665 replies to this topic

[futurebird]

This makes me feel better about they way my Camponotus discolor colony is sprawling. Although you probably have twice as many ants as I do as they are smaller and I think a maybe 1/2 bigger by volume. 

 

(when you start thinking of the ants in volume you are in deep)

[ANTdrew]

This makes me feel better about they way my Camponotus discolor colony is sprawling. Although you probably have twice as many ants as I do as they are smaller and I think a maybe 1/2 bigger by volume.

(when you start thinking of the ants in volume you are in deep)

Successfully keeping ants is not an aesthetic undertaking.

[Flu1d]

Update 4-6-24
Welcome to the sixth year of this journal (though it is now following a second colony)! I brought Queen Della and her minions out of hibernation on March 13th. They did fine during their diapause time and bounced back to frenetic activity very quickly. I upgraded their setup at the end of March by adding a new CrematoProof mega-outworld I had made for them along with the UtahAnts Nucleus replica that my original colony used to live in. I had to disconnect the mega-outworld, though, due to a problem with the escape barrier. I had experimented with putting talc and alcohol instead of fluon on the anti-escape rim at the top, but because the rim was made of a flexible plastic, too much talc dust fell down every time I bumped the box at all. The poor ants got dusted by walking around and literally couldn't climb anything! I didn't want the outworld to become a death trap, so I broke it down and will need to redo later with fluon.

Here are the ants the day I brought them home into my warm kitchen.



Here is the expanded setup before I removed the mega-outworld.



I love keeping Crematogaster this time of year since they become so ravenous and active. I plan to devote almost all of my energy to this colony this year. No other ant species can even hold a candle to Crematogaster in my opinion.

I had a Crematogaster pinicola queen, but she didn't end up making it very far unfortunately. I was very interested in seeing her colony grow.

Hopefully I catch one this year, I'd really love another shot at that species!

[ANTdrew]

Update 4-16-2024

I was quite shocked last night to find that this colony has several queen larvae already! The growth of this colony is just astounding!

Edited by ANTdrew, April 16 2024 - 10:51 AM.

[GOCAMPONOTUS]

Wow that is quick, I love crematogaster genus.

[The_Gaming-gate]

My dream is to set some Crematogaster in a THA Aerie. Then they’d really be “acrobat” ants.