102 replies to this topic

[Crystals]

Shaking it causes it to clump together.

 

I use a Q-Tip and watered down fluon.  Going in little circles.

[dspdrew]

Yeah, don't forget to dilute the fluon with water. It will go much further.

 

Awesome pictures BTW.

[Jonathan21700]

Awesome! Really cool photos they look so natural! Really cool!

[SMILEforAnts]

Thanks guys!
 

@Crystals Do you mean like a liquid feeder? I thought of doing that, but for me it's more fun to watch when I put out a drop of honey water, and then a worker finds it, makes a trail and then all the other workers just burst out into a trail of ants. But of course they do have a readily available supply of water. I haven't tried hummingbird nectar yet because I haven't gotten it in the mail yet. I read it's just sucrose, kinda like sugar water so I'm pretty sure the colony will accept it.

 

And then for the fluon, I will set a reminder to remind me on my iPhone. (:

[Vendayn]

I'm gonna steal your design and make something for the Pheidole megacephala outside and inside my neighbor's garage. It looks really nice and easy to maintain. And, gives a lot of airflow and foraging space.

 

Besides fluon (I'll be likely buying some for tarheel in the next few days), do you do anything else on top of the tank? How did you deal with the aquarium glue that goes along the corners?

[SMILEforAnts]

I'm gonna steal your design and make something for the Pheidole megacephala outside and inside my neighbor's garage. It looks really nice and easy to maintain. And, gives a lot of airflow and foraging space.

 

Besides fluon (I'll be likely buying some for tarheel in the next few days), do you do anything else on top of the tank? How did you deal with the aquarium glue that goes along the corners?

 

Take pictures! I wanna see how it turns out!

 

If you look at my album of my past P. megacephala colony, you can see the cover I used. It's a foldable metal screen cover that I am using now. I don't know what you mean, but I haven't done anything to the silicone on the corners. I didn't remove it or anything like that.

 

Short update, this is how the nest looks now. They've spread out. This picture was from last night taken on my phone. And they also started a pile of garbage out in the foraging area.

 

 

And then this morning I gave them pieces of chicken from my breakfast, because I ran out of crickets already. Crickets here are pretty expensive too. And due to state quarantine laws, I can't order live insects online, which is way cheaper. $5 for 50 crickets here when I can get 500 crickets for $15 online /:< Island problems I swear lol!

 

 

I feel kinda bad because that worker is hanging on to the whole piece of chicken by herself lol. And then they've piled more sand near the entrance. Also you can see workers dug through it too. There's an entrance hole close to the piece of chicken. I guess it's their club house.

 

So this is the probably the last update I will post for a while. I've been spending way too much time this week with my ants and my gf is getting pissed at me lmao. She even threatened to spray Raid into the tank, and I don't want that. But yeah anyway, next update will probably include a video too. Laters!

[Vendayn]

Well, last time I had a 10 gallon tank for my termites...the aquarium glue was all the way up the corners onto the ledge of it. The termites would climb up it really easily and they are the worst climbers of any insect. I figured even with the fluon, wouldn't the ants easily climb up the glue?

[Crystals]

Well, last time I had a 10 gallon tank for my termites...the aquarium glue was all the way up the corners onto the ledge of it. The termites would climb up it really easily and they are the worst climbers of any insect. I figured even with the fluon, wouldn't the ants easily climb up the glue?

If you look towards the end of page 2 there is a picture, and I asked the same thing.  You can see that he made a lip around the top covered in fluon.  The ants can't walk upside on it.

 

Have you thought about adding an ant food like Chromerust's recipe as an addition to help cut costs?

[Vendayn]

Ah thanks, I somehow missed that. I'll probably just have to check different 10 gallon tanks, since they are probably made all differently.

 

By the way. I fed the P. megacephala outside some dried insects (the ones I was talking about that come in a container from Petsmart) and they took some pieces away back to the nest. I guess they like them as they did carry bits away. But, they definitely don't swarm over it. They liked the honey a lot more, though (same as yours). There was a whole bunch of ants that came out to get the honey, even some soldiers.

[SMILEforAnts]

Have you thought about adding an ant food like Chromerust's recipe as an addition to help cut costs?

 

Yeah I'm just waiting on the hummingbird nectar I ordered on eBay. I also ordered some cricket flour too, but I can always try to breed my own crickets like I did before.

 

Ah thanks, I somehow missed that. I'll probably just have to check different 10 gallon tanks, since they are probably made all differently.

 

By the way. I fed the P. megacephala outside some dried insects (the ones I was talking about that come in a container from Petsmart) and they took some pieces away back to the nest. I guess they like them as they did carry bits away. But, they definitely don't swarm over it. They liked the honey a lot more, though (same as yours). There was a whole bunch of ants that came out to get the honey, even some soldiers.

 

Is it those freeze dried ones? They don't usually swarm, unless their food is fighting back and trying to escape. If their food is frozen/dead like a cricket, I recreate their food trying to escape by moving it around with tweezers. It's cool to watch. I know I say they swarm but maybe not really swarm, it's just they try to grab a hold of the legs or whatever they can get a hold of and try to pin it down. I'll make a video of that too sometime.

[Miles]

Great journal! I am following with interest. Keep us updated!

[Vendayn]

 

Ah thanks, I somehow missed that. I'll probably just have to check different 10 gallon tanks, since they are probably made all differently.

 

By the way. I fed the P. megacephala outside some dried insects (the ones I was talking about that come in a container from Petsmart) and they took some pieces away back to the nest. I guess they like them as they did carry bits away. But, they definitely don't swarm over it. They liked the honey a lot more, though (same as yours). There was a whole bunch of ants that came out to get the honey, even some soldiers.

 

Is it those freeze dried ones? They don't usually swarm, unless their food is fighting back and trying to escape. If their food is frozen/dead like a cricket, I recreate their food trying to escape by moving it around with tweezers. It's cool to watch. I know I say they swarm but maybe not really swarm, it's just they try to grab a hold of the legs or whatever they can get a hold of and try to pin it down. I'll make a video of that too sometime.

 

I guess so, haven't really looked at the container. I'm guessing they are flash frozen though, as most things like that come flash frozen these days. It contains grasshoppers, crickets and mealworms. Its made for Bearded Dragons, but I found it a great and cheap (only 8 dollars for a lot of them) food source for ants. Much cheaper than 25 cents (that is how much they wanted) a cricket from petco/petsmart. And I don't have to deal with housing and feeding crickets or other things or mites getting into the crickets, plus crickets got rather smelly lol. When I get my own Pheidole megacephala colony in the next coming weeks or maybe sometime next month (money is tight right now to buy supplies) I can test it out better.

 

I do know my Pogonomyrmex colony LOVES the dried insect food. A bunch of workers come out to get the crushed up pieces. I figure its good for most ants.

 

Here is a link to it

 

http://www.petsmart....36-catid-500004

 

I guess its just freeze dried, not flash frozen.

[SMILEforAnts]

@Miles Thanks bro!

 

@ Vendayn Oooh I like how it has a variety of insects in it. I'll try it someday.

 

All you guys on here with different species of ants, makes me jealous! When my schedule opens up, I plan on exploring more ant species that live here in Hawaii. It'll be cool to have a colony that isn't invasive lol. And my Camponotus variegatus queen died. She was never fertile since it never laid any eggs. ):

[Miles]

A It'll be cool to have a colony that isn't invasive lol. 

That'll be quite difficult, as Hawaii has no native ants. You might be able to find some less ubiquitous species like Strumigenys.

Edited by Miles, April 3 2015 - 8:52 AM.

[Myrmicinae]

 

A It'll be cool to have a colony that isn't invasive lol. 

That'll be quite difficult, as Hawaii has no native ants. You might be able to find some less ubiquitous species like Strumigenys.

 

 

Non-native doesn't necessarily imply invasiveness.  Most introduced ant species actually cause no detectable harm to intact ecosystems.  Cardiocondyla spp., for example, have spread to countless new regions worldwide (including Hawaii), but are generally too timid to displace native ants.  

 

That said, I would expect it to be a different situation for Hawaii, since, as you say, its ecosystems are not adapted to supporting any ants to begin with.

Edited by Myrmicinae, April 3 2015 - 10:24 AM.

[Myrmicinae]

I have heard anecdotal evidence that isopods will consume mites.

Edit: Disregard this comment. I meant to post it in Foogoo's "Spider mites?!" topic.

Edited by Myrmicinae, April 3 2015 - 1:08 PM.

[dermy]

Isopods [the one's that are most commonly used] need high humidity since they breath through modified gills. I'm not 100% sure if that setup has enough humidity.

[Myrmicinae]

That's strange. It looks like my post ended up in the wrong topic.

[Miles]

 

 

A It'll be cool to have a colony that isn't invasive lol. 

That'll be quite difficult, as Hawaii has no native ants. You might be able to find some less ubiquitous species like Strumigenys.

 

 

Non-native doesn't necessarily imply invasiveness.  Most introduced ant species actually cause no detectable harm to intact ecosystems.  Cardiocondyla spp., for example, have spread to countless new regions worldwide (including Hawaii), but are generally too timid to displace native ants.  

 

That said, I would expect it to be a different situation for Hawaii, since, as you say, its ecosystems are not adapted to supporting any ants to begin with.

 

Correct. I didn't mean to imply that.

[Vendayn]

If it rains on Tuesday, I'll be getting a colony of Pheidole megacephala. One of my friends (met him through my neighbor, its his nephew) lives in the same general neighborhood that the Pheidole megacephala live in. Guess small world. Funny I know someone really close by the one single colony that they exist in. I think he lives across the main road from where they are, but his particular neighborhood doesn't have them as far as he knows.Next week I'll be going to his place and we're going anting together (well sort of anting, we're just going to be looking specifically for P. megacephala and see how widespread they have become (if at all).

 

I don't really have a tank or anything ready. But, I did get fluon which will hopefully be here before I go. I'll probably just use a plastic little tank thing to house them in for now. Shouldn't be hard to remove or connect up something more "permanent". But, it has enough room that I can put wood/sticks and stuff in there for them to climb on.

 

(guess it will have to be next week I get a colony of them as he got sick. But in any case...look forward to pictures of them. )

Edited by Vendayn, April 6 2015 - 4:28 PM.