471 replies to this topic

[dspdrew]

Acromyrmex like to pile their favorite substrate up.
 

 

[specimen24-6]

Update 5-28-2015
 
All five colonies are doing great. Two of them have around 100 workers, and 100 or so brood. The third largest has about 40 workers with 50 or so brood, and the other two have about 20 workers and 15 brood.
 
The largest two are going to need larger formicariums very soon at the rate they're growing. One of them has workers crawling all over the sides and the top of the foraging container all the time now, so I think they're already in need of something larger.
 
Here's some of the latest pictures of my two largest colonies and a little video I made.
 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 
https://www.youtube....h?v=-QmPTHhlg-g

'Game over man, game over'
Aliens reference
I would love to capture one of these

Edited by dspdrew, June 20 2020 - 12:24 AM.

[dspdrew]

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[LC3]

How big has the fungus gotten?

[Mdrogun]

How large do these colony's get? I would imagine at least 1,000 workers

[dspdrew]

I think they get pretty large.

[dspdrew]

This colony created a hell of a trash pile. They ran out of substrate not too long ago, and had nothing left but this pile of smelly rotting trash and dead fungus.
 

[LC3]

So are they dead or is that an isolated trash pile?

[dspdrew]

They're fine. I removed this to clean it out.

[klawfran3]

How would you even clean that? The hydrostone is a nasty brown color.

 

What's the substrate made of? Rose flowers and oatmeal?

[specimen24-6]

Looks like good compost

[dspdrew]

How would you even clean that? The hydrostone is a nasty brown color.

 

What's the substrate made of? Rose flowers and oatmeal?

 

Doesn't really matter what color it is. I just soak it in some bleach for a while, and then wash it out, rinse it really good, and let it dry completely.

[dspdrew]

Update 10-11-2015
 
I sold one of the colonies months ago, and apparently the queen died a couple weeks later, so I replaced that one with another, leaving me with only three colonies now, along with the queenless colony that I'm still keeping as a fungus backup in case anything goes wrong with all my other colonies' fungus gardens.
 
The largest colony, the one that had the civil war, has grown back to probably over 700 workers. They expanded their fungus garden to three containers. Two of these containers don't even have sponges added to the tank, and the floors are completely dry, but I guess the humidity is still high enough for the fungus to grow just fine.
 
The other two colonies are both probably over 500 workers in size. They need larger nests pretty badly, because they can't possibly fit anything more inside the containers they're in now.
 
Here are some pictures of the smaller colonies. You can see how stuffed full the fungus containers are.
 

 

 

 

 

 
 
A couple times the colonies ran out of substrate, and their fungus started dying and shrinking, but as soon as I added new substrate, the workers immediately hauled tons of it in and started sticking it all over the fungus. Within a couple days the fungus was fluffy and healthy again.
 
This is the large colony just a week after almost all the fungus died. You can see how fast a colony this size can grow back their fungus garden.
 

 
 
I still need to do some work on this formicarium design, because it's very difficult to make any changes to it while the ants are living in it. I ended up having to just add the new substrate to two of what were supposed to be fungus garden containers. You can see here where the ants have brought the substrate from those containers into the out world, and made two piles.
 

[antmaniac]

That is so packed. I find that the ants can be quite tidy, at least in brood and queen's area.

[dspdrew]

Update 10-20-2015
 
Acromyrmex versicolor had a late mating flight this year at the spot near the south entrance to Joshua Tree National Park. They flew after some storms went through 10-15-2015 through 10-17-2015. I dug up 25 queens. The digging success rate was not very high, as most of them flew a couple days before we got there.
 
I already had everything I needed to get them all setup quickly in test tubes, each with a small piece of fungus to start their garden.
 

 

 
 
I did have two vacant formicariums I was able to put two of the queens in.
 

 

 
 
It will be interesting to see if they are as successful this year as they were last year for me. Since this time they'll all be starting with fungus, I will get a much better idea of what their success rate is. Also, if I end up with a queen that lays eggs, but does not know how to take care of her fungus, I'm going to see if the queen-less colony I have will accept her.
 
I finished the second prototype of the larger and expandable fungus-grower formicarium, so I started to move one of my large, cramped colonies into it.
 

[NightsWebs]

Drew, I think the formicarium design is going to work well.  I think you used hydrostone in the test-tube box setups with the substrate at the end of the container.  My question is did you also saturate the hydrostone before placing the test tubes (water, cotton and plug with nest entrance) in the containers and lastly laying the substrate? 

[dspdrew]

I don't know what you mean by saturate the Hydrostone. I just poured a layer of Hydrostone in those containers and let it cure.

[klawfran3]

How does the expandable formicarium work? It appears to only be an outworld from the picture.

[dspdrew]

How does the expandable formicarium work? It appears to only be an outworld from the picture.

 

You can see it here (http://www.formicult...0-2015/?p=29091).

[dspdrew]

Update 10-22-2015
 
Most all of the new queens are taking care of their fungus. Unfortunately, two have died already.