245 replies to this topic

[Nexus]

This is definitely the coolest genus in the world.

[SirAnticus]

do the repletes absolutely require hanging space

[dspdrew]

do the repletes absolutely require hanging space

 

Yes.

[Leo]

repletes are obese

[dspdrew]

Update 12-10-2016
 
The colonies are almost all doing great for the most part.
 
The colony in the giant vase is the only one that's not doing all that great. They started off with quite a few workers, but now are down to only about twenty. The last colony I had in this thing slowly died off, and now it looks like this one might be doing the same. I really have no idea why either. I will say, lately I haven't seen many new dead ants in the out world, so I don't know... maybe it was just an initial die-off. I do suspect that a lot of the ants get so dehydrated before finally moving to a new nest, that they end up dying. I've seen quite a bit of evidence of this.
 
I recently added some plants to this setup. We'll see how long I can keep them alive.    Also, the colony's mound is starting to get pretty rocky like they are in the wild.
 

 
 
Chambers haven't really changed much.
 

 

 

 
 
Right now the queen is staying in the middle chamber, about half way down.
 

 
 
The colony in the prototype resin Boxbox nest was starting to do really well until it ran out of water without me noticing, and half the colony dehydrated and died. They are now making a recovery, and already growing in size again pretty quickly; I counted about 75 workers. Almost every time I look at this queen she's laying another egg.
 

 

 

 

 

 
 
The largest colony is still the one in the larger-sized "dirt box". I did a rough count of about 500 workers, 200 cocoons, 500 larvae, and a huge pile of freshly laid eggs. This colony is actually producing some full-sized workers now. I saw a few huge repletes with heads almost as big as the queen's. I'm going to have to move them into something larger very soon, but I'm afraid to because they're doing so well in what they're in now.
 

 

 

 

 

 
 
Last but not least, are the two colonies in the small "dirt boxes". One of those I'm not including in this journal anymore because someone finally convinced me to sell it to them. Last I checked it had about 50 workers. The colony I still have is up to about 175 workers and will also probably need to be moved to something larger soon. I didn't get any pictures of it, but I did get some video. At the end of the video you can see my method of moving my ants around during feeding or cleaning.
 

[gcsnelling]

Looking good.

[FSTP]

Has to be my favorite Journal of yours...

 

 

Really nice colonies.

[Alabama Anter]

Amazing

[Miles]

What have you been feeding these colonies? I'm trying to get my Myrmecocystus navajo back into significant brood production.

[dspdrew]

Formula Blue 100, chicken, fish, crickets, spiders, termites, humingbird nectar, and Sunburst.

[FSTP]

When you say chicken and fish, is it cooked or raw?

[dspdrew]

Cooked.

[Leo]

envious 101

[dspdrew]

Here's a video of some of the Myrmecocystus mexicanus larvae. You can see how fast they like to crawl around.

 

[NZAntKeeper]

They are more like worms than larvae lol

[Superant33]

Drew, do you have any substrate or sand in your box box formicaria? Your colony looks like it is doing great in the Boxbox. I have a colony in a ytong THA formicarium and it is in a slow and steady decline. Without substrate, they are not forming pupae. It is very distressing to watch naked pupae get torn apart. I wish I would have sand coated my THA ant farm. The Box box and your colony are both impressive.

[dspdrew]

Drew, do you have any substrate or sand in your box box formicaria? Your colony looks like it is doing great in the Boxbox. I have a colony in a ytong THA formicarium and it is in a slow and steady decline. Without substrate, they are not forming pupae. It is very distressing to watch naked pupae get torn apart. I wish I would have sand coated my THA ant farm. The Box box and your colony are both impressive.

 

No there is no sand in that formicarium, but it was cast with a sand-like texture. Is it an M. mexicanus you have?

[Superant33]

I have M. mimicus. Two are going strong. I have the previously mentioned one that is in a steady decline. And one that is recovering from being flooded by their stupid owner. Good job with the M. mexicanus. I have never seen that species. And I heard they were difficult to rear.

[Goldsystem]

I didn't know that ant larvae could even move around like that

[dspdrew]

Update 3-9-2017
 
The colony in the large "dirt box" is getting so large, that they are starting to need constant feeding. I normally go at least a week in between feeding my ants, but the last time I did that, I killed a large portion of this colony. They were up to well over 500 workers, but now have lost what looks like about 100 or so. I noticed the other day that all the repletes were gone, and the ants were streaming up the sides of the out world. When ants do this, it usually means they are in desperate need of something. What happened is their two feeders ran out. I never realized they were eating so much, that without those feeders they would begin starving to death waiting a week for food.
 
This colony is also starting to destroy the setup they are in. They dug so much dirt away, that it's almost just nothing but two panes of plastic now. The deadbeat colony in the giant vase setup finally lost their queen the other day, so I decided to move the large "dirt box" colony into it.
 
I quickly designed a little table-like stand and printed it out. I set the "dirt box" on it and coated the sides in Fluon. Since I can't get the ants out of these giant vase setups immediately, I just let the large colony decide what to do with them. There were probably about 15 workers left in the old colony.
 
When I got home from work, the nest in the vase was completely raided by the large colony. There were tons of workers in every chamber, working away customizing them and dragging rocks out.
 
I set the entire thing in a Fluon-coated tub just in case they found a way out while temporarily setup this way.
 

 

 
 
Like always, I gave them a little wooden ramp.