61 replies to this topic

[Antkeeper01]

stop reviving old threads

[NicholasP]

stop reviving old threads

Why if he hasn't said they died?

[Manitobant]

Colony is still in hibernation until at least January. They were doing fine when i checked last.

[NancyZamora4991]

update?

[NicholasP]

update?

Unfortunatley there probably won't be many updates as if I remember correctly Manitobant said that he doesn't really like journals.

[Manitobant]

I took these guys out of hibernation a few days ago.

[Manitobant]

Update March 18th, 2022

The first eggs of the 2022 season have been laid, and the queen is looking slightly physogastric. I have a feeling the colony will explode in growth this year.

[ZTYguy]

Update March 18th, 2022

The first eggs of the 2022 season have been laid, and the queen is looking slightly physogastric. I have a feeling the colony will explode in growth this year.

Pics please!!! 

[United-Ants]

I am very exited to see this colony grow

[FinWins]

Update please.

[Manitobant]

This colony is still going, and they got a new generation of workers. I plan to try letting them raid for the first time in the next few weeks as they have enough workers to survive/win a pitched battle with formica defenders.

[FinWins]

This colony is still going, and they got a new generation of workers. I plan to try letting them raid for the first time in the next few weeks as they have enough workers to survive/win a pitched battle with formica defenders.

How would you do that? Are you going to just connect a Formica colony with a queen to the Polyergus and let them fight it out, or are going to put live Formica workers and brood in a test tube and let the Polyergus raid that?

[Manitobant]

I have a special raiding setup which i designed based off of the experiences of European keepers with P. rufescens. Basically it’s a large sand-filled bin with the formicarium outworld connected to one end and an AC hybrid nest filled with formica pupae and workers to the other. It works great for my larger wild-caught polyergus colonies.

[BDantsalberta]

I can catch polyergus colonies most places that I go. They are quit abundant in central Alberta and have a very painful bite and formic acid! I wish you the best of luck!

Edited by BDantsalberta, January 25 2023 - 12:05 PM.

[Manitobant]

Polyergus are very common here as well. They’re abundant in pretty much any area where fusca group formica are the dominant ant species.

[BDantsalberta]

Polyergus are very common here as well. They’re abundant in pretty much any area where fusca group formica are the dominant ant species.

They're almost no Fusca here. Subsericea is the most common along with all the Formica parasites of course. I have only ever once founded a Polyergus queen from scratch and it sucked because there was no black ant pupae available at the time, and so I resorted to Formica Neorufibarbis. Common black ants are a must.

[Manitobant]

These guys came out of hibernation around a week ago.

[Manitobant]

Update may 5, 2023

This colony is really starting to boom and was just moved into a THA mini labyrinth in order to accommodate their huge stash of brood. A slight side effect of this is that the colony will be a bit short on hosts for around a month until wild formica colonies get pupae.

Attached Images

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Edited by Manitobant, May 5 2023 - 3:45 PM.

[Manitobant]

Update july 2nd, 2023 (the end)

Upon feeding the colony today, I stumbled upon the queen dead in the garbage pile in the outworld. I have no clue how or why she died as the colony was doing absolutely amazing and had just been moved into a THA hearth due to the insane amount of brood they were producing and accumulating from raids. Overall this was a very fun colony to have and definitely one of my favourites, although I’m not sure if i plan to raise up another queen from flights this august as I already have two large colonies of this species.

Attached Images

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Edited by Manitobant, July 2 2023 - 6:49 PM.

[BDantsalberta]

Well that sucks