11 replies to this topic

[Ender Ants]

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.

 

 

 

 

[Ender Ants]

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.

 

 

 

[TechAnt]

Those queens look amazing! Best of luck with them, I did not even know you still posted on here.

[Ender Ants]

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

[CatsnAnts]

Nice! Can’t wait to see how these colonies turn out.

[Ender Ants]

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. 

 

 

 

 

 

---

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

The Second Queen:

This queen looks to be doing fine right now. She has some brood, but I still have some waiting until the pupae get ready to eclose. 

 

[TechAnt]

Congrats! Can’t wait to see them grow more.

And RIP that other queen.

Edited by TechAnt, June 28 2020 - 5:25 PM.

[FSTP]

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.

[Ender Ants]

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.

[AntsDakota]

Nice! I love native Solenopsis. Around here it's mostly molesta, and they're everywhere.

[Ender Ants]

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

 

--

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. 

[Antkid12]

Nice!