5 replies to this topic

[Formiga]

This week has been bad regarding ant keeping.

Lots of dead Formica fusca queens, including another one whose colony seemed to be going fine. No brood to save here to boost another colony.

 

Lots of escapees around. With their queen dead, they just went through the olive oil barrier and I could see them escaping through the tiny syringe needle holes in the cover of their formicarium. Not tiny enough then! Damned buggers are escape artists!

 

Then I had escapes from another Formica fusca colony. When I realize it, there are only 3 workers now...

 

And on top of this all, I had more ants crawling around on the floor. But these are from a wild colony whose queen must have passed under the door, she dug her nesting chamber on a corner of the floor of my workshop. At first I thought the workers were escapees from my colony and later I thought they were being brought in from outside by my cat who sleeps near me while I'm at the computer as I found some on her bed but it seems they were just scouting around for food and territory.

This was an escapee mess but in the end these were from another colony whose queen thought "Hmmm, this guy is into ants, so I'll just crawl invite myself in, he won't kill us!"

You're taking long walks around looking at the floor like a mad man and being on the floor on your knees and your buttocks up like a loony looking for ants (that's how Germany lost the War!), and they start coming to you!

 

So, of course, I am curious about what species they can be.

And, of course, I thought about if I could capture the queen and the whole colony...

So I made them an invitation. A sort of test tube setup with water, darkness and free honey.

Not 5 minutes later they had found it and went all in for the honey. 10 minutes later you couldn't see any honey, it looked like a black 1 square centimeter just made out of ants. They've been there for almost an hour now...

They are mostly on the honey. A few walk around in territory recognition but they don't seem to have interest in the inside and the water on the end of the tube. I understand, priorities first.

 

 

So, questions...

 

- Can ants smell honey? Or sense it any other way than visually?

I've noticed ants going for the honey as soon as I give it to them.

 

- From the pictures, any idea of what species they might be?

The workers are even smaller than Formicas, but they have big headed majors. No signs of the queen yet.

 

- Would this setup be good enough for them to get their queen to move in?

It has water and moisture, I'm assuming more than they have inside my wall. It also has a lot of room inside their tube without any digging hard work needed to be done.

I haven't given them any fruit flies yet, assuming they'll have them. I assume they'll bring it inside their nest on the wall as capture, I don't think this has any lure effect here...

 

 

Any suggestions to improve this and increase the chances of the queen to move in?

Thanks guys!

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[ANTdrew]

Looks like some kind of Pheidole. Doubtful the queen would move in.

[Formiga]

Yes they do!

 

Thanks for pointing it out!

 

Their petiole with multiple segments, the more elongated gaster but not enough and not round enough for a heart shape of a Crematogaster, the presence of big-headed majors... It kinda matches.

 

Doubtful the queen would move in.

 

 

Well, that's bad news but it's good to know it anyway so I won't have much hope.
But I'll leave the setup there for a couple of weeks or so, lets see...

I can also decrease their comfort in their home... Bang the wall with a hammer and add vibrations, dry and over heat inside the wall with a hair dryer, play some kizomba music or some of the promises from our prime minister for this Sunday's elections... That would surely move me out!

 

[MysticNanitic]

Maybe you can lure them with warmth!

What am I looking at here, is it one of those medicine dosing spoons for kids cough syrup - attached to a plugged syringe body?

[Formiga]

What am I looking at here, is it one of those medicine dosing spoons for kids cough syrup - attached to a plugged syringe body?

It's a measuring spoon I've bought in a chinese big store.

I guess yes it can be used to measure kids cough syrup and stuff.

 

And yes it's attached to a plugged syringe body (I'm having a hard time finding test tubes). I've opened a hole on it.

I had a setup like this inside an outworld, but instead of the spoon it had a narrow silicone tube and those ants were breeding well there. In fact, they were the colony that had the most numbers (actually twice of what I thought of!) until their queen died. (bottom on the photo)

This version is an upgrade, it's the 2nd time I'm testing it, but the 1st time the ants didn't move from their original syringe into this new home and their queen died (don't know if from dryness, fungal infection or some other cause).

I've replaced the colony a couple of days ago, lets see if they will like this spoon setup and move in... (top on the photo)

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[Formiga]

Well, this "cute little species" ended up being deadly to my last 2 colonies of Formica fusca.

At this moment I only have 1 Messor queen in a tube for 2 or 3 weeks with no eggs yet, and a few queenless ants from a colony whose queen died a month ago.

 

This particular foreign colony did nothing. It had all the honey and thanked me by retreating inside the wall and doing no harm.

 

A week later I see, on the opposite side of the room, a swarm of ants way too big to be mine. They've infested the smaller box setup in the photo above and I could see them chopping the queen in 3 for "easier carrying". That colony was just exterminated! They came in through tiny tiny gaps from the box and said Meh! to the olive oil escape barrier (that was working for the Formicas). And I could see the brood being carried around down the trail, leading to a tiny hole in the wall behind the couch. Their queen, in her nesting process, even chewed through some sort of acrylic silicone to cover gaps from that wall.

 

Foreseeing another disaster I took my last colony away and put it on top of a table far away.

But 12 hours later that colony was raided by huge numbers of this species of ants, proven to be from yet another colony from another hole beneath the inner door frame leading the corridor.

They even chewed into the cast material of the formicarium and the Bostik barrier from its acrylic windows!

They infiltrate it everywhere.

Same devastating scenario. Formicarium raided, exterminated colony, dead chopped down queen, stolen brood.

I was hoping at least they would move in but no, after the raid party was over they went back home.

 

I've tried to get them out of home with heat, first with a hair dryer, then by boiling water on a cooking pot and placing it on top of the floor tiles near the entrance, but no good. There was another entrance to the nest about 2 inches away, the ants were returning home and felt something near the entrance, they stopped and went back into the 2nd entrance.

 

So here I am now, colony-less, and with a single queen that might be sterile.

At least I won't have to worry about hibernation, but this ant season seems to be abruptly and dramatically over.

 

I still carry little containers with me all the time should a queen cross the road in front of me and I have all the supplies needed to start over again should and when I catch another queen.

 

Sigh, swear.