68 replies to this topic

[OhNoNotAgain]

This isn't going to be a full journal, but I've noticed some quirks with these guys and since they are so common, I thought I'd note some of them. UPDATE: I guess it will be more of a full journal.

I initially got Tetramorium because:

• They are super easy for beginners and I was coming back to the hobby after a hiatus of 30 years
• They are pretty harmless
• They don't need a diapause/brumination/hibernation

MORE NOTES:

• Tetramorium are small and slip through small cracks and gaps easily
• Tetramorium are small enough hundreds will fit in a mini-hearth or test tube
• Tetramorium are pretty "smart" ants - they aren't really picky about food and they are good at caring for and rescuing their brood
• Tetramorium aren't fond of light and like to use loose sand to block off windows

FOODS
Some stuff my Tetramorium colonies have readily eaten (they are the least picky of my ants):

• cut up mealworms
• live fruit flies - Tetras are excellent fruit fly hunters
• cut up (normal/large) flies
• cut up fly larvae and fly pupae
• dry bloodworms
• fish flakes
• shrimp, lamb (but not sure how much of it they manage to consume; they are so small they have trouble ripping it up)

2019.8.25
T1: I bought my first Tetramorium colony, a test tube with less than 10 workers if I recall right. I was disappointed by how small they were. The queens I used to collect in the US Midwest had big rounded gasters and beautiful brown banding, and their nanitics were large enough to see well. The T1 queen is small and black and the nanitics tiny and brown and harder to see. I had been naively noobishly hoping they were the same as the common ants in the Midwest I used to keep, but obviously they were not.

2019.9.15
T2: 2nd colony acquired NOT because I wanted it, but it was represented as a different genus/species and I only figured it out after I got home and compared them carefully and sent out some photographs to a couple people.

Pics of T2:

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, March 27 2022 - 10:09 PM.

[OhNoNotAgain]

Things I noticed early on about Tetramorium, both T1 and T2:

 

• They are too tiny to bite through mealworms. The mealworms really have to be cut open.
• They were among the first colonies to accept fish flakes. I've seen other colonies accept fish flakes but Ts are more likely to do so.
• They are more prolific than my other colonies (C. salsabeanus, V. pergandei, though C. fragilis came close).
• Boy they are small and they can escape narrow gaps really easily.

But here is the thing I learned about Tetramorium that is really really annoying but pretty constant across both colonies:

 

• They are SUPER dedicated to collecting sand to block off windows or build protective shading structures. Like, they are fanatical about blocking off windows/light. In one 3D printed formicarium (T2), they stripped the sand off the outworld's grout floor and blocked off the windows. In a multichamber tube connected to an outworld (T1), they ripped sand out of the outworld floor and blocked off the ceiling of their favorite chamber until I couldn't see anything.
• Even in an authentic THA mini-hearth they (T1) are stripping off the sand inside the nest and using it. They hadn't been doing that until I took them to an elementary school, but the stress (kids using flashlights maybe?) triggered their sand-stripping and within a few hours they had built a huge mountain on their water tower and moved the brood behind it (so the kids couldn't see them any more)! The nest portion of the mini-hearth is missing some of its sand now.... I almost wish they had tried to block off the window because then I could try cleaning it quickly, but the mountain is pretty far back and trying to clean it out takes too long, allowing them time to come rushing out.

And one thing that is cool about them:

 

• They seem to be one of the most baby-attentive species. When I was being horribly "mean" to T1 by tapping them out of their old nest, the workers seemed very quick to grab any babies they found. Even preoccupied/anxious workers have a fairly high chance of scooping up lost brood they come across. They certainly seem to have far better baby rescuing instincts than V. pergandei or C. salsabeanus.

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, January 29 2020 - 7:06 AM.

[OhNoNotAgain]

So back in 2020.1.13 (?) I wrote about T1:

I had tried to encourage them to move out (of problematic formicarium) into a (real) mini hearth before, but this time I'd had enough. I found tubing that fit the glass tube, whacked the tube until a bunch of ants, brood, and queen fell out of the inner chamber and into the outer chamber, then tapped them into the tubing, and am now letting them slowly figure out they HAVE to move into a real Tar Heels mini hearth. I left a few ants and brood behind but hopefully I'll be able to rescue them at some point.

 

2020.1.31

I went back to the old problematic formicarium to try to rescue the last of the stragglers. I whacked the tube until workers and a few brood fell into the outer chamber, tapped them into the tubing, then dumped them into the mini-hearth outworld. Repeat a few times. (There are about 5 workers left in the old formicarium now, and a few larvae.)

 

Here is a picture of the shell-shocked forcibly relocated workers after they ran around in confusion for a while. Like their sisters a couple weeks ago, they eventually clumped up in a corner with the brood. Soon after this I think a mini-hearth veteran came up, found them, found the brood, and went on a single-handed mission to get all the new brood downstairs to the main brood pile. But the new arrivals are still milling around confused in the outworld, without brood to cluster around. Eventually they'll probably figure out their queen and other sisters are downstairs.....

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Edited by OhNoNotAgain, January 31 2020 - 11:00 PM.

[OhNoNotAgain]

I forgot to mention a Stupid Antkeeper incident that happened with T2 a couple weeks ago.

 

They are in this AntWorldUSA formicarium (what happened to the company? Did they go bust? ). The photo comes out right side up if you click on it.... 

 

It's okay and making the outworld was fun (they provided grout and decorations), but Tetramorium are small enough they squeezed through the barriers between areas, and there's trash and stuff in there I definitely can't clean out easily because there's no way to open up the nest part. Plus they did manage to wrestle enough sand out of the outworld to cover over the queen's favorite chambers.

 

So anyway I had filled the humidity reservoir some time ago and then hadn't checked it. One day I saw a few ants in the outworld all trying to climb up one corner. I was puzzled and then I remembered a journal in this forum talking about all the ants leaving the nest and going to the outworld when they ran out of water. So I checked and the humidity reservoir was EMPTY. I looked around the nest carefully and found loads of dead ants everywhere, presumably dead from dehydration. Feeling like a total idiot I quickly filled the reservoir. At the time I had the heating mat on so the condensation rapidly provided plenty of water for the surviving workers and the queen.

 

I estimate I lost about half the workers to stupid noob mistake. But thanks to someone else's journal, I clued into what was going on.

 

Now I'm just wondering if I should use a byFormica nectar feeder to provide water? With the heat off there's no more condensation forming.

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Edited by OhNoNotAgain, February 1 2020 - 9:22 PM.

[ANTdrew]

Good luck with your Tetras. I’ve had a blast keeping them, even if they’re not considered the sexiest ants on here. My two cents is to either hibernate them or keep heating them.

[OhNoNotAgain]

Good luck with your Tetras. I’ve had a blast keeping them, even if they’re not considered the sexiest ants on here. My two cents is to either hibernate them or keep heating them.

 

You mean like stick them in the garage? I had done that earlier but they were still pretty active (since NorCal garage doesn't get that cold). Or do you mean like the fridge?

Tetra1 is still doing pretty well - I gave them some shrimp bits and they seemed to like it, even without heat. Tetra2 ... the ones who got dehydrated ... not so well, but they lost many of their older foragers and I'm not sure they figured out the water feeder (esp. as I haven't added a drop of nectar to it yet as recommended by byFormica, and it's not a mega feeder).

The house is also not that cold, over 70, so maybe to them it's still like being heated? lol

Thanks!

[ANTdrew]

I’ve used an unheated basement and a mini-fridge for Tetras. They need to be down in the forties before they give up. My colonies don’t thrive under 75 degrees. They don’t eat much or grow. Tetras just love heat, which is why they seek out pavement to nest under to take advantage of the radiant heat.

[OhNoNotAgain]

I’ve used an unheated basement and a mini-fridge for Tetras. They need to be down in the forties before they give up. My colonies don’t thrive under 75 degrees. They don’t eat much or grow. Tetras just love heat, which is why they seek out pavement to nest under to take advantage of the radiant heat.

 

2020.2.23

Taking into account the above advice, today I turned the heat on for JUST Tetra2 (AntWorldUSA formicarium) and C. sansabeanus, set to 85F. (C. sansabeanus has one larva that seems to have grown even though I had them in the garage, at about 65F ... this is the first growth after about 4 months of zero growth... maybe they are ready to roll finally.)

 

I'm not too excited about the space that Tetra2 is taking up - I have really limited space and I never wanted a second Tetramorium colony anyway. Since they are doing poorly and I'm not really excited about them, I am going to use them as a heating experiment. Tetra2 colony has not recovered from their dehydration (and a bad experiment with giving them a tiny bowl of water - two foragers drowned). They are using one tiny room in their formicarium and don't even have foragers going outside. That's a problem because I can't easily push food into the right part of their nest. I also cannot easily get them water without having heat turning water into condensing vapor. So giving them water is another reason I turned their heat on.

 

Meanwhile, Tetra1 in the mini-hearth turns out to be my largest colony with definitely over 100 ants. I can't even count them. They are like a solid black mat stuck to the back of their mini-hearth. Since they are doing well I'm not going to heat them for now (if that makes sense). Side note is that the old thing they used to be in, the compartmentalized test tube I had to kick them out of, is now unoccupied. The last couple workers abandoned it and got lost somewhere.

 

A couple days ago I again tried cleaning the mountain of sand out of Tetra1's mini-hearth. I opened the glass for a second and they came running out immediately. I thought I closed it again with no losses but there was one squashed worker.

 

Photo from a couple days ago of the solid mat of Tetramorium colony 1.

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Edited by OhNoNotAgain, February 23 2020 - 9:50 PM.

[ANTdrew]

I've noticed that my Tetramorium colonies actually do better in test-tubes than in mini-hearths. I'm not really sure why, but I have a guess that the mini-hearth is too cavernous for their comfort.

I have a small colony like yours that I brought out of diapause a week ago. I think I spotted a few new eggs, but they lost all their other brood over the winter. I'm thinking of actually moving them out of their mini-hearth and into a tub and tubes set up to see if that kick starts them some more.

[OhNoNotAgain]

2020.2.29

 

So after a couple days' experimentation, it appears that Tetramorium (at least colony 1) is able to somehow hunt down fruit flies in the mini-hearth outworld, and take them back into the nest. The annoying part is I haven't seen them actually CATCH the fruit flies. I only notices the flies are gone at some point, which means that, unless they accidentally fell down the tube into the nest, the workers actually caught them and hauled them down.

 

Colony 2 is in a bigger and less efficient space, and I haven't observed them catching the ff yet.

[OhNoNotAgain]

2020.3.4

 

GAH!!! I looked at the mini-hearth today and Tetramorium colony 1 was ESCAPING!!!! AGAIN.

So what happened is that remember I had tried to clean out the mini-hearth and had to close it fast because the ants IMMEDIATELY come running out? Well, I'd left a few grains of sand trapped between glass and concrete.

Over time, apparently more detritus and sand accumulated.

 

Just enough for %!@! Tetras to fit in the gap.

 

So I put the mini-hearth in a plastic bag and stuffed them in the fridge and left it there for a while, like an hour?

 

I took it out and the bag had loose ants in it and stuff, but the ants were dazed and slow so I quickly opened the glass and brushed off sand. I put it back, saw it still had junk on it, pulled it off and scraped at the junk and slammed it back on. In the meantime of course there were Tetramorium loose on the table and in the little container I tried to do everything over.

 

That's where this awesome paint brush comes in. I bought it as part of an antkeeping set off Etsy. Although some of the guy's stuff I no longer use, the tweezers and this brush have been excellent. This brush is GREAT for picking up stray Tetramorium. Just kind of poke the brush head onto the ant and usually the ant will "stick" into the brush. Then tap the ant off in the outworld. Tetras are small and kinda slow so it works really well with them.

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Edited by OhNoNotAgain, March 4 2020 - 2:19 PM.

[ANTdrew]

I actually hate keeping Tetras in mini-hearth for various reasons including escapees. I’m in the process of moving my mini-colony back into test tubes in a fluon lined outworld. They got all excited when I pulled the plug out to let them explore. I’ll remove the glass in a day or two to really get them moving.

[Da_NewAntOnTheBlock]

sounds like a doozy...

[AntsDakota]

I never really thought of Tetramorium as escape artists. I guess I was wrong.

[ANTdrew]

I never really thought of Tetramorium as escape artists. I guess I was wrong.

They definitely aren’t, but they’ll slip through any gaps they can find in a mini-hearth.

[Da_NewAntOnTheBlock]

I'm not surprised, I figured they were tiny enough to enjoy an escape every once in a while...

[AntsDakota]

I never really thought of Tetramorium as escape artists. I guess I was wrong.

They definitely aren’t, but they’ll slip through any gaps they can find in a mini-hearth.

Yeah, I guess any ant could escape through a large enough crack. I guess true escape artists pass outworld barriers and chew through nests, tubes, cotton, and such.

[OhNoNotAgain]

2020.3.6

 

Tetra1: I've found a way to clean out sand from between the glass and the mini-hearth. I slide the glass panel UP, not out, so that it remains mostly against the mini-hearth. Loose sand falls off. Even this has to be done quickly because Tetras come running. It also left a few bits of sand, so I'll have to repeat this frequently I guess.

 

Oh, almost forgot: Yesterday I gave them a blue bottle fly pupa that I'd pierced (and goo came out) and they seemed interested. The fly larvae are pupating in the fridge so I'm not sure if the pupae are viable or just slowly developing or what.

 

Tetra2: I thought I'd found a solution to their ant nectar problem. As they seem to drown in byFormica feeders, I put in a very small Tar Heel Ants liquid feeder and I congratulated myself when I saw one drinking from it. Fast forward to today. It's sitting in a puddle of nectar! There's either debris or a tiny dead ant stuck to the mesh, and presumably when the temperature rose in the late afternoon (west-facing room) with brief sunlight hazards it flooded out through the mesh opening. Oh, well. Back to the drawing board....

I'd dropped in a whole, undamaged blue bottle pupa in their outworld (was curious to see if it would eclose into a fly) but now it's gotten ant nectar on it and I have no idea what that will do....

On the plus side since I've raised the heat on their heating mat, their brooding chamber is now carpeted with white larvae. Hopefully they will recover their numbers soon.

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, March 6 2020 - 6:27 PM.

[ANTdrew]

Yeah, the THA mini-feeders always flood for me. The minute nectar ferments, the CO2 bubbles push out the liquid making a sticky mess.
None of my colonies have ever had issues drowning in the byFormica feeders, though. Is it possible they are just sticking dead ants on the sticky feeders like a trash dump?

[AntsDakota]

Yes. They could be attempting to bury the ants under something.