167 replies to this topic

[Chickalo]

How long did it take your queen to get nanitics?  Just wondering the wait if I decide to go on a little hunt for them next year.

[ANTdrew]

They take about five weeks, I’d say.

[Chickalo]

Luckily for me, there's some flavipes sightings just outside of Lynn Woods I can go to in May

 

Edit:  Capitalized the M in May, grammar matters!

Edited by Chickalo, October 1 2021 - 4:05 AM.

[ANTdrew]

You’re learning! Next time put a comma after the dependent clause, “Luckily for me.”

Edited by ANTdrew, September 30 2021 - 6:25 PM.

[ANTdrew]

Update 1-19-2021

 

 This colony remains in hibernation. They are in my parents' unheated basement, which is down in the 40s now. I checked them on Monday, and everything looks great. I'm looking forward to waking them up in a month or so. I hope to take advantage of their dormancy to clean some of the crud off the lid of their Antpartment formicarium. I may even just swap in a whole new lid. I think the sky is the limit for Aslaug and her colony this year.

[ANTdrew]

Update 3/14/2022

 

My large colony of Nylanderia vividula are starting off their third season. I brought the colony home from my parents' cold basement on Saturday to start their spring despite the fact that it was snowing outside. I'm letting them warm up slowly at room temps, but I'll start to heat them today. The colony culled all the male alates that remained, but there are still several queens alates in the nest. It's tricky now because several of them have pulled off some of their wings, so it is almost impossible for me to tell which one is the OG queen. I think there may be several productive queens in the nest now after I let some mate on my blacklight sheet last summer and returned them to the colony. Despite their small size, I can't sing the praises of Nylanderia enough.

 

They have been in this Antpartment nest since Veteran's Day 2020:

 

Some of the chambers and the mega water tower. They have plenty of eggs and brood in various places around the nest.

[ANTdrew]

Update 3-18-2022

 

This colony has been heated for a few days now, and they are resuming their usual crazy-ant ways. They have hundreds of eggs, so activity is really going to ramp up soon. There actually aren't many of last year's alates left anymore. Here is a GIF I made of one of their first protein feedings:

 

[ANTdrew]

Update 3-22-2022

 

This colony is back in business. They take a few days on heat to fully resume their activities and feeding responses. I've seen workers carrying several dead queen alates, so I wonder if some sort of culling took place. I bet they'll crank out a bunch of alate brood very soon. They are already have a big brood carpet by their water tower. You can see it in this photo, along with their lovely coloration.  I Nylanderia. 

 

[ANTdrew]

Update 4-10-22

 

 It's still colder than a penguin's backside here in Virginia, but my Nylanderia are toasty warm indoors. The colony is already kicking off the new season with its second batch of reproductive alates. A few males eclosed last week, and I bet virgin queens are not far behind. I still need to do a thorough search to see if any of the mated queens I re-introduced into the colony last season are still around and are adding to brood production. Workers have been carrying several dead ones in the outworld, so I'm not sure. Every flat space of their nest is carpeted with brood at the moment, though. It's really refreshing to keep ants like these that really know how to get things done.

 

[AntBoi3030]

Nice! My colony has around 50 workers now. Hopefully they’ll blow up in numbers soon.

[azzaaazzzz00]

I caught a few Nylanderia flavipes queens yesterday, don't have much expierience with Nylanderia but they seem like a fun species to keep!

[ANTdrew]

Excellent. Welcome to Team Nylanderia!

[ANTdrew]

Update 6-23-2022

 My Nylanderia vividula colony are now two years old, and they continue their amazing growth. They have put out hundreds of new alates for the second season in a row and stage little flights every night in their outworld. All of last year's alates were mercilessly recycled. Here is photo of queen Aslaug on a big pile of her eggs:

 

 

Their outworld was getting so crowded and full of trash that I decided to make them a new one. I used a nice display case from Hobby Lobby for the purpose. My son and I hooked it up today:

 

 

I have a couple of new queens I'm founding at the moment. One I think is Nylanderia flavipes based on the time of day I found her.

 

[Jonathan5608]

This genus is pretty cool. I love how enlarged there gasters get when full. They also have amazing growth rates. I have two queens and they already have about ten workers in a month and a half. I really love these guys.

Edited by Jonathan5608, July 23 2022 - 11:14 AM.

[futurebird]

antdrew that's too many ants LOL OMG. 

My colony died when I was in the hospital, the water feeder burst and my poor husband didn't know how to cope... I don't blame him really he kept all the others in perfect health. But now I'm missing the tiny little girls. They are so shiny and pretty close up. 
 

[Jonathan5608]

Antdrew did you get nanitics the first year

Edited by Jonathan5608, July 23 2022 - 12:36 PM.

[ANTdrew]

Yes, they take five to six weeks to get nanitics. They got alates less than one year after that.

[Jonathan5608]

Wow alates in less then a year. That’s crazy. How did you hibernate these guys. The whole hibernation thing I’m trying to figure out. I have a mini fridge but I feel like that would be to cold.

[ANTdrew]

I keep them in an unheated basement during the winter. This species is found all the way down into Mexico, so I think they don’t strictly need it.

Edited by ANTdrew, July 23 2022 - 1:03 PM.

[Jonathan5608]

One more question, should I buy a space heater. All my colonies stay at a steady 68-74 degrees the entire year