207 replies to this topic

[DDD101DDD]

4/10/21

 

A few days ago I saw this colony eating 2 pupae and a few days before that I saw them eating what seemed to be a normal large larva. In these cases the eaten brood were in the chamber with the water tower, so I thought it was possible no food was getting there because the wall of pupae blocked food from coming in. I added a mini hearth XL on to the fortress, and the colony rapidly began to move pupae there. Now there are only a few pupae left in the fortress, and the majority are in the mini hearth XL. Eggs and some larvae remain in the fortress, as well as most of the worker population and the queen. I'm feeding them mainly in the mini hearth XL outworld, because the fortress outworld has a lot of trash and I can't clean it unless the workers stop going there for a bit. Also I saw two larvae with yellow tips again.

 

[DDD101DDD]

4/24/21

 

A lot of the pupae have eclosed, but there's still a lot left. I don't know how many workers there are now and don't want to count them. Most workers are in the mini hearth XL, but there's still one chamber filled with workers and the queen in the fortress. They've piled trash in the fortress, so now I'm afraid of watering it because of the possibility of mold. I fed another roach half to them and they really liked it. There's also new major workers. They've been drinking a surprising amount of water, finishing their nestmate in only a week.

 

Edited by DDD101DDD, April 24 2021 - 7:18 PM.

[DDD101DDD]

5/8/21

 

This colony has been doing pretty well, but I haven't really fed them much so far, only a few mealworms every couple days and half a roach every 2 weeks. Most of the pupae have eclosed now, with only the biggest larvae and pupae left(also some smaller ones from a newer generation). There are more majors now, enough that I occasionally see them in the outworld. I'm afraid to open the lid on the fortress outworld now though, the fluon is useless at this point and there's always a worker or 2 in the outworld ready to bolt out. Today 2 workers actually escaped when I opened the fortress outworld lid, I was picking up the little dish I had in it to clean it and one was still in the dish for some reason and came out. The next worker came out when I opened the outworld to put it back in filled with sugar water, it ran up the sides and came out so I panicked which made the sugar water spill. Any advice on dealing with this would be appreciated. In the mini hearth XL, the fluon barrier is slowly getting less and less effective too, so I can't clean any of the trash in it. There's more eggs and workers, and the queen was spotted in the mini hearth XL until I tilted it up to get a better picture and the water tower spilled. That made the part of the colony in that nest panic, which made them all run out to the fortress. I have no idea how many workers are in the colony right now.

 

^workers drinking from spilled sugar water

^major drinking from spilled sugar water

^new eggs spotted while colony was panicking

 

Edited by DDD101DDD, May 7 2021 - 8:08 PM.

[ANTdrew]

I’d recommend waiting for a time there are less of them in the outworld, so you can renew the fluon. I bought a new lid for my Fallen Fortress with a removable vent, and that is pretty helpful for dropping in food. The hole is too small to do much else though.

[DDD101DDD]

5/21/21

 

I moved this colony to an AC Camponotus hybrid nest on Sunday. It was annoying but worked out in the end, with at least 20 ants escaping. The new AC nest is really big, and they started putting trash in it. I put some sand in the nest before moving them, but it was only a little and they ended up moving it all to the bathroom areas(I'm guessing it was to soak up the poop and stuff) so now they have no sand. Hopefully they discover that they have the ability to move sand from the outworld into the nest. Some things I've noticed with the colony so far is that the queen panics a lot easier now, possibly because there's not really anywhere to hide in the AC nest due to it not being as deep as THA nests. Great for viewing but I don't know how it will affect the colony yet. Workers really like biting the plug for some reason. Also I started feeding these fruit flies again, and I caught another Camponotus queen yesterday so I'll record her progress here too.

 

^what it looked like when the colony was moving.

 

^colony fully moved into the new nest

 

^eggs that were moved from the other nests

^pupae moved from the other nest

^queen

 

^worker biting plug

^trash in nest

^what their outworld looks like

^new queen

 

Edited by DDD101DDD, May 22 2021 - 5:24 AM.

[CANant]

I kept my C. pennsylvanicus colony in the same nest (sadly the queen didn’t survive her 2nd winter) but I plan to move my other colony in once they have more workers. I did observe they would move dirt (I use a soil not sand) into the nest. I think the issue is too much moisture even though it’s for camponotus. They seemed to block off part of the bottom section or cover the holes until I reduced the water underneath. They also would move into the tubing at times so that is another reason why I think humidity was an issue. Just keep an eye on that. I find the colony very messy lol. They dump their garbage in the nest. Maybe that would change as they grew and needed the space? Before I move the new colony in I will put soil in the nest to block of parts of it so they can open it up if needed and maybe won’t keep their garbage in the nest. We’ll see

Anyway yours look great! Love the updates and pictures.

[ANTdrew]

You’ll want to fortify that plug because several folks on here have had ants chew through them. Maybe consider replacing it with a rubber stopper.

[CANant]

Oh really?! Wow I haven’t had an issue but then I could see it maybe if the nest is full and they are wanting more space? I have seen them trying to chew the holes in the portals. I’ll definitely keep an eye on this. Thank you for the tip.

[ANTdrew]

Yup: https://www.formicul...d/?fromsearch=1

FeedTheAnts lost his massive Crematogaster colony in this way as well.

[CANant]

Wow! That’s impressive and annoying 😂
I have had a lot of my clear plastic AC items crack so I wonder if that had any play in the matter. I guess no setup is perfect 🤷🏼‍♀️
I have plugged holes with cotton instead of plugs and it seemed to keep them in. I’ll definitely watch for this now. Thanks again!

[ANTdrew]

A thick wad of cotton packed tightly would be a way better plug.

[spartANTS]

Can a fine mesh work?  he can glue it on the aeration .

[DDD101DDD]

6/6/21

 

It looks like this colony has gotten completely adjusted to their nest, they stopped biting the plugs and the queen doesn't freak out as much when I open the lid, although she still does it a little. They don't really seem to have a set space for any of the brood, and almost randomly put them in places. 2 big majors eclosed a few days ago, I think these are the biggest ones yet. About half the eggs have hatched into first instar larvae, and nearly all of the pupae eclosed. A lot of workers died before, maybe 10-20 but the deaths stopped about a week ago and given the amount of eggs and small larvae they'll likely be replaced quickly. I counted the amount of workers in this colony, and there are about 250 of them. Temperatures have been hotter recently, so they've moved away from the heating cable. No sand has been brought in yet, but that doesnt seem to be a problem. And they're still keeping trash in the nest. My new queen has 8 eggs now.

 

Edited by DDD101DDD, June 6 2021 - 4:15 PM.

[ANTdrew]

Nice work, man! That’s a good colony.

[DDD101DDD]

6/25/21

 

There's not much to say about this colony, except that most of their larvae stopped growing. Maybe I took them out of diapause this year too early, I don't know. They're not bunching up into a corner though, but they don't really forage that much anymore. A new big major eclosed. I found out that they're using the other small larvae as an anchor for the large larvae that pupate. The queen is still skittish when I take the cover off. There are some eggs, maybe they're new ones, or they could be old ones that didn't hatch yet.

 

My other queen has pupae now, the larvae grew to pupae in nearly a week.

 

 

Since there's not much to say about this colony I'll say some stuff about my Lasius neoniger colony, because they're doing really well.

The queen lays a lot of eggs, and that's really starting to show now. They had a ton of pupae, now there's less but it's still a lot. I have no idea how many workers are here except that it's a lot.

 

[ANTdrew]

Are they warm enough?
Good work with the neonigers!

[DDD101DDD]

Are they warm enough?
Good work with the neonigers!

I had them heated until yesterday and they had no interest in the area near the heating cable, so I'm guessing it's not heat. Also thanks.

[NickAnter]

Wow! That neoniger queen was caught in the same year as my 3 queen colony, and my colony isn't even at half that size! Very nice work indeed.

[DDD101DDD]

7/11/21

 

In terms of colony growth, not much has changed. They don't have any eggs, and most of the larvae show no sign of growing. I'm starting to think they're in some kind of early diapause. However, they have taken out all the dead mealworms. It makes their nest look a lot more empty now, but hopefully next year they'll grow more. A lot of the colony is sort of huddled up near the sides, which further reinforces my idea that they are in some sort of early diapause. I started breeding my own mealworms, and they seem to like freshly killed ones more than the canned ones. In their outworld, I put a plate made out of ultracal right next to the entrance where they bring food in, so they could have an easier time dragging food into the nest(when it was just bare sand their legs wouldn't really grip the sand). I took a small fallen branch from outside, cut it into a smaller piece, and gave them the sawdust that came from the branch after cutting it(I hoped they would bring it into the nest), along with the new, smaller piece. They completely ignored the sawdust, dug in the branch a little and then just sat on it. Now like 8 of them are always sitting on it and I have no idea why. Actually, a lot of workers are in the outworld more often and I have no idea why. This colony makes no sense. I'll be getting some more fruit flies and confused rice flour beetles soon, so hopefully that helps them in some way.

 

 

In purple is the ultracal plate, blue is their messy trash pile, in green is the sawdust from what they dug, in red is the sawdust I put in

 

current appearance of the colony in the nest

 

all the mealworms they took out

 

Them sitting on the small branch doing absolutely nothing for unknown reasons

 

You can't really see much here,(I probably put too much fluon on), but all the workers run away when I open the lid so here's what it looks like with them still in the outworld.

 

random pictures of some small larvae and pupae.

 

 

The new queen has pupae, just one of them is dark.

[DDD101DDD]

7/30/21

 

There's not much to say, really. This colony seems to be preparing for diapause now, they've all clumped up into piles, but workers still accept insects and honey. Right now, their diet is pretty much mealworms and mealworm pupae. Most of the mealworms are pupae by now, about half are beetles I think, but some of the oats have begun to mold. Rice flour beetle larvae are too small to be a proper meal, and when I try to sift the media they're in I end up with something like this.

 

 

I then need to pick out the beetle larvae and pupae, which are both fairly small. Here's their size relative to a dead worker.

 

 

I tried putting the oatmeal scrap things with the larvae inside of it in a little tray, so the workers could find them without me picking out every larva, but I overestimated these ants. They didn't take any from the tray. I poured them into the outworld directly, and that's why there's a little pile in the outworld.

 

 

The fruit flies I got were all dead, and now the culture is molding.

 

 

Here's a picture of how their nest currently looks.

 

 

Worker clumps and the queen

 

 

 

The new queen is doing pretty well, she's up to 8 workers now(one isn't in the picture)

 

 

Not much is really happening with this colony, I'm thinking of leaving this journal alone until something new happens.

 

 

edit: my Lasius neoniger are pretty good at picking the flour beetles out of the media

Edited by DDD101DDD, July 31 2021 - 6:49 PM.