65 replies to this topic

[DRpepper]

I would be curious to see how that plays out at a larger scale unless you're planning to introduce them individually each time until you've introduced all workers, but that seems painful to do...

I've added 10+  chilled workers to  queen before. Camponotus are rather chill about accepting new workers. 

[Canadian anter]

From my experience, the first couple generations of Camponotus workers (most genera to be honest) seem willing to hop colonies

[Dan_Not_Found]

A bit happened this month,

Firstly, I decided to move the colony into the Nucelus I got a few months ago. They're still hovering around the 100 worker mark and normally I would've waited a bit longer before moving them in. However, the colony was getting increasingly more active and soon, feeding them through the fortress outworld was getting near impossible without atleast 5 escapees. I couldn't do proper maintenance like refilling their water feeder, giving them nectar, cleaning the outworld, etc. So yesterday, I moved them in and now they're properly settled. There's a ton of room so this will hopefully last them a while.

Secondly, they got their first media! To be honest, she's sorta small but definitely not a worker. Hopefully there will be more and much larger to come!
The picture is for a size comparison, but its a bit more blurry than I remember lol.

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

[Dan_Not_Found]

Here's a slightly better picture

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

[Dan_Not_Found]

Nothing new. Colony is growing well. Here are major pics!

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

[Dan_Not_Found]

I've got a quick update. The colony is doing well, the queen seems healthy! They are producing some majors which are really cool. Unfortunately, they've stopped taking in mealworms when I place them into the outworld but then I place them into the nest, they're readily accepted?? It's not that big of a deal but it is rather weird.

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

[BleepingBleepers]

Looking great!

 

Another CA02 keeper.

 

Your colony seems to be thriving quite well, nice pictures man.

[Dan_Not_Found]

Looking great!

Another CA02 keeper.

Your colony seems to be thriving quite well, nice pictures man.

Thanks!

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

[100lols]

Yeah couldn’t agree more, looking good!

Do you ever change up the protein and offer some variety?

[Dan_Not_Found]

Yeah couldn’t agree more, looking good!

Do you ever change up the protein and offer some variety?

I've actually fed them a diet strictly on mealworms lol (it's the only feeder my parents will let me keep T-T). This is probably the reason why the foraging ants haven't been taking them, but the ants in the nest don't seem to mind. Thanks for reading!

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

[100lols]

Yeah couldn’t agree more, looking good!

Do you ever change up the protein and offer some variety?

I've actually fed them a diet strictly on mealworms lol (it's the only feeder my parents will let me keep T-T). This is probably the reason why the foraging ants haven't been taking them, but the ants in the nest don't seem to mind. Thanks for reading!

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

Ahh, unfortunate! Maybe consider hunting down some earwigs? My ca02 girls love them! Just be sure they come from a likely pesticide free source. We don’t spray at my house.

[ANTdrew]

If it helps any, you don’t have to keep any feeder. They can go straight to the freezer for later use. That’s one of the beauties of keeping ants.

[Dan_Not_Found]

If it helps any, you don’t have to keep any feeder. They can go straight to the freezer for later use. That’s one of the beauties of keeping ants.

I did try this for a bit. Normally I would have a colony of fruitflies but they die out sort of quickly, so one time I gathered one of those fruitfly cups from pet co, and put them all in a small bag and froze them, but it only lasted me around 1 or 2 months. The cup of 500 mealworms I have right now are lasting nearly 6 months from just putting them in the fridge, and are cheaper! (18 USD vs 22 USD). Fruitflies are an awesome feeder but they just don't last long enough for me unfortunately, and once school starts, I won't have the time to constantly start new ones, and to constantly buy new ones would be pretty expensive. However, if I am still keeping ants when I am older, fruitflies will definitely be my go to.

 

I froze a box of crickets before, and it just didn't turn out great. None of my ants would take them and it turns out a lot of other people seem to have this problem too. Maybe there's a special way to freeze them, but for now they are a no go (they also really creep me out).

 

Roaches are an automatic no from my parents lmao. I tried telling them that they aren't the ones we see in our house but they were having none of it.

 

I don't really know why I went on this tangent, but that's my story with keeping feeders. I do have a colony of termites now (you can find my journal on them in the termite section hehe) but it'll be way into the future before I can even consider using them as ant food. Any thoughts or recommendations are welcomed!

[ANTdrew]

My experience with crickets is that they dry out pretty quick in the freezer. Try freezing small batches and feeding them off quicker before they can dry out.
Can you buy your own roaches and put them in the freezer without anybody knowing? Don’t ask, don’t tell. Dubias are really the best feeder out there.

[BleepingBleepers]

Unless it's your freezer, I say do what's allowed by your parents. Honestly, I don't blame them for turning away from the idea. We're the ones with our odd hobbies, we shouldn't force it on them. If I wasn't an animal guy, I would be against it too.

 

The nastiest thing I've kept in the freezer for my pets were maggots and flies for jumping spiders and definitely not doing THAT again

 

Interesting idea of keeping stuff in the freezer though, I MIGHT be tempted to keep fruit flies mainly because of their crappy short lifespan and because they're super small, unlike the blue bottle flies.

However, problem is, the stuff in the freezer changes, loses their nutrients and so forth and is never as good as fresh prekilled. Like frozen rats, some people toss them out after several months and you can tell there's some breaking down of the tissue and whatnot.

 

I'm thinking either you find another ant hobbyist locally that might have live feeders or a person that stocks feeders in your area. Craigslist, FB, forums and whatnot.

 

If mealworms all you can get, prob try to feed them with a variety of foods would be your next best option though I've only done that with crickets and roaches, I don't know how picky mealworms are. While insect protein is for the best, there's other protein sources out there as well, like the meat that we eat if you're up to testing stuff out, I know I will. A lot of ants are omnivorous scavengers, kind of like giant centipedes that I also keep, they've learn to eat what's around them. A quick google search shows that many people view carpenter ants as pests around their houses and are known to pick up scrap bits left by us, which tells us they can get their nutrients from many different sources.

 

I breed my own live feeder roaches outside in a bin as I can't stand any smells and I'm allergic to their frass.

Edited by BleepingBleepers, July 29 2023 - 9:28 AM.

[Dan_Not_Found]

My experience with crickets is that they dry out pretty quick in the freezer. Try freezing small batches and feeding them off quicker before they can dry out.
Can you buy your own roaches and put them in the freezer without anybody knowing? Don’t ask, don’t tell. Dubias are really the best feeder out there.

I've never thought of that... I'll definitely try that (eventually  )!

 

All my feeders I either get from Amazon or Petco, both needing my parents to be involved TT. Plus, if they found out they would FLIP, but I did consider it 

[Dan_Not_Found]

Unless it's your freezer, I say do what's allowed by your parents. Honestly, I don't blame them for turning away from the idea. We're the ones with our odd hobbies, we shouldn't force it on them. If I wasn't an animal guy, I would be against it too.

 

The nastiest thing I've kept in the freezer for my pets were maggots and flies for jumping spiders and definitely not doing THAT again

 

Interesting idea of keeping stuff in the freezer though, I MIGHT be tempted to keep fruit flies mainly because of their crappy short lifespan and because they're super small, unlike the blue bottle flies.

However, problem is, the stuff in the freezer changes, loses their nutrients and so forth and is never as good as fresh prekilled. Like frozen rats, some people toss them out after several months and you can tell there's some breaking down of the tissue and whatnot.

 

I'm thinking either you find another ant hobbyist locally that might have live feeders or a person that stocks feeders in your area. Craigslist, FB, forums and whatnot.

 

If mealworms all you can get, prob try to feed them with a variety of foods would be your next best option though I've only done that with crickets and roaches, I don't know how picky mealworms are. While insect protein is for the best, there's other protein sources out there as well, like the meat that we eat if you're up to testing stuff out, I know I will. A lot of ants are omnivorous scavengers, kind of like giant centipedes that I also keep, they've learn to eat what's around them. A quick google search shows that many people view carpenter ants as pests around their houses and are known to pick up scrap bits left by us, which tells us they can get their nutrients from many different sources.

 

I breed my own live feeder roaches outside in a bin as I can't stand any smells and I'm allergic to their frass.

 

Lol I was just talking with my friend how gross maggots were.

 

Reaching out to other hobbyists does seem like a good idea! Perhaps I'll do that one day.

 

I do want to try feeding them different meats, unfortuntely we don't really have any unseasoned / marinated meats. Maybe I could try eggs?

[Virginian_ants]

I once heard. "WHAT ARE THE ANTS DOING IN THE FRIDGE!?!"
"oh right, I forgot I put those there."
(I was getting them ready for a parasitic Lasius queen.) Now that I think about it that's happened a few times.

Edited by Virginian_ants, July 29 2023 - 4:22 PM.

[bmb1bee]

I once heard. "WHAT ARE THE ANTS DOING IN THE FRIDGE!?!"
"oh right, I forgot I put those there."

Was just browsing Camponotus ca02 journals for reference, and managed to find a quote that I could relate to  . Except I did this with Formica moki for my parasitic Formica ravida queen lol.

Kudos to Dan and his ca02 colony btw. This is one of the most successful ca02 journals I've seen on Formiculture so far...

[Dan_Not_Found]

So, college apps are coming up and I seriously need to start thinking about what I want to pursue for my future. Unfortunately I don't have a lot of time on my hands anymore and it's also been showing in my ant colonies. My goal was for this colony to reach around 150 workers by now through bi-weekly feedings and an increased amount of food + a more diverse palette. Little did I know how much time it takes to write and revise multiple essays on top of school! (T_T)

Thankfully, they haven't "suffered", and I just did a rough count and they seem to be around 115 workers, give or take a few. All I'm saying is that, atleast for the next few months, I wouldn't expect too many updates. This will be due to time constraint and the colony stagnating. I hope I can regularly update soon!