31 replies to this topic

[LaTun]

Sad news, the Camponotus cruentatus Queen died. So their story ends here. Maybe I give this species another try later but for now I am going to focus on my LAsius and Formica.

[Jimmydave937911]

What Lasius have you got LaTun?

[AntsDakota]

Sad news, the Camponotus cruentatus Queen died. So their story ends here. Maybe I give this species another try later but for now I am going to focus on my LAsius and Formica.

Aw, too bad. Camponotus tend to do that quite often, actually.

[LaTun]

What Lasius have you got LaTun?

I keep Lasius niger, here is a link to their journal:

 

https://www.formicul...-niger-journal/

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sad news, the Camponotus cruentatus Queen died. So their story ends here. Maybe I give this species another try later but for now I am going to focus on my LAsius and Formica.

Aw, too bad. Camponotus tend to do that quite often, actually.

 

Yeah espeacially with this species. Most journals end after a couple of entries.

 

[LaTun]

Since the last entry this colony hs progressed a lot.
 

15.06.2020

 

The Ants decided to move into the farm, overnight they dug 3 holes (one very large one and 2 smaller ones) but since then there has been minimal digging and instead the ants put large amounts of brood on the surface. They don´t seem to mind the light so its great for observing them.
 

They still are as hungry as ever and the activity in the outworld is constant (usually 5-6 workers). Flies are still they're favourite food but also took some mealworms as well as a young locust.



27.06.2020

 

Today I gave my Ants a treat, a small piece of raw cocktail shrimp, which they really liked. One worker discovered it, filled its social stomach up and ran back to the colony to recruit more workers, which then promptly cut it up and carried the pieces bag to the larvae.

 

 

 

02.7.2020

 

This colony is slowly but steadily approaching the 100 worker mark, I see 2-3 freshly hatched workers every day.
They still are very hungry and can go through 3-4 large bottle flys a day. They even started hunting those that are still semi"alive" instead of running away like when they were smaller.

 

A worker running of to get reinforcements for the hunt

Also, all that food needs to go somewhere when its eaten up so the ants have started to  make a small garbage pile in one corner of the outworld

[LaTun]

01.08.2020

This colony is doing okay.
I´m a little concourned if the queen i still alive since they don´t have any eggs or larvae anymore

 

They eat loads and have a large pile of pupea

[LaTun]

11.08.2020

Good News!!!
There are fresh eggs and the queen graced me with her presence on top of the digging medium.

 

 

However, the colony isn't really liking the Antstore Digfix, they aren't digging and is only sitting on top or in the tubing.

Is also discovered that they made a chamber underneath the driftwood in the outworld. They have brood in there so I assume they don't really like the Digfix.

I am probably gonna make an appropriately sized Ytong Nest for them and offer it so they have an option to move.

They also have become less picky and feed very voraciously on flies, small/medium dubias and an occasional cricket.
I'm gonna need to start breeding another feeder insect soon, probably gonna go with red runner roaches.

But the colonie is still a joy to keep and has been relatively problem-free. The workers now vary in size quite a bit and many of them have the typical formica rufibarbis colouration. But most of the foraging workers still look all black.

Next update is in a couple of days with the new nest

 

Edited by LaTun, August 11 2020 - 12:31 PM.

[Antkid12]

Awesome!

[LaTun]

Sorry for the long wait I've been kinda busy with a small move.

17.09.2020

The colony isn't as active anymore they are preparing for hibernation. There are only a few pupae now and the queen stopped laying eggs.
I'm gonna wait until the last pupae hatched and then slowly put them into hibernation.
But almost instantly after I wrote that they don't like the Digfix they made a long tunnel and multiple chambers, so the new nest can wait until next year.

All in all, I'm very happy with the progress of this colony, they started this spring with only a few workers and grew to a few hundred (my best guess would 200-400).
Next year they will probably grow even more, hopefully into the thousands.


Over the winter I'm gonna build them a larger setup with more travel distance, a new larger outworld and a large Ytong Nest.


Next Update will be once they are in hibernation.
 

[Ants_Dakota]

Sorry for the long wait I've been kinda busy with a small move.

17.09.2020

The colony isn't as active anymore they are preparing for hibernation. There are only a few pupae now and the queen stopped laying eggs.
I'm gonna wait until the last pupae hatched and then slowly put them into hibernation.
But almost instantly after I wrote that they don't like the Digfix they made a long tunnel and multiple chambers, so the new nest can wait until next year.

All in all, I'm very happy with the progress of this colony, they started this spring with only a few workers and grew to a few hundred (my best guess would 200-400).
Next year they will probably grow even more, hopefully into the thousands.


Over the winter I'm gonna build them a larger setup with more travel distance, a new larger outworld and a large Ytong Nest.


Next Update will be once they are in hibernation.
 

Cool! i love formica!

[ANTdrew]

That’s amazing. I’m pretty jealous, not gonna lie.

[LaTun]

First off sorry guys, I kinda forgot about this journal.

But the colony is still going strong and has grown tremendosly.


A fast recap of the last 11 moths.

The colony went into and out of hibernation without problems.
Something interesting, during winter hey suddenly stated digging tunnels into the Digfix but stopped when they started rasing brood again.

I also swapped out the outworld with a larger one, since the old one started getting crouded and smelly when feeding.


They also moved into a 3d printed nest, which theyy filled up and started diging in the outworld.
Most of the pupae are kept under the big piece of driftwood and in the tunnels through out the outworld
They eaa pretty much anything I throw in there, but for proetins I mostly do Crickets and red runner roaches. For sugars they simply get sugar water in a testtube and some jelly.
Right now I estimate the size at around 2-3k workers.

Next update will probably be around early september