67 replies to this topic

[Antkid12]

Wow....hopefully the Valentines will recover soon.

Edited by Antkid12, June 24 2020 - 1:20 PM.

[ANTdrew]

Dang, man! I’m really sorry to hear that news. Crematogaster are the hardest ants to move in my experience. I really, really hope they can recover.

[FeedTheAnts]

and here we go

 

Upon checking them again it turns out only one has shed her wings, don't know why I thought otherwise. No eggs yet

 

Nylanderia queen

 

Tetramorium queen. 6 eggs barely visible behind the queen

 

Formica pallidefulva colony

 

All three views of The Valentines' current nesting situation. I've been vacuuming all the dead ants that I could out of their new outworld, and they just keep coming. Good news though, somehow the colony's brood survived. I completely expected it to have browned and shriveled by today, but it doesn't seem to have been affected.

 

Edited by FeedTheAnts, June 25 2020 - 1:35 PM.

[ANTdrew]

Hey, that’s still a lot of ants. I’m sure the Valentines will rebound.
Cool that we both are starting Nylanderia and Pheidole.

[FeedTheAnts]

Hey, that’s still a lot of ants. I’m sure the Valentines will rebound.
Cool that we both are starting Nylanderia and Pheidole.

Ya, I'm not too worried about them now that I know the brood made it through. The next generation of workers is all that counts anyways. I'm not sure how long workers live, but destroying an entire wave of developing brood can be deadly for more short lived ants.

[ANTdrew]

Thank God!

[FeedTheAnts]

I had a good night of blacklighting last night and ended up with three dealate Colobopsis (impressa?) queens, and four Solenopsis (texana?) queens. Not much more to be said, except that both species have been grouped together to form polygynous colonies. I'm really hoping to catch some more Solenopsis queens tonight, to bring up the number of possible fertilized queens. They didn't appear at the blacklight past 9:00 PM though, so I assume they fly in the mid afternoon, not night. The Colobopsis queens are rivaling Formica in their irritability. I can't so much as look at them without them having a total meltdown. After the photo was taken then I shoved a roll of cotton in their tube to remove space. From what I've heard they seem to prefer being crammed. The Tetramorium queen has a buttload of eggs btw. It's no wonder they grow so quickly. Nothing has changed with the Pheidole, except that there is a small pile of eggs. I got rid of the Nylianderia queen. I also want to take this time to show how I heat my ants. I won't go into written detail, as I feel the pictures are pretty self explanatory.

 

[CatsnAnts]

Can I ask how you blacklight? (Like where do you go: Porch, field, lake, etc?) And when did you find your Colobopsis queens (late or early/ morning or night)? I’ve found them on occasion, but haven’t had a reliable way of finding them.

[FeedTheAnts]

Can I ask how you blacklight? (Like where do you go: Porch, field, lake, etc?) And when did you find your Colobopsis queens (late or early/ morning or night)? I’ve found them on occasion, but haven’t had a reliable way of finding them.

I blacklight at my back porch, facing a forest of mostly Oak and Hickory. Tonight I'll take some pics of my setup as well as the surrounding area and post them to the public blacklighting journal. The Colobopsis were coming by the tens at around 11:00 PM. They were still flying when I put everything up at midnight.

[AntsDakota]

Love polygynous colonies.

[Antkid12]

Love polygynous colonies.

Same.

[ANTdrew]

The Valentines are still bigger than the Divas, but not for long. Buuuahahaha *evil villain laugh*

[CatsnAnts]

Can I ask how you blacklight? (Like where do you go: Porch, field, lake, etc?) And when did you find your Colobopsis queens (late or early/ morning or night)? I’ve found them on occasion, but haven’t had a reliable way of finding them.

I blacklight at my back porch, facing a forest of mostly Oak and Hickory. Tonight I'll take some pics of my setup as well as the surrounding area and post them to the public blacklighting journal. The Colobopsis were coming by the tens at around 11:00 PM. They were still flying when I put everything up at midnight.

Thank you! I think I might need to switch up my setup so there is less blockage, maybe I’ll try near our forest.

[FeedTheAnts]

Some quick updates:

The Solenopsis queens never laid brood and eventually fought. two of them were de-legged(both of the ones that had removed their wings), and the other two were trying to get out. I ditched them.

The Colobopsis queens have larvae.

The Tetramorium queen got her first worker a week ago.

The Camponotus chromaiodes colony has had a slight die off. I suspect it is because of the lack of cleanliness in one of their mini hearths. The whole setup smells of Sulphur.

The Pheidole queens got their first worker yesterday/last night.

And last but not least, I found a Camponotus subbarbatus queen in her founding chamber. She has gotten her first worker since I collected her, and she has a few larvae left from her first egg laying.

 

(Camponotus subbarbatus, not Colobopsis)

Edited by FeedTheAnts, July 21 2020 - 9:55 AM.

[FeedTheAnts]

Well.... all my ants are dead. Frozen to death in a freezer that sudenly started working to its full potential. My garage is pretty insulated, so the only place to hibernate my ants was in an old fridge/freezer unit. The fridge portion was broken, but the freezer portion worked horribly enough to be a fridge. I checked on the ants a week ago and everything was fine. Checked again yesterday and the freezer was... uh.... frozen  

Call me an idiot if you want. Looks like I'll be starting from square A this year.

[Kaelwizard]

[ANTdrew]

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

[ANTdrew]

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

[antsandmore]

Sorry to hear that.

[Kaelwizard]

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo