasn’t expecting the queen to live longer than a few dayside she was looking pretty lethargic, but they have completely blown my expectations and have bounced back with five workers now and a decent pile of brood, even the queen is looking plumper. While this isn’t the most impressive achievement I’ve seen my ants make, it is most certainly one of my favorite moments of keeping my ants.
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Prawn and Mayo sandwiches taste nice.


#13 Offline NickAnter - Posted July 22 2021 - 8:33 AM

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I think that my Nylanderia tearing off pieces of cotton from another cotton plug, to make a new cotton plug for the entrance of their nest to save themselves from a mold outbreak in the outworld, takes the top spot for me.


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Hi there! I went on a 6 month or so hiatus, in part due, and in part cause of the death of my colonies. 

However, I went back to the Sierras, and restarted my collection, which is now as follows:

Aphaenogaster uinta, Camponotus vicinus, Camponotus modoc, Formica cf. aserva, Formica cf. micropthalma, Formica cf. manni, Formica subpolita, Formica cf. subaenescens, Lasius americanus, Manica invidia, Pogonomyrmex salinus, Pogonomyrmex sp. 1, Solenopsis validiuscula, & Solenopsis sp. 3 (new Sierra variant). 


#14 Offline WSantkeeper - Posted July 22 2021 - 10:04 AM

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I don’t know if this is neat or annoying, but I guess the fact that my Camponotus moved out of their nest, but only to move back into it 2 minutes later.
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Queens I keep:

 

Camponotus sp.

Formica sp.

Unknown queen ant sp.

1 parasitic Formica queen!

 

 


#15 Offline cap_backfire - Posted July 22 2021 - 10:13 AM

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I think that my Nylanderia tearing off pieces of cotton from another cotton plug, to make a new cotton plug for the entrance of their nest to save themselves from a mold outbreak in the outworld, takes the top spot for me.

This is awesome.  I'm always impressed with how "intelligent" they are about their environment.   
I gave my Camponotus extra sawdust from when I created their formicarium, and just like I thought they would, they used it to block or mostly block entrances they didn't like in their nests.   They used other sawdust and leaf bits to block off a few areas in the nest so I have a harder time seeing them.  That's where I've seen the queen come in and out of the most so it's good to see her still doing her thang.  

 

These are all great!   

If you have to, post more than one!   


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#16 Offline zA-Z0-9 - Posted July 22 2021 - 5:43 PM

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I think that my Nylanderia tearing off pieces of cotton from another cotton plug, to make a new cotton plug for the entrance of their nest to save themselves from a mold outbreak in the outworld, takes the top spot for me.

This is awesome.  I'm always impressed with how "intelligent" they are about their environment.   
I gave my Camponotus extra sawdust from when I created their formicarium, and just like I thought they would, they used it to block or mostly block entrances they didn't like in their nests.   They used other sawdust and leaf bits to block off a few areas in the nest so I have a harder time seeing them.  That's where I've seen the queen come in and out of the most so it's good to see her still doing her thang.  

 

These are all great!   

If you have to, post more than one!   

 

ok great cause i was really scared to post again  :lol:

 

the other day my ants i changed my ants nest set up to clean the other one which i do every few months so i move them by shining a bright light into thier nest which causes them to want to leave but instead of leaving right away they shielded her from the light with thier bodies until they eventually grabbed her by the jaws and dragged/led her away and i just watched in amazement :o


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I LOVE ANTS!!!!





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