7 replies to this topic

[treehunned]

treehunned’s Ant Journal

09/13/19

 

Hello! New member here with his first post on the FC forum. I’m a 23-year-old student/worker who lives in Virginia. I found out about ant keeping through many antscanada videos and my curiosity landed me in the formiculture forum. I managed to obtain each species from members of FC and the community has been very helpful with guidance needed to succeed in ant keeping. I currently have 3 species under my care (please lmk if you think the species is different, I’m confident with the genus being correct) and will log in a listed format.

 

aphaenogaster rudis- This colony was obtained on 9/7/19 from a member of the FC forum. I decided to name my first queen Zagara. These ants were 20-30 strong. Prior to their receipt, I ordered an ant formicarium from amazon: https://www.amazon.c...oding=UTF8&th=1 and was pretty excited to move them into there, being my first colony and all. I had bought wax worms, almonds and honey to mix with water so they could immediately be supplemented once they started to settle in. I live in a basement with AC so I just ordered heat mats and I have a strong light to serve as a heat source. I also bought some Tupperware and made holes big enough for the formicarium tubing to make it connect so I could add it as the outworld. Once I had everything set up to move them, I realized the test tube was far larger than both the formicarium & the Tupperware outworld which was my first dilemma on how they would be able to move. Choosing to move them into formicarium instead of keeping them in the tube set up, I made a hole where the tube would fit through the Tupperware outworld diagonally and they all moved directly to the formicarium when using light on the tube and outworld.

 

I was super stoked to see them move the brood into the nest area. However, the next day when I woke up before work I saw no ant in sight, not even in the nest area.  When I came back after work I was guessing they must be under the nest since I had to prop up the nest area with a rock for the wall of the nest to touch the wall of the formicarium. With no surprise, they were all under the nest and I removed the nest since I did not want to risk the chance of the nest squishing all the ants hiding under. I was reading some folks superglued it to the wall, really wish I did this at first since now putting it back would require me to remove the sand they are currently using. On top of having a proper nest area, I worried not having enough moisture in the set up which would lead to them dying. I put makeshift aluminum plates of water and tubes filled with water and cotton in the end to serve as hydration and moisture. Over the past few days when I arrive home I find all the ants residing in the middle of the tubing which leads me to believe they like dry areas. They’ve eaten the honey and almonds but rejected the wax worms, going to try crickets this week and seek other forms of protein they like. I’d like to think I’m in a dire situation right now with trying to resolve humidity control and finding a better area for them to nest. Hopefully the heat mat would help, I probably will put it to one side of the setup and not under so they can decide where they want to be. Right now, they are using the corkscrew that came with their tubing as the area to rest as they decide where is the best place for them. Wondering if an antscanada tower or Tar Heel Mini Hearth would do the trick.

 

 aphaenogaster.pdf   421.24KB   39 downloads

 

 

 

camponotus chromaiodes- I obtained this beautiful colony on 9/11/19 through a member on the FC forum. The queen was named Idunn prior to the transfer and the colony looks healthy with about 15 to 20 workers. They live in a Tar Heel mini hearth right now where they gather over the water container as their nest area. They have lots of pupae and I really love this set up, I wish I chose this mini hearth over the INNOlife formicarium for my aphaenogasters. Still trying out diet with these ladies would love any suggestions to accommodate their growth before hibernation, they’ve only liked the almonds and honey so far. For hibernation, I’m thinking of putting them in the vegetable compartment in my fridge so they don’t freeze. I don’t know what the ideal temperature for them is so if anyone has some insight please share. I’m thankful for the member who sold them to me because they look so cool and big. I’ll try my best to make them prosper. All suggestions are welcome to this newbie.

 

 componotus.pdf   378.45KB   35 downloads

 

 

Crematogaster Cerasi- Say hello to Hecate(left) and Iris(right)! I obtained these queens on 9/11/19 through a member on the FC forum. From what I can gather these are a claustral queens that will require weekly or bi-weekly check-in’s until they produce eggs where they will then require food. With the season approaching they might hit hibernation instead so I’ll have to keep that in mind. I’ve attached a pic of them, does anyone know if this brown stuff is just their excrement? Probably will move this queen to a cleaner tube to prevent disease and keep things sterile. I don’t really want to check on them too much to avoid stressing them out.

 

 crematogaster.pdf   1.24MB   34 downloads

 

 

Reflecting now I need to find good level of moisture for my apheanogasters. I ordered an antscanada tower in panic as solution but we’ll see as I do more research. I’ve only seen one carcass thus far which puts me alarmed but hopefully I can get this queen some peace soon. Still my first week so I’m experimenting diet and how much one colony wants a certain type of food over the other. I feel like I can’t make a mistake though as I have ant bodies on the line. I did not know there was so much to learn from ants and its quite literally made me appreciate the smaller things.

 

Thank you all for reading and I would love all advice.

 

treehunned

 

[ANTdrew]

Godspeed and good start to your journal!
You could try dubia roaches and crickets for your Camponotus. They absolutely love termites if you can find a safe place to gather them.

Feel free to just tap the Crematogaster queens into a new, clean tube when they need it. It won’t stress them much now that they don’t have brood yet.

Edited by ANTdrew, September 13 2019 - 1:11 PM.

[treehunned]

Thanks Antdrew I'm definitely going to do some foraging for insects. Luckily there is an abundance of crickets in my backyard, just gotta watch out for mites.

[ANTdrew]

Yes, freeze anything for an hour first.

[AntsDakota]

  From what I can gather these are a claustral queens that will require weekly or bi-weekly check-in’s until they produce eggs where they will then require food.

Actually, when a queen is fully claustral, they do not require feeding until their first workers, not eggs. And they do not require checking, as this is mostly to satisfy the person's curiosity. Many beginners will check on them several times a day, and this stresses them, causing them to eat their brood. The most an ant keeper should check their ants is once a week, although less checking is probably better for the colony as a whole. Though you should probably check them after a month or so, as they do require food after her first workers arrive.

[ANTdrew]

I usually feed these queens a bit of nectar every few weeks before hibernating them to fatten them up. They are super chill before their first brood comes, at which point I definitely don’t feed them.

[treehunned]

 

  From what I can gather these are a claustral queens that will require weekly or bi-weekly check-in’s until they produce eggs where they will then require food.

Actually, when a queen is fully claustral, they do not require feeding until their first workers, not eggs. And they do not require checking, as this is mostly to satisfy the person's curiosity. Many beginners will check on them several times a day, and this stresses them, causing them to eat their brood. The most an ant keeper should check their ants is once a week, although less checking is probably better for the colony as a whole. Though you should probably check them after a month or so, as they do require food after her first workers arrive.

 

Word left some honey and they didin't touch it. I guess its see you next month then to hibernate them. Hopefully they just decide to lay next year.

[treehunned]

*****UPDATE****

 

Hello Friends,

 

Just posting here updating my ant keeping thread. Learning and maintaining these ants have taught me a lot and I have experienced some major ups and downs these past weeks. I'd say the most important thing I've learned so far is to maintain proper hydration for the ants.

 

Starting off with the bad news, it began with me buying a heat mat from amazon. I live in a room where the temperature is always 72 degrees Fahrenheit and I was concerned for it being too cold for the ants prior to hibernation. I have all my colonies including my crematogaster queen test tubes in a shelf space where the heat mat is placed and a towel covering the area keeping the heat from escaping. With the heat mat on it reaches 80-82 degrees and without it, it reaches 72 degrees at room temp. I left for a weekend trip out of town and I thought my antscanada tower that the aphaenogaster rudis inhabit would provide enough hydration from the bottom that it would be fine over the weekend. At the time, the colony was flourishing as I kept seeing news eggs and constant activity. Unfortunately, they all dried up even though there was still water at the bottom when I got back. I'm honestly still pissed at myself but I learned that i shouldn't gimp out on a water source. In hindsight, I should have connected a clean water tube set up on the side of the tower so they would have an extra water source as I thought the bottom layer was enough water.

However, this was not the same story for my camponotus chromaiodes. Although I never see them feed(I assume they're nocturnal), I always see the workers engaging in trophallaxis and the queen to this day, keeps laying eggs.

 

 

 

They live in a tarheel minihearth set up and I have given them a larger enclosed outworld that can fit an extra water tube(I'm paranoid for dehydration now) at the cost of removing the out world that came with the tarheel minihearth. The heat mat stays on while I'm at home and off when I go to work. They usually reside ontop of the water tower in the minihearth and I refill it twice a week or when i see the tube has evaporated all the water, I guess my only concern now is if I overfill them with water causing a mold outbreak or I drown them with moisture(if that is even possible). Just something to watch out for but I'm curious what others do with their camponotus colonies when they keep laying around hibernation time. Do others just put them to hibernate anyway? My concern is if the cocoons die and mold takes over while they're hibernating that it would lead to disaster. Here's a pic of the full colony in their chamber. 

 

 

I plan to hibernate my ants this weekend with the exception of the camponotus colony from my previous observation. The coldest area in the home is my fridge where the bottom shelf area is 45 degrees. I have 2 crematogaster cerasi queens in test tubes and will probably clean their tubes out and put them in new ones before putting them in the fridge. Does anyone think 45 degrees Fahrenheit is too cold though? What do you folks think the coldest could be to hibernate these queens? Let me know your thoughts.

 

Looking forward to spring though and spending time looking for queens. I will probably look to buy tarheel minihearth's as I really love how compact and efficient they are due to my limited space. Thank you all for reading and I would enjoy reading any feedback.