123 replies to this topic

[FeedTheAnts]

Not sure. They were iridescent black with orange legs.I froze them for several hours as a precaution.

That sounds like passalus beetles. Freezing should've taken care of any mite problems though

[Canadant]

The dying major....

 

She was beginning to go the past day or two. She started to walk erratically but slowly. Kinda like a sick limping creature. Sad.

 

I began to philosophize about her life. I wonder how they think - or if they think at all? Perhaps they think on a level so different from ours that we'll never understand. Either way, I hope I was able to give her a good life. She got to live in a heated house with lots of grub, water, and SUGAR! I bet ants thank us! No predators. Food built for health and reproduction.... no natural disasters - which I bet happen everyday in an ants life.

 

I digress. I thought her comrades were paying respects somehow. Dropping in to chew at her gastor as if to be cleaning it. However, I think they were gathering like vultures. Another major dropped by and it was as if she was trying to chew off her gastor at her petiole. She really gave it a try several times. The major even grasped the dying ant across the thorax and seemed to bit there but could not penetrate. perhaps that's how it is for ants. I suppose I'd rather have my fam eat me than some horrible wolf spider or something. Lol. 

 

I try not to humanize the ants, but I'd love to know they're world down there. Some pics:

 

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[ANTdrew]

I’m tearing up here...
This is turning into a great journal.

[Canadant]

Crematogastor sp.

 

Amazingly to date I have pulled over 60 ants from my door frame over the past 2 weeks. Sometimes they're out in 10's and other times I find the odd individual sauntering around the door frame. Caught another 11 today! That's crazy. I thought they'd be goners by now. I put them in with their original colony and all is fine. So cool. here are some quickly taken pics just as an example. Forgive the blur as when I see them I try to catch them as fast as I can.

 

This pic is of the door frame where they hide. They get under there. I caught a couple more stragglers after this pic. 

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[Canadant]

Today, I'm proud to say I've graduated to the next level. I look forward to a long relationship with my wingless fruit flies! They arrived in the mail promptly and I'm off to a great start with these melanogastor fruit flies. I wanted Hydei but the dealer was out at the moment. However, wingless means less mess - no inedible wings everywhere. I've named it the Disco of Death! Eat, meet, party and breed! Then, death with a smile as my ants recycle you! I have a kit coming with extra deli containers, meshed lids, excelsior and some Repashy culture medium. I just heard that the Repashy is less of a headache, smells less potent and is easy to use. if any of you have tips and comments please feel free. I'd love to know all about these guys. I see the males with black bums and the females look to have eggs pouring out their behinds. I guess its about two weeks before they really explode. Not 100% sure when to start a new culture but I'll figure it out. So excited! 

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[ANTdrew]

You drank the fruit fly kool-aid! It’s getting serious.

[Canadant]

Tetramorium sp.

 

This colony is doing well - growing at a steady pace. I must be between 50-75 ants at the moment. They're very small, however I suspect their size will grow slightly over the summer. I fed them about 20-30 live fruit flies today. It was a battle in a small outworld. I chilled the fruit flies first to give my buddies a slight advantage. Since, they have dragged the bodies into the test tube and i'm sure will be distributing them among their nest mates and larvae. 

 

Crematogastor sp.

 

I've sadly been experiencing a small die-off. I hope they're okay. I have a lot of faith in Crematogastor. They're a very active, interesting species. They got a dose of fruit flies today too but they're just not as quick to catch them. A few were caught and brought into the nest. I might fully euthanize the flies next time. 

 

Here is a few pics of my Tetramorium test tube. You can see the buffet of fruit flies laid out. Hard to photo the queen as she gets nestled in there deep against the cotton. 

 

Tough times here in Nova Scotia. Stay safe all.

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[ANTdrew]

My fruit fly culture arrived in two days from Josh’s Frogs. I can see how Crematogaster wouldn’t hunt them live, they’re just so chill all the time. Watching the little Tetras take them down is awesome, though.

[Canadant]

I posted this in off topic and it doesn't involve ants...sorry. But It's my journal.

 

 

I've been counting the days since last year to collect some salamander eggs. They've arrived.... at least I hope so. They may be some type of spring frog, but I feel these are salamander eggs because the mass is surrounded in jelly. I also found a large spotted salamander road kill last year near the pond which is next to a road. I'm hoping to sneak down there tonight with a flashlight and see if I can see some mating swarms/balls. I grabbed a mass last year but stupidly i brought it indoors and i believe the change in heat was detrimental to the eggs survival. So, I've been counting the days!!! I'm such a nature geek. I'm 44 and I could do this everyday all day for the rest of my life. That is searching and finding cool creepy crawlies to watch and learn about. I'm doing it with my daughters too. I find this helps them understand the sensitivity of nature. I don't want them to be scared of snakes and spiders, but rather have an appreciation for it...like me!

 

if you're able to identify them that would be great. I'm in Nova Scotia and they've probably been around a few days. I will raise and release them. If all goes well. 

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[Canadant]

Update: April 30, 2020

 

Crematogastor sp.

 

I froze a bunch of fruit flies and gave these guys a feed. God bless them. Out they came and within a few minutes they cleaned up the several I dumped on the wooden nest. They were happily wagging their tails. Love to see it. I'm guessing they're waving pheromones around. Someone must know. 

 

 

 

Teramorium Immigrans

 

I gave these guys a feed as well. They're really starting to explode I think. Sizes of the workers are growing and they demolished the fruit flies -  dragged them into the nest and stashed them for later. 

 

 

Camponotus novaeboracensis

 

A HUGE day and win for these guys. I've had these guys for three years and this is one of the first queens I caught. She may be my second. Either way these guys hold a special place in my heart as they are my first colony. They're big and beautiful. Sadly, I've always thought they were unhappy. They just never seemed that "alive". They're kinda "meh" about everything. I feed my Crematogastors and its all hands on deck. But these guys just don't seem to care about much and are picky eaters - nothing dead! Lol. So today I decided to spruce up their outworld. Before I left their old outworld sandy, quite level and quite bare - it makes for easy clean up. They just kinda slowly lumbered everywhere.... unhappily. This is the old set-up. I just added a light layer of soil to give the ground more substance for them. 

 

 

And I decided to go way more natural for them. Took a walk down to where they've been clearing all the edges of the roads. Lots of wood chips and broken branches.

 

 

 

Behold!! "The Forest Moon of Endor"

 

 

What say you? I love it!! The ants started to come out in more numbers. I guess they were slightly excited. Word got out and many were excitedly exploring, tasting, and moving debris. Immediately I noticed something different. it's not that they were in a more lively place, and not that it just looked more natural but their movements...... they just looked so much more natural. They no longer seemed to be lumbering slowly around. Their movement looked normal. It's like they were meant to lumber around on wood and the like. It's hard to describe, but they just fit in there. I guess it like see someone walk in the snow with snow shoes on - Much more graceful than without. 

 

Some pics: 

 

 

A nice major here. Look at that head size to the worker.

 

 

Hopefully this makes them happier. Yes.... I know about mites. It's a chance I'm willing to take. It's nature. Who knows what will happen. Happier? Will they move into the outworld? Will they take some of this into their formicarium? I hope. Time will tell. 

 

 

 

Edited by Canadant, April 30 2020 - 2:43 PM.

[FSTP]

This is a great Journal. I was wondering since its "all inclusive" can I start posting updates on my colonies here? lol

[AntsDakota]

 I was wondering since its "all inclusive" can I start posting updates on my colonies here? lol

And me too? 

[Canadant]

This is a great Journal. I was wondering since its "all inclusive" can I start posting updates on my colonies here? lol

Lol. Yeah sounds a bit strange. But making a journal for each species... I don't know about that. But everyone is invited!

[ANTdrew]

Awesome outworld, man. Glad to hear they’re perking up. I’m also making plans for some major upgrades for my Crematogasters’ foraging areas. I, too, doubt they’re that happy traipsing about on their own trash all the time.

[Canadant]

Awesome outworld, man. Glad to hear they’re perking up. I’m also making plans for some major upgrades for my Crematogasters’ foraging areas. I, too, doubt they’re that happy traipsing about on their own trash all the time.

Yeah I'm thinking of making a thread about 'that one thing you did that got a colony thriving for you'. See if others weigh in with some of their more positive experiences with making changes.

[Canadant]

Camponotus novaeboracensis

 

Looks like a new worker arrived today... (that's based on my thinking). My first workers at the beginning of last year were quite small. So small that I started feeding them live prey just to have some precaution in the wind. Majors showed up. So this little guy may just be an egg from last sept/oct when she stopped laying. A  little malnorished or purposefully small I wonder? These guys (there's a bunch) may be purposeful in early spring to help jump start a colony from their long winter. Who knows? I could see it though. 

 

Anyways, this ant probably eclosed a few hours ago. He's very pale and I thought she was a dead ant actually. But at closer inspection her nest mates were cleaning off some excess silk from the body. I went back several hours later to see if she was kicking around but could not spot her for the life of me - Colony is not that big either. Could she have hardened enough that she was that dark that i could not spot her? Seems to soon for me but my experience is limited here. Maybe she was still a bit pale and I just missed her.

 

Some workers tending to her. 

 

 

You can really see some good size comparisons between workers and a major in these pics. Love those big heads and chompers! 

 

 

Also a few more pupae soon to arrive and larvae. Looks like one pupae has no cocoon. Odd.

 

 

 

 

[Canadant]

I'm not even gonna stealth brag!

This was hard to get had to go to Yale University press website.

Edited by Canadant, May 5 2020 - 6:00 AM.

[TheMicroPlanet]

I have a book kind of like that

[Canadant]

I have a book kind of like that

Love it. Now need microscope and stronger magnifying glass. It never ends. Lol

[Canadant]

Crematogastor sp.

 

My Crematogastor are growing bigger and are in need of a new enclosure/outworld. Background: I collected half of their original nest in the wild. Well at least it was connected to the same 2x4 they lived in and underneath. The reason was that they just never seemed comfortable in their formicarium and were CONSTANTLY trying to escape. I felt this might calm them down a bit more, but at the cost of not being able to see in the nest. That's life. They do seem more comfortable. It's a cute little nest - easily picked up and movable. As they grow I'm sure a time will come where I can hook up a new formicarium to this set up. I was so pleased with my "Forest Moon of Endor" set-up for my C. novaeboracensis   that I thought Id do one for these guys.   

 

So we're going from this to this: The smaller outworld with the lid is just not working. I open the lid to feed and they start pouring out. No fun.

 

 

The new outworld will feature the nest in the left corner so I can still get some close ups of the nest. I haven't moved it in there yet. The real benefit will be able to get down and really watch these guys exploring and living in this small (fake) ecosystem. Also, it allows me to get my hand in there for cleaning/feeding etc. 

 

Concerns: The big test is escape proofing this sucker. as you can see I have a strip of painters tape around the outworld. I plan to add a layer of PTFE all around the top and under the lip of the aquarium. I usually add packing tape around the top of my outworlds that allows you to add another 'upside down' layer of PTFE. I'm also hoping with more space they will be less likely to try and escape. If this fails and these guys start crawling everywhere, they're going back into the small outworld (which will now be for my Tetramorium) and the tetras are coming in here! - after a clean up of course. 

 

Here is another shot of their small outworld and nest. 

 

 

Here is a closer look at the design of the new outworld. 

 

 

I wonder if I can get someone to cut some type of plastic lid that will fit on the lip of the aquarium - if you know what I mean. I really don't want to be scooping these guys up every morning like last season. I remember last season I woke up one morning and the colony had a line of ants stretching at least 20 feet to my door frame. They were just shoving the queens fat [censored] over the lip of the outworld when I caught them. Phew!! I couldn't believe it. It's not fun going to bed and not knowing what's going on with your ants. 

 

I'm going to try a thinner more diluted application of PTFE and will not do circular motions to apply. I will use a wide paintbrush and only paint in a vertical motion.Those little feet can grip any little edge they get. Even PTFE if it's improperly applied.

 

The Crematogastor are going in tomorrow after the cement dries tonight. 

 

I will also pray to the 'God of Containment' tonight and the 'God of Establishment'

 

Wish me luck!!

Edited by Canadant, May 7 2020 - 12:40 PM.