84 replies to this topic

[DJoseph98]

Update 05/02/2020
My Myrmica queens have their first nanitics!
They are larger than I thought they would be but look so dimunitive next to their mothers. I assume since this is a semiclaustral species, the next batch of workers will look more similar to their mothers.

[AntsDakota]

Nice! My colonies queens laid eggs: https://www.formicul...e-pogonomyrmex/

[DJoseph98]

Update 05/28/2020

It’s been almost a month since the last update. Not too many big things to tell.

 

Formica subsericea

So, my Formica queen with the worker from outside had a nanitic, I added one of the other queens to the tube with them and provided an outworld. They have a second nanitic, though all the foreign workers died. They are taking in food regularly, have three more pupae close to eclosing, and a few large larvae. The third queen died, no brood. I feel confident this colony will succeed if I don’t do anything too radical with them.

 

Myrmica spp.

I provided my Myrmica with a large outworld with real substrate substrate which they subsequently moved into. I am fine with this since they refused to move out of their dry tube for the month otherwise. They are hunting and doing fine though only the queens come to the surface. Problem with mold, however I placed some moss to keep free nutrients down and giving daily sunlight to keep microbes to a minimum. The trouble with sunlight is that too much and I will cook the ants, too little and the mold will flourish too easily. I will try and find some low growing plants that can put down roots too to keep deeper nutrients to a minimum.

 

Monomorium minimum

The Monomorium finally found a way out of their outworld (a few foraging workers only) so I put their formicarium out on my balcony. They are just sending workers and from what I can tell bringing little pieces of various things back (I suspect bird poop). I refuse to provide this kind of thing directly to them since this risks my health and that of anyone around me, however I will not stop them from foraging for it. I used their foraging line to determine the gap that the found in my mesh hole, which I subsequently covered with additional silicone sealant. They still found another gap somewhere at least it is small enough to keep them from moving the colony entirely (too small for larvae, pupae, or queens). They are much livelier now though and are keeping away some wild Tapinoma sessile that were foraging in greater numbers near my balcony. They are few enough in number that they don’t wander far that I’ve seen, but in a week or two I will more thoroughly plug up their exits.  The problem is that I think they have gotten tired of mealworms. I will have to start getting creative with protein.

[DJoseph98]

Update 6/22/2020

 

Monomorium minimum

Turns out that leaving a tiny hole in silicon for them to explore was a terrible idea. They made it wider and wider. I finally sealed it back up (twice) and eventually used tape as well which finally worked. Two days later there was a massive die off. I don’t know if it was the fumes from the sealant, end of life of the colony, or maybe they got into some poison with their foragers. Who knows? Right now, there is only a small fraction of workers with hundreds in a pile in their outworld. I could not find a queen in their tube, so I assume they have died as well. I think this is the end. I will not attempt to raise this species again. They seem impossible to contain the moment they find an opening.

 

Myrmica spp.

This colony is doing well, they have plenty of brood eat plenty, but only have two workers. One of the queens has died (watched one of her sister queens carry out the corpse).  They seem to be doing very well though. I even saw one of the workers hunt and kill their first fruit fly! I hope this colony will continue to grow and thrive.

 

Formica subsericea

This colony now has two queens, three workers, one pupae, maybe five large larvae, but no eggs once again. They seem to lay in small batches. The workers won’t forage in the outworld but if I leave a dead mealworm in the vinyl tubing connection, they will take it. I’m going to start leaving some honey on aluminum foil there too in case it they aren’t leaving for sugar either. They are growing slowly, but steadily.

 

NEW FINDS

I found a Campnotus nearcticus queen in my apartment that crawled in on the carpet. She has laid three eggs and removed one of her wings so far, so I hope she is fertile. After a trip back to East Kentucky, I found four Tetramorium immigrans queens, and one Crematogaster cerasi. It feels like a flashback. I am not combining queens at all, especially with the mortality rate in Tetramorium spp. queens that I saw last year. The Crematogaster queen laid eggs inside the capture container that I had her during a two-hour car trip! I was able to get her to pick up her eggs before moving her to a test tube (five eggs!).

 

I learned some lessons. Never allow a colony to see a hole to escape or free forage. I will not collect queens for small ants like Monomorium ever again either. WAY too much work just to prevent escape.

I’ve started freezing excess mealworms and fruit flies since my cultures have been producing far more than I can keep up with. I know I will be able to use them easily in the future so it’s not that much of an issue for me. It’s much better than culling their number which would be a waste.

 

Addition: Tetramorium immigrans queens found on 6/21/2020, Crematogaster cerasi queen found on 6/20/2020.

Edited by DJoseph98, June 26 2020 - 9:32 AM.

[AntsDakota]

In my experience, if well fed, Solenopsis molesta, who are regarded as escape artists, won’t even try to leave their enclosure. They won’t even climb the sides.

[DJoseph98]

In my experience, if well fed, Solenopsis molesta, who are regarded as escape artists, won’t even try to leave their enclosure. They won’t even climb the sides.

You're probably right. It's hard for em to tell how much food they need when they hollow out mealworms and you can never tell if they are finished or left some uneaten inside. Still, I don't like to think what would happen if a colony of S. molesta got loose and found my snack stash. 

[CatsnAnts]

That’s too bad to hear about the M. minimum colony, I was actually looking forward to finding some queens of that species this year!

[ANTdrew]

Wait till that Crematogaster colony gets to 2,000+ escape artists with superhuman climbing and chewing ability!

[DJoseph98]

Wait till that Crematogaster colony gets to 2,000+ escape artists with superhuman climbing and chewing ability!

 

I hope they can become that successful eventually though I could do without worrying about chewing I actually just caught another queen yesterday though! Since my last colony of this species died during hibernation, I want to make sure I have plenty to work with. Try, try, try again!

[DJoseph98]

That’s too bad to hear about the M. minimum colony, I was actually looking forward to finding some queens of that species this year!

 

I was hoping to see if they would produce alates or if the colony would actually surpass living a year (though I fell short). Every other journal I've seen that had Monomorium minimum only lasted for about that I could find. If you can find some (which you should be able to soon), I wish you luck and hopefully see how they behave at the year mark!

[ANTdrew]

Wait till that Crematogaster colony gets to 2,000+ escape artists with superhuman climbing and chewing ability!

I hope they can become that successful eventually though I could do without worrying about chewing I actually just caught another queen yesterday though! Since my last colony of this species died during hibernation, I want to make sure I have plenty to work with. Try, try, try again!

Lots of heat and lots of variety in their protein is key. If they are only fed one thing too long, they start rejecting protein and the colony implodes.

[Kaelwizard]

That’s too bad to hear about the M. minimum colony, I was actually looking forward to finding some queens of that species this year!

I was hoping to see if they would produce alates or if the colony would actually surpass living a year (though I fell short). Every other journal I've seen that had Monomorium minimum only lasted for about that I could find. If you can find some (which you should be able to soon), I wish you luck and hopefully see how they behave at the year mark!

I think THA has a large colony, though I don’t know how old the colony is.

[DJoseph98]

Update 7/5/2020

 

So, as I reported last time, I finally had some success with finding some queens (even if they are the more common species).

 

Tetramorium immigrans

I have four queens currently in the founding stages for this species. I currently have done nothing to differentiate them, since previously I have only had 25% success rate for founding queens of this species (unknown how much of this is due to my own mistakes, but oh well.). All queens are in tubes wrapped in red transparent vinyl (I must make more black sleeves). One queen has no brood, one queen has a small number, two queens have considerable numbers. I can’t differentiate eggs from larvae yet. Nothing new to report, otherwise.

 

Myrmica spp.

Sad news. This colony is no longer polygynous. Another queen died, and was left in the outworld; however, they have quit a bit of brood that I was finally able to spot in their tube. I remember speculating that only one queen was contributing to the brood, so it may be the two queens that died were never fertile. No foul play was apparent.

 

Formica subsericea

This colony is started to worry me just a bit. They moved in the connecting vinyl tube between the test tube and their outworld and freaked out whenever I approached (they have good eyesight). Then, next thing I know, all of them but one worker (at the entrance) and a queen moved back into the tube (rebellion?). If that wasn’t weird enough, they only have five pupae and no other stage. Two of the pupae don’t have cocoons!!! I am VERY certain of this. I don’t know why this is the case (they have plenty of access to substrate), and why it is different for these two. I have observed larvae in direct transition into a cocoon before, so this is not some transitory stage (though how that could work I have no clue). I will be watching carefully.

 

Camponotus nearcticus

This queen is very… unproductive. I very rarely check on this queen, yet yesterday I only saw one larva and three long eggs. She did finally rip off all but one wing, so that is something. I hope this queen can succeed; I think it would be really cool to have this species. He gaster is very swollen though, so maybe she is just getting started.

 

Crematogaster cerasi

This queen has a modest amount of brood, but she seems to be doing well. She is also wrapped in the transparent red vinyl, though I will change that today. Nothing else to report.

 

 

New Additions!

1. Another Crematocgaster cerasi! Caught 6/28/2020, Eastern Kentucky, 3PM. Already has more brood than the first queen. This one is wrapped in a black sleeve that I hade made hastily.
2. One Lasius americanus queen. Caught 6/29/2020, Central Kentucky, 9:30PM. I didn’t go through an identification key, since it would not stand still long enough for any kind of close observation. It resembles Lasius neoniger strongly but flew wrong time of year. There was a significant flight of this species on and I have logged another flight of a similar sort same week last year a few miles north of the same spot, so I will stick to this ID. She already has a significant collection of brood though. I have concerns about this queen since she seemed to have an extremely small imperfection on her gaster that was almost impossible to notice, but she seemed to rub at it slightly. It may eb an extremely small dark mite or an imperfection in her exoskeleton: either one is better that a parasitic wasp larva, though I’ve never seen one.

[DJoseph98]

Update 7/18/2020

 

Lots of news at once. Large Lasius americanus flight yesterday (caught four queens) along with Solenopsis molesta (caught two). I also caught another Formica subsericea on 7/13/2020, who already has three eggs. I am raising the Solenopsis molesta to see what will happen if I give them access to one of my Lasius groups when they both have workers.

 

Tetramorium immigrans

I just looked in on these today… One queen had ten nanitics! I fed them a very small smear of honey and three fruit flies on a small piece of aluminum foil. The other two queens have several pupae each.

 

Formica subsericea

Two-Queen Colony => So, it looks like every pupa (naked and cocooned) has eclosed. There is not any new brood for my two-queen colony, but I’m sure they will lay another batch soon. They took a small-medium mealworm so I think they are getting ready.

One Queen Founding => Like I said in the beginning, she has three eggs now, found her 7/13/2020.

 

Myrmica spp.

I can’t say much about this colony because they are somewhat difficult to observe in their current tube setup. What I can say is that I saw their queen move today (just a large shadow) and maybe a worker, but otherwise I don’t know much. No dead workers in the outworld, so no fatalities.

 

Camponotus nearcticus

I am extremely surprised with this queen! She has three pupae and two larvae already. That is 26 days, at most, from no brood to first pupae (I am probably off by a bit since I don’t remember how long the pupae was there). I guess it shouldn't be too long before the first nanitic ecloses.

 

Crematogaster cerasi

One queen has more than ten white pupae, the other only has a very small batch of eggs (still).

 

Lasius americanus

Okay… I may have gone overboard grabbing so many of these queens; however, please try to understand the fever that I went into when after so long not seeing any major flights in my new home location I see hundreds of these queens flying. I now have an additional four of these queens, two each in a 13x100mm test tube and two together in a 16x150mm test tube (just a test to see how long they can cohabitate). I still have two queens from before who have some brood (maybe some larvae but no pupae that I saw). The queens I currently had before don’t have anything past small batches of eggs or a few very small larvae. One is doing better than the other.

 

Solenopsis molesta

I caught two queens, one shed her wings before I could place her in the 13x100mm and the other shed her wings after a night in the tube. They are in the same tube. I know I said I wouldn’t try raising another small species after my Monomorium minimum, but after catching so many Lasius queens, I figure I can see the interaction of S. molesta with a “host”.

[DJoseph98]

Update 8/3/2020

It has been a while since my last update. There was a HUGE ant flight about a week ago. I watched one spot for about 10 minutes, and I spotted twenty Solenopsis molesta queens run by, not even counting how many Lasius sp. Queens ran by as well and the same thing was happening at least a mile away from that spot. They were flying like this all over town. I caught about fifteen of these S. molesta queens, but I ended up injuring about five. I put these down since they were injured and fed them to my young Tetramorium colonies and Crematogaster as well as the Myrmica. They were extremely eager, so at least they did not die in vain. I even tried a new technique of putting a daylight bulb on a timer aimed at the outworlds, which seemed to trigger regular foraging activity for my colonies. I think it may be a good way to provide a better time schedule for them, especially since their area doesn’t get a lot of light.

 

Camponotus nearcticus

            This is a founding colony with only three nanitics (I last checked their tube three days ago), and they have one more pupa and a small batch of brood. They are very cautious and always jump away three times before attacking food.

 

 

Crematogaster cf. cerasi

            The colony that had pupae has boomed. This colony is voracious with their food, with a worker count at about fourteen workers that I could count with a large brood pile of all stages. They haven’t failed to accept a protein source yet, whether it was small cut pieces of mealworm, thawed mealworms, or the queens.

            The other queen had eaten what little brood she had and seemed to be dying upon last check. I went ahead and placed her tube in the freezer to ease her passing somewhat.

 

Formica subsericea

            This colony had previously ceased accepting protein and had no brood. I provided them a larger outworld with a  water tower, drop of honey, and fruit flies but all went untouched. Yesterday I realized their cotton was dry and had been tugged, so I used a barbeque skewer to push it further in (which really got their attention). I then added a cut mealworm in the tube (it wasn’t oozing, so it wouldn’t create a mess). They immediately starting drinking some water, and this morning was the first time I had seen a worker foraging in the outworld for quite some time. I hope this helps them thrive once more. They are at six nanitics and two queens.

            My founding queen seems to have the same pattern that the other colony did when first starting out. She has a large larva and a small larva, but no other brood like I had seen before. I provided her a freshly killed fruit fly in hopes that she could feed the larvae and help herself to nourishment to lay more eggs for brood. The large larvae looks like it must have eaten some, but the leftover was still sitting in there.

 

Formica cf. pallidefulva

            This queen has a very large brood pile, at least six small larvae, a couple slightly larger, and a batch of eggs. She is still physogastric, and I offered a fresh killed fruit fly for additional nourishment. When I checked this morning, there was no sign of the fruit fly. I will add another in two or three days, and hopefully that will also be received well.

 

 

Lasius cf. americanus

            Since my last update, tehre has not been much of a change. The two queen group in the 16x150mm test tube is doing best with a batch of small larvae and eggs looking almost like a garden patch the way they are laid out. The other two queens in their individual 13x100mm test tubes are not doing well, though. Only one has any brood and that is just two or three eggs, while the other is extremely groggy and unresponsive to disturbance (not a good sign in my opinion).

 

Myrmica sp.

            This species has been doing well from what I can tell. They have at least four or five healthy workers that I can see running in their dirt tube and plenty of brood. I recently revived my dying fruit fly culture and was finally able to provide a fresh batch of live fruit flies for them to hunt. It took only a minute for a worker to realize what happened and catch the first one. One hour later, the rest of the fruit flies (at least six more) had disappeared. I have no doubt they caught every single one. I thought the queens had been efficient in hunting live prey, but the workers are even more nimble and aggressive. They haven’t been picky with other food items such as small pre-killed mealworms, but live fruit flies are by far their favorite. I suspect this species is unable to drink from my byFormica liquid feeders though. I see them and they seem to try drinking from where it is screwed in, and sometimes even trying to drink properly, but never come away with a change in gaster size. I may have to add a new source of water.

 

Solenopsis molesta

            I still have a two queen test tube, which they have a small but sizable batch of eggs. No other changes.

            I added all the queens that survived my speedy catching together in to a 16x150mm test tube. I originally added 10, but when I checked today there were only nine. I also discovered a small dead fly inside their tube as well as torn apart and devoured remains of a queen. I believe there was a parasitoid fly in one of the queens, though I don’t think it could have infected the other in the tube without mating beforehand. If it COULD have done so, it is too late to worry about it now. This large queen has a large and spread out batch of eggs and the queens seem to be cooperating very well.

 

 

Tetramorium immigrans

            So, I currently have two small founding colonies of T. immigrans with around twelve workers to each right now, both doing quite well. The third had a mold outbreak that took the queen and brood before it could blossom into another colony. I think it may have become too humid when I switched some of the heating positions. The two colonies are doing very well at least, and it looks like they will both grow strong.

 

Final Notes: I expect to receive four THA Mini Hearths and One THA Mini Hearth XL in the mail in about a week. I plan on giving the XL to my Formcia subsericea colony in hopes it will bring this colony back from their slump. The other lucky recipients will be my Camponotus nearcticus, Crematogaster cf. cerasi, one Tetramorium immigrans colony, and I think the last will be my up and coming Formica cf. pallidefulva (when they have some workers eclose).

[ANTdrew]

If you’re putting Crematogaster in a mini-hearth, I’d recommend gluing the glass down with silicone and attaching a much bigger foraging container with fluon and a tight lid. Because Crematogaster

[DJoseph98]

If you’re putting Crematogaster in a mini-hearth, I’d recommend gluing the glass down with silicone and attaching a much bigger foraging container with fluon and a tight lid. Because Crematogaster

I figured something like that might be necessary, though I hadn't thought of silicone. Have you had experience with Crematogaster in Mini Hearths? I'm still trying to figure out how to heat all of them with just my hermit crab heating mat.

[ANTdrew]

I have a 2,000+ Crematogaster colony in a type III Nucleus. Within hours of moving in, they figured out how to slip out of a gap in the glass. I deeply, deeply regret not gluing it down with silicone beforehand. The outworlds are too small for their massive, aggressive colonies, too. Every time you open the lid, a handful will slip out. #CrematogasterKeeperProblems

Edited by ANTdrew, August 3 2020 - 4:34 PM.

[DJoseph98]

Oh man I've read through some of your journals but I never realized what formicarium they were in! Thanks for the warning, I will definitely use the tip. I don't think I'll officially join the club until after the first diapause, but I can't wait! It's not truly fun if it's not a challenge 

Edited by DJoseph98, August 3 2020 - 5:41 PM.

[DJoseph98]

Here are some photo updates.

 

Crematogaster cerasi

Their queen is blocked by the brood, but she is very physogastric. This colony hasn't past up any food source yet.

 

 

Camponotus nearcticus 

They are easily startled so the quality is poor without adequate lighting for the close-up. This queen has one pupae and one large larvae.