45 replies to this topic

[yibsi]

Well the male is dead the workers killed him. i'm guessing the alates may have came in when i boosted them. the ants are grooming the queen alate though so i'm kinda confused. hopefully i won't wake up to more dead alates...

It could be that the Male fertilized the queen alate, as tapinoma is known to have princess queens breed inside the colony and as you know, bud from parent colonies, so I think its likely that the male alate fertilized the princess alate, it would explain why the male is dead and why the princess alate (possibly 2nd queen now) is being groomed.

 

Either way, love the journal so far!

[AntBoi3030]

Update: the entire pile of pupae has eclosed around 30 alates were born the rest being workers. There graveyard is littered with dead males. I’ve seen a few have been killed by workers. I have also seen a few pairs of wings on the ground and in the garbage site. I assume this is from queens who have mated. There second formirium has quite a bit of ants in it too along with some males. I have given them some fish flakes and they only collected the red ones which I found funny. They are eating mealworms like crazy and have a huge amount of brood. This colony is booming and soon will need a new nest nest.

Edited by AntBoi3030, May 28 2021 - 7:40 PM.

[AntBoi3030]

Here are some of my favorite pictures I took

Edited by AntBoi3030, March 31 2023 - 2:39 PM.

[AntBoi3030]

It’s been a little while Since I’ve posted an update. They actually ended up having a civil war between the satellite nest and the main nest. Of course the main nest won but ants kept moving into the satilite nest and got slaughtered. This happens because well I was away the person taking care of them forgot to water their nest. Fortunately the nest holds water well and they like their nest dry and they have a water tower. But the satilite nest was hydrated so some of them moved in. So when I came back a good quarter of the colony was dead. Lickly they have a bunch of queens and a massive brood pile. I also removed the satilite nest too.
It’s been a little while Since I’ve posted an update. They actually ended up having a civil war between the satellite nest and the main nest. Of course the main nest won but ants kept moving into the satilite nest and got slaughtered. This happens because well I was away the person taking care of them forgot to water their nest. Fortunately the nest holds water well and they like their nest dry and they have a water tower. But the satilite nest was hydrated so some of them moved in. So when I came back a good quarter of the colony was dead. Lickly they have a bunch of queens and a massive brood pile. I also removed the satilite nest too.

Edited by AntBoi3030, March 31 2023 - 2:44 PM.

[ANTdrew]

This species ain’t nothin’ but trouble.

[AntBoi3030]

I don’t know why you hate them so much lol. They can be fun to keep you just need an escape proof setup.

[Antkeeper01]

i know i would love to keep these but i can't find any

[ANTdrew]

i know i would love to keep these but i can't find any

Be careful what you wish for! Haha

[AntBoi3030]

Well if you get some I would recommend a tubs and tubes setup with a large layer of floun. Or something with very little tubing

[Antkeeper01]

Well if you get some I would recommend a tubs and tubes setup with a large layer of floun. Or something with very little tubing

i whould have to go into a higher altitude or south to the only place I've seen them

[Antkeeper01]

i think i got some! :  Please say antdrew doesnt see this

Edited by Antkeeper01, June 27 2021 - 2:12 PM.

[AntsMaryland]

I've got a rather large colony of these; they really are nothing but trouble... lol. 

[AntBoi3030]

They can be if kept incorrectly. Congrats! Be careful for the first month I had mine they were nothing but trouble lol.

[AntBoi3030]

ha

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[Antkeeper01]

lol I'm posting this on discord

Edited by Antkeeper01, June 29 2021 - 11:04 AM.

[ANTdrew]

ha

Actually true.

[AntBoi3030]

I saw that they made walls out of brood. They started piling up pupae in the outworld so I think I’ll have to give them an upgrade. I think maybe just a cube of dirt. They really like to dig.

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[Antkeeper01]

amazing as always

[AntBoi3030]

Update:
I was too lazy to craft them a new nest last week and I thought it would be fine…it wasn’t. They started piling up Pupae in their water test tube and on top of their water feeder. So I got to work, I used a acrylic container and added some hydrostone at the bottom with tubing running through it. Once it was dry I removed the tubing and added one that was the correct length. After that I added some stones at the bottom and then filled it up with soil. I connected it up and they immediately started digging. Only a few ants were digging and from what I could see (there was a lot of condensation) they made a small ditch and gave up. One day later I saw ants running across my table > . It turns out they dug a tunnel right down to the hydration tube and immediately found a weakness in it. Easy fix though I just shoved some cotton down through the tube. I watched them dig out tunnels for a while and it was fascinating. A few days later they Belgian moving brood in, mostly pupae and mature larvae. It’s funny to see a worker scurry all the way from there old nest through the outworld and up a lengthy bit of tubing and into the nest where they’d deposit the brood. It seems that last night they really started to move in when they moved most of the queens and all of the eggs and more larvae. Their old nest has 100 workers left in it along with 6 queens and some tiny larvae. I’m sure they'll move in at one point though. I bet ANTdrew is relieved that I wasn’t going to move them into his homemade formicaruim XD. some pictures:

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[ANTdrew]

Yeah, I don’t build for Tapinomas…