19 replies to this topic

[Manitobant]

Today i lost one of my formica colonies when the glass came off of my tar heel ants nest and crushed the queen when i put it back on. I'm kinda upset about the loss so i want to know that I'm not the only one who has lost a colony in a stupid way. Please share your stories!

Edited by Manitobant, July 6 2020 - 10:52 PM.

[TheMicroPlanet]

Well, I haven't lost any colonies, but I have so far lost one queen, which I failed to realize was actually a parasitic lasius.  I think that was pretty stupid on my part.

[NickAnter]

I basically ruined my unidentified Myrmentoma colony over a year ago by knocking their mini-hearth off of my desk.

[Kaelwizard]

The first ant queen I ever found was a C. novaeboracensis. Did not know anything about how to care for ants so I put her in a super dry sandy setup and never gave her water. That was years ago though.

[Antennal_Scrobe]

I myself don't have an interesting anecdote for this, but CheetoLord02 lost his Myrmica spatulata to dehydration when an escaped Crematogaster colony drank all the water out of their Mini-Hearth.

Edited by Antennal_Scrobe, July 7 2020 - 8:18 AM.

[TechAnt]

I myself don't have an interesting anecdote for this, but CheetoLord02 lost his Myrmica spatulata colony when his Crematogaster escaped and drank all the water out of their Mini-Hearth, dehydrating them to death before he noticed.

For a second I thought the Crematogaster escaped and drank the water out of their OWN mini hearth, and they killed themselves.

[Antennal_Scrobe]

 

I myself don't have an interesting anecdote for this, but CheetoLord02 lost his Myrmica spatulata colony when his Crematogaster escaped and drank all the water out of their Mini-Hearth, dehydrating them to death before he noticed.

For a second I thought the Crematogaster escaped and drank the water out of their OWN mini hearth, and they killed themselves.

 

Let me change it for clarification. You should probably ask CheetoLord02 about it if you want to know more.

[AntsDakota]

 

 

I myself don't have an interesting anecdote for this, but CheetoLord02 lost his Myrmica spatulata colony when his Crematogaster escaped and drank all the water out of their Mini-Hearth, dehydrating them to death before he noticed.

For a second I thought the Crematogaster escaped and drank the water out of their OWN mini hearth, and they killed themselves.

 

Let me change it for clarification. You should probably ask CheetoLord02 about it if you want to know more.

 

So, the colony escaped after they emptied the water reservoir?

[TechAnt]

I myself don't have an interesting anecdote for this, but CheetoLord02 lost his Myrmica spatulata colony when his Crematogaster escaped and drank all the water out of their Mini-Hearth, dehydrating them to death before he noticed.

For a second I thought the Crematogaster escaped and drank the water out of their OWN mini hearth, and they killed themselves.

Let me change it for clarification. You should probably ask CheetoLord02 about it if you want to know more.

So, the colony escaped after they emptied the water reservoir?

No no, the Creamatogaster escaped and then drank the water of Cheeto’s Myrmica colony.

[Kaelwizard]

 

 

 

I myself don't have an interesting anecdote for this, but CheetoLord02 lost his Myrmica spatulata colony when his Crematogaster escaped and drank all the water out of their Mini-Hearth, dehydrating them to death before he noticed.

For a second I thought the Crematogaster escaped and drank the water out of their OWN mini hearth, and they killed themselves.

 

Let me change it for clarification. You should probably ask CheetoLord02 about it if you want to know more.

 

So, the colony escaped after they emptied the water reservoir?

 

I think the Crematogasters escaped and drank the water out of his Myrmica's water resevoir and the Myrmica colony died of dehydration.

[M_Ants]

I used random cloth to make a cotton ball cover so my queens would stop tearing at it. Worked great till they died. It was most likely from a chemical in the cloth. 

[ANTdrew]

I myself don't have an interesting anecdote for this, but CheetoLord02 lost his Myrmica spatulata colony when his Crematogaster escaped and drank all the water out of their Mini-Hearth, dehydrating them to death before he noticed.

For a second I thought the Crematogaster escaped and drank the water out of their OWN mini hearth, and they killed themselves.

Let me change it for clarification. You should probably ask CheetoLord02 about it if you want to know more.

So, the colony escaped after they emptied the water reservoir?

I think the Crematogasters escaped and drank the water out of his Myrmica's water resevoir and the Myrmica colony died of dehydration.

This hearsay is getting out of hand.

[TechAnt]

I myself don't have an interesting anecdote for this, but CheetoLord02 lost his Myrmica spatulata colony when his Crematogaster escaped and drank all the water out of their Mini-Hearth, dehydrating them to death before he noticed.

For a second I thought the Crematogaster escaped and drank the water out of their OWN mini hearth, and they killed themselves.

Let me change it for clarification. You should probably ask CheetoLord02 about it if you want to know more.

So, the colony escaped after they emptied the water reservoir?

I think the Crematogasters escaped and drank the water out of his Myrmica's water resevoir and the Myrmica colony died of dehydration.

This hearsay is getting out of hand.

Indeed.

Edit, quotes can’t go further.

Edited by TechAnt, July 7 2020 - 11:11 AM.

[Vendayn]

I had a tiny Pheidole species, forgot what they were. But I had the smart idea to give them a tiniest drop of honey soaked in a napkin. In a test tube. I don't think need to explain what then happened to equally tiny ants.

 

To this day its still upsetting cause always wanted a tiny NATIVE Pheidole

[NickAnter]

I had the same mistake with my huge high elevation Solenopsis molesta. I was so annoyed.

[Antennal_Scrobe]

I had a tiny Pheidole species, forgot what they were. But I had the smart idea to give them a tiniest drop of honey soaked in a napkin. In a test tube. I don't think need to explain what then happened to equally tiny ants.

 

To this day its still upsetting cause always wanted a tiny NATIVE Pheidole

Ugh. I've lost workers that way before, but never a whole colony.

[AntaholicAnonymous]

I lost many workers before.

I gave my lasius niger a raw egg in the shell and the shell was so slippery that the egg was filled with dead ants the next day. lol

[AntaholicAnonymous]

I also put 5 manica rubida workers in my lasius tank once and that was terrible.
The manica killed ants for 2 hours until they got stopped and the colony was huge I didn't think they could do such a massacre.

I bet they killed 20 to 30 each it was crazy

Needless to say I'm keeping manica now

[OhNoNotAgain]

Okay decades ago ... I had almost zero clue about keeping ants, and there was no internet. I had a little colony of (Lasius niger???) that I'd started.

I had no idea what to feed them (again, no internet). One day I had this stupid idea. I said, hey maybe they need vitamins. (At least that's what I remember ... this was a LONG time ago.) I put in a sprinkle of powdered vitamins. Dead colony.

 

Most recently I killed a queen because I used a combination of dirt, heat, and a small starter formicarium = water condensation right near the dirt level = drowned queen.

 

As for Derpymessor, THAT one I have no idea what went wrong. They just started dying until finally the queen died.

 

I have tons of ant worker oops stories, too. Most involve something like desiccation or drownings. But queens are the ultimate oops

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, July 11 2020 - 10:47 PM.

[Nawor3565]

A few days ago I managed to kill about 14 small Lasius colonies. I had to put an air conditioner in my room because of a heat wave, and the thermometer I put in the box with all the test tubes said it was about 66*F, so I figured they needed some more heat. I had some old heat tape that I hooked up, but for some idiotic reason I didn't use a temperature controller. For the first 24 hours with the heat tape I checked on them constantly, at least every hour, and the temperature seemed to stabilize at around 78*F. I checked on them the next day, and lo and behold, most of the colonies had gotten fried. Their test tubes were literally too hot to touch. The ones near the edge of the box were okay, and I moved them to a better area and ditched the heat tape, but I still feel absolutely terrible, especially since it was a completely avoidable indecent that was 100% my fault.