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Posted May 30 2020 - 4:56 PM
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May 25, 2020: First Fire Ants of the Year
I never made a journal about my other Solenopsis colony, but I do have a few videos about them. Long story short, they died, and grew way too much. Luckily, I caught 2 queens this year, and am updating everything on them from now on. Also going to limit their food in-take LOLOL.
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Posted June 10 2020 - 2:55 PM
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June 10, 2020: Eggs & Larvae
Follow me on Instagram for more active updates on all my colonies:
https://www.instagram.com/ender_ants/
I caught 2 more queens on June 2nd, and currently all 4 of these colonies have eggs. One already has a few larvae, so they'll be growing quickly in no time.
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Posted June 10 2020 - 2:57 PM
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Posted June 10 2020 - 3:25 PM
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Those queens look amazing! Best of luck with them, I did not even know you still posted on here.
Recently started to post again since its nuptial season and I have more time 
Lots of updates coming soon
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Posted June 10 2020 - 4:53 PM
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Posted June 28 2020 - 4:31 PM
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June 28, 2020: The First Nanitics
This queen has 5 workers, and 3 about to eclose. Expecting more workers, and probably a move soon once they all start biting at the cotton.
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Another Death:
Unfortunately another queen has died. The tip of her gaster has some mold, which spread to some of the larvae. When I moved the test tube, she was attached to the cotton, maybe she got stuck? There's also some colored liquid that seeped into the cotton from her jaws. Will have to keep an eye on the other colonies more often to see if they die randomly. Now we're down to 2 queens.
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Posted June 28 2020 - 5:24 PM
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Edited by TechAnt, June 28 2020 - 5:25 PM.
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Posted June 28 2020 - 5:32 PM
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Nice job! these are interesting ants that grow fast if given lots of food. I just posted a short clip of my colony on my instagram account. once they get going it seems you can't feed them to much they just keep eating.
Also don't forget to give them seeds. The queens really like munching and crunching seeds when the colony has yet to produce majors. I give mine poppy seeds and various grass seeds. They will make little piles of them in their test tube and slowly munch and crunch on them through out the day. Its really fun to watch the tiny queen wrestle a poppy seed while she tries to munch crunch it. Once the colony is large enough when you put a small pile of seeds in the out world they will go nutso pututso trying to gather them up as fast as possible. Its really fun to watch.
Edited by FSTP, June 28 2020 - 5:33 PM.
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Posted July 2 2020 - 3:19 PM
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Nice job! these are interesting ants that grow fast if given lots of food. I just posted a short clip of my colony on my instagram account. once they get going it seems you can't feed them to much they just keep eating.
Also don't forget to give them seeds. The queens really like munching and crunching seeds when the colony has yet to produce majors. I give mine poppy seeds and various grass seeds. They will make little piles of them in their test tube and slowly munch and crunch on them through out the day. Its really fun to watch the tiny queen wrestle a poppy seed while she tries to munch crunch it. Once the colony is large enough when you put a small pile of seeds in the out world they will go nutso pututso trying to gather them up as fast as possible. Its really fun to watch.
Thank you for the suggestion! I've never fed any of my ants seeds, so I will try this out.
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Posted July 2 2020 - 3:21 PM
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Nice! I love native Solenopsis. Around here it's mostly molesta, and they're everywhere.
"God made..... all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. (including ants) And God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:25 NIV version
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Posted July 7 2020 - 8:49 PM
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July 7, 2020: More Workers
Now both Fire ant queens have workers. Going to feed them soon!
Caught May 25: This queen has 15 workers now, tripled since June 28
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Caught June 10: This queen has 17 workers, even though she was caught later than the other one, she has progressed quicker.
I feel like moving them into a Cubes and Tubes setup like I did with my late colony. I want to save my formicariums for my other colonies that I know won't leave a lot of waste.
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Posted July 8 2020 - 4:06 AM
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Nice! 
Ants I have: Tapinoma sessile(2 queen colony). RED MORPH Camponotus neacticus(now has pupae!), Tetramorium immigrans (x3), Aphaenogaster sp, Temnothorax sp, Brachymyrmex sp. possibly infertile 
, Ponera pennsylvanica, and Pheidole morrisi! 
Other insects: Polistes sp. Queen
Ants I need: Pheidole sp., Trachymyrmex sp., Crematogaster cerasi , Dorymyrmex sp. Most wanted: Pheidole morrisii
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Posted July 2 2023 - 2:39 AM
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June 15, 2023: The Pool Incident
So there I was, celebrating Father's Day weekend at the pool. "The weather's pretty humid, wish I could look for queen ants right now" I thought as I looked at my trusty weather app while walking to the chlorine filled waters. I hadn't stepped foot into a swimming pool in about 4 years. I don't think I remember how to swim either. As I lay floating there on my floatie, I see a small speck in the rippling waters. I could've sworn it was a queen ant, so I did everything in my power to cup it in my hands random people were passing by. My eyes didn't lie, a Solenopsis xyloni alate.
She looked like she was a goner, but I had hope and knew it would be best to keep her because I've caught ants before in the pool that looked dead but revive later on. Also knowing ants don't have lungs, if it was recent, it should still be alive. And right I was. My family and I had continued to catch these fire ant queens in the water, to the point where my hand was covered with what looked like dead ants. Such a funny and fun experience.
All of them were caught with wings, but as of now, all but 3-4 still have them.
June 21, 2023: Most have laid their first batch and 2 have died randomly since then.
June 26, 2023: Their egg piles have also grown even more.
Last time I had kept fire ants, they had grown really fast and were overwhelming to care for at the time. One time they had escaped and were all over my desk, so I'm going to be more careful this time around.
Edited by Ender Ants, July 2 2023 - 2:40 AM.
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Posted July 2 2023 - 11:48 AM
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You better be ready! If I kept fire ants it would be xyloni though since they are native.
Interested buying in ants? Feel free to check out my shop!
Feel free to read my journals, like this one.
Wishlist:
Atta sp (wish they were in CA), Crematogaster cerasi, Most Pheidole species
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Posted July 2 2023 - 12:08 PM
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You better be ready! If I kept fire ants it would be xyloni though since they are native.
And they only grow to a few thousand.
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