145 replies to this topic

[AleeGuy]

I ordered from Nature’sGoodGuys through Amazon. I started with Hypoaspis miles and did a knockout blow with their five species blend. I haven’t seen a mite of any kind in over a month.

What did you ordered(can you give a link)?

[ANTdrew]

https://www.amazon.c...ob_b_asin_title

[OhNoNotAgain]

2020.10.25

 

Prenos lost their last worker! Maybe the stress of moving was too much. I tried offering the queens Sunburst but they all ran away.   Okay I seriously need new Preno workers from someone or somewhere local.

 

M. mexicanus: The old 2 and new 1 are hanging in there. Lame queen's larva still alive but not much bigger. New queen is hanging from the ceiling while her workers tend the brood. Other queen still has 2 pupae and a small brood pile.

 

Lios: Yeah debating trying olive oil on their outworld walls, like with Tetras, because yeah I can't open their lid....

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, October 25 2020 - 2:09 PM.

[OhNoNotAgain]

2020.10.30

 

Mites AGAIN. I'm so done. I rehoused the Prenos because of it, but also found mites in with my Camponotus in bins.

They have brood so I'm not going to do what I just did to the Prenos (dump them out into a pot of water, fish them out, and put them in a new test tube).

 

I wonder if the Tetramorium brought in the mites?

 

I found two Tetramorium in with the Prenos. One was even deep in the test tube with the 4 queens. I was wondering what the heck she was doing there. The queens mostly ignored her, and she mostly ignored them, except as I watched she opened her mandibles and went CHOMP onto a queen's leg. Queen flinched and swatted back.  After that, it was back to the same weird ignoring each other thing. Queens just sitting there, Tetramorium just sitting there. Ants are so weird and sometimes so dumb.

 

 

Oh and mexicanus. Ughhhhhhhhhhh. Down to the new queen with workers and the lame queen who got the other queen's brood. And lame queen is so helpless. She got a fruit fly stuck on her mandible and couldn't get it off - I had to remove it with tweezers. Apparently mexicanus hate me....     

 

Lios: Still going. They pick their food clean. REALLY clean. Some of the workers are getting reasonably big.

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, October 30 2020 - 4:03 PM.

[MinigunL5]

2020.10.30

 

Mites AGAIN. I'm so done. I rehoused the Prenos because of it, but also found mites in with my Camponotus in bins.

They have brood so I'm not going to do what I just did to the Prenos (dump them out into a pot of water, fish them out, and put them in a new test tube).

 

I wonder if the Tetramorium brought in the mites?

 

I found two Tetramorium in with the Prenos. One was even deep in the test tube with the 4 queens. I was wondering what the heck she was doing there. The queens mostly ignored her, and she mostly ignored them, except as I watched she opened her mandibles and went CHOMP onto a queen's leg. Queen flinched and swatted back.  After that, it was back to the same weird ignoring each other thing. Queens just sitting there, Tetramorium just sitting there. Ants are so weird and sometimes so dumb.

 

 

Oh and mexicanus. Ughhhhhhhhhhh. Down to the new queen with workers and the lame queen who got the other queen's brood. And lame queen is so helpless. She got a fruit fly stuck on her mandible and couldn't get it off - I had to remove it with tweezers. Apparently mexicanus hate me....     

 

Lios: Still going. They pick their food clean. REALLY clean. Some of the workers are getting reasonably big.

Can you get rid og mite by dumping ants in water? I might try that on my L. neoniger queen who is has a good bit of mites. Also how are your Tetramorium getting into the the Prenols's test tube? 

[OhNoNotAgain]

 

2020.10.30

 

Mites AGAIN. I'm so done. I rehoused the Prenos because of it, but also found mites in with my Camponotus in bins.

They have brood so I'm not going to do what I just did to the Prenos (dump them out into a pot of water, fish them out, and put them in a new test tube).

 

Can you get rid og mite by dumping ants in water? I might try that on my L. neoniger queen who is has a good bit of mites. Also how are your Tetramorium getting into the the Prenols's test tube? 

 

 

I'm just trying to reduce the number of mite hitchhikers. I don't think water will get rid of them but I wanted any mites falling out of the tube safely contained and not crawling all over the table. I also boiled the water later along with the empty test tube....

 

The starter colonies are in a tube + tub set up. The tub is lidless. The Tetramorium had destroyed the Fluon and were escaping out whenever their outworld lid wasn't absolutely 100% completely in place (adjusting the lid or opening the smaller access hatch was enough to allow them to escape, apparently). I did eventually figure out mineral oil works as a temporary barrier, but there were enough Tetramorium already loose that they fell into the tubs of the starter colonies.

[OhNoNotAgain]

2020.11.5

 

M. mexicanus:

 

So, the brood I'd taken from the last dead queen actually eclosed a worker for Lame Queen.

I don't know if the two think they are related, though. Look at the distance between them. I don't think it helped that Lame Queen sorta dumped the pupa on the floor of the mini-hearth and abandoned it there (though I think maybe the cocoon was partially opened, not sure).

There's one more pupa so we'll see what happens. Will the Lame Queen survive??? Is there any hope for a queen so messed up she can't pull a fruit fly off her mandibles?? Will the adopted kids accept her? Stay tuned....

 

 

Other colony, which arrived with workers, is still going. The gaster on the queen always looks a bit weird to me. Hopefully she's okay.

I gave them a fly pupa for food and they seem to like it. Still waiting for dead Pogonomyrmex to give them.

 

 

 

Prenolepis imparis:

 

Zero workers. Hopefully zero mites. Zero activity since the excitement of having Tetramorium chomping on them.

I'm going to try to buy workers and add them and see what happens.

 

 

Liometopum:

 

They were out of sugar water and boy, did they go nuts when I put in new Sunburst. Sorry, no photos of that. I was wondering why they didn't care much about the protein I'd given them... it was because they were starving for sugar.

 

Here's the queen and brood, chugging along:

 

 

Ohhh speaking of which, I got a recent kids' hardcover book about insects. Why? Because the big two page spread on ants showed LIOMETOPUM. They were immediately recognizable from the lighter midsection and the queen's distinctive gaster. How could I not buy it.

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, November 5 2020 - 9:26 PM.

[Kaelwizard]

The Lio queen looks pretty skinny. Have they been feeding her?

[TestSubjectOne]

Lio queens are usually like that when they don't have eggs on the way, in my limited experience. They have naturally small gasters even when they have a ton of eggs being produced.

Edited by TestSubjectOne, November 6 2020 - 10:26 AM.

[Ants_Dakota]

great journal! really fun to read!

[OhNoNotAgain]

So yesterday 2020.11.11 I caught 6 Prenolepis WORKERS in the wild. They were so sluggish and starved I dumped them in with my 4 Preno queens sort of as an experiment. One found the queens pretty quickly but was very chill (probably literally).

They LOVED the Sunburst and filled up on it. Once they were warm and full, one of them started attacking the queens.

So I took the queens out and left the 6 overnight in a bin with nothing but basically a Sunburt feeder.

 

Well, today, I found 3 dead, 1 sluggish, and 2 still active. I put in some water and one was thirsty, but I'm not sure why the 3 died. I might have injured them collecting them, because uh ... I had to pick them up with my fingers as I didn't have an aspirator with me.

 

IF any of these survive, I will wait a week or two and try introducing to the queens again.

 

I have to go back to the site next week. I feel bad for the wild colony, stealing their workers, so maybe I'll try to bring some Sunburst for them. lol

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, November 12 2020 - 12:16 PM.

[OhNoNotAgain]

Yeah down to 1 out of 6 Prenolepis workers ... like uh why?

 

 

Also ... checked the M. mexicanus ... the lame queen has MITES. The usual type. Grain mites. Too small for Hypoaspis. I HATE MITES.

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, November 13 2020 - 11:35 AM.

[Ants_Dakota]

Yeah down to 1 out of 6 Prenolepis workers ... like uh why?

 

 

Also ... checked the M. mexicanus ... the lame queen has MITES. The usual type. Grain mites. Too small for Hypoaspis. I HATE MITES.

maybe a water problem. i find ants drink water more than most antkeepers think. giving ants no water feeder has certainly led to the demise of many of my colonies.

[OhNoNotAgain]

So I did a couple craycray things.

 

1. Prenolepis. Since there was only 1 worker survivor, merely cleaned up outworld and put the queens' tube back in. As an experiment. The lone worker found the tube - my new theory is Prenolepis spend all day drinking water - and ... is sort of harassing the queens. It's not as bad as full out attacks, but some of the queens are clearly annoyed and back away repeatedly. I know I should wait a whole week or two, but ... well, these queens are sort of screwed without any workers anyway, and this worker is kind of screwed, too, so.... By the way, I am also remembering how old C. sansabeanus queen accepted a donor larva after about 2-3 days stuck in a tube with it. At first the smell freaked her out big time. So maaaaaybe it'll be better in 2-3 days. Unless someone dies. Hrm.

 

 

 

2. Lame M. mexicanus queen: I hate mites. And after cleaning the glass of mites a few times, I found mites on the OUTSIDE of the mini-hearth. Where they could easily go visit the honeypots next door. This was not okay. Also, the adopted nanitic kept running around the nest, digging in the sand, as if looking for something. It was so weird. I wondered if there was any chance she was bothered by mites.

 

So I snagged the adopted nanitic while she was on a byFormica feeder and transferred her to a mini-hearth XL. I then harassed the queen with a couple q-tips, she conveniently picked up her brood pile, and I transferred her to the nest of the mini-hearth XL. I'm a little nervous about that because another honeypot queen died in it, but I did rinse it out.

 

The nanitic is clearly unhappy and the queen is looking kind of depressed (but she always looks kind of depressed with that bad leg).

 

 

I discovered what I'd hoped was another pupa was an EMPTY SACK. So ... perhaps the queen ate it for a snack (maybe it was dead, maybe it wasn't).

 

 

So as long as I was at it, I tried to steal one of the pupae from the other M. mexicanus queen.

Other M. mexicanus queen, hanging out in the shadows where the camera isn't focusing:

 

 

Workers guarding the pupae, watching with beady little honeypot eyes.

 

 

They weren't very happy with the giant wet q-tip coming down the nest opening. I was a few mm away from snagging a pupa but only got a nanitic freaking out and running around on my hand. Curses, foiled again. All I want is ONE pupa. Please little pots. ONE. For your poor unfortunate relative....

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, November 13 2020 - 7:54 PM.

[OhNoNotAgain]

So I guess I didn't update, but I found the Preno worker dejected and sad in the outworld the next day, and then the next day after that I found her dead in the outworld (presumably from dehydration).

Apparently she really REALLY was upset about the 4 queens and refused to move in with them, even at cost of her own life.

Next time if/when I try Preno workers, I will definitely keep them in a tube for a while, and then take one and LOCK HER INTO THE TUBE right near the queens, like I did to get the salsa queen to accept the larva.

 

 

Speaking of which, I'm getting some orphan M. mexicanus workers and brood to boost lame queen. Lame queen might actually be something of a dud (of the cannibalistic variety), the way her larger larvae have always disappeared, but we shall see. I'm told nanitics adapt well to different queens.

[Ants_Dakota]

the funny thing is that it seems the more workers you introduce, the more they will accept the queens. i had 1 queen, and gave her 3 workers. 2 were found dead the next morning, and 1 survived until the end of the queens life. but AntsDakota gave his 6 queen colony around 200 workers, and they accepted after a few days.

Edited by Ants_Dakota, November 17 2020 - 6:14 AM.

[Kaelwizard]

They want more siblings.

[OhNoNotAgain]

2020.11.20

 

Wow. MERGER DRAMA and ant combat and destruction.

 

So anyway, I bought some workers and potential brood to boost Lame Queen. I have been told orphaned M. mexicanus workers will readily accept a different queen, and vice versa.

Silly me. Nothing is ever that simple with ants.

 

What I already had:

 

* Good colony with 13ish workers, queen, brood.

* Lame queen with 1 adopted worker and very small brood. She may be eating her larger larvae.

 

Here's what I got today in the mail (from same supplier of the above):

 

* Large Crew: 13-14 orphaned workers, no brood

* Moldy Crew: 2 orphaned workers and a lone larva, maybe one viable pupa

* Slow queen with 2 of her own workers and some brood

* Dud queen with no brood

(Plus a Camponotus and a dud-ly Novo)

 

So this is how I tried to combine them:

 

* Lame queen: Tried to give her half the Large Crew.

* Slow queen: Tried to give her half the Large Crew.

* Dud queen: Tried to give her the Moldy Crew.

 

This is what happened:

 

* Lame queen: Her one adopted nanitic attacked one of the new workers. Eventually she killed it. I gave up on merging with Large Crew. Instead I stole one large larva from Good queen, took the last larva from Moldy crew, and gave to Lame queen. Nanitic accepted the larvae.

 

* Slow queen: After a lot of freaking out, Slow Queen + Large Crew are hanging out together. I put in half, and then when I realized Lame queen's nanitic wouldn't accept the others, I put in the other half. Slow queen now has about 14 workers total. Only 2 are her own.

 

* Dud queen: One of the workers found her way into Dud queen's tube and was viciously attacked and killed. Soon after the same happened to the other worker. Dud queen showed no interest in the Moldy Crew larva, so I gave it to Lame queen.

 

Well, that was a lot bloodier than I expected. At least 3 workers lost their lives in this merger attempt.

Okay, so after talking with the seller, here are the theories for what happened and why:

 

* Lame queen and Large Crew smell too different because they have been raised with different foods, etc. So Lame queen's adopted nanitic attacked Large Crew.

* Slow queen and Large Crew smell close enough together because they have been raised in the same environment. So they could merge.

* Dud queen has never had workers, so she is still in "defend against all comers" mode, even though she's been in the same environment as Moldy Crew. She has no expectation of having workers or having new workers (or so goes the theory).

 

I'll try to get some pics and maybe a video or two up.

[Ants_Dakota]

man. direct ant tv!

[OhNoNotAgain]

2020.11.22

 

BAH, Slow Queen was dead in her tube. The workers are alive. 

Meanwhile Dud Queen is just fine. I would've preferred the Slow Queen survive....

 

But anyway here's a video of honeypots attacking honeypots, taken on Nov. 20th (2 days ago).

 

https://www.youtube....h?v=EiKKtWXtH1Y

 

I have no idea why the video isn't embedding properly.

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, November 23 2020 - 12:29 PM.