35 replies to this topic

[JaydenScheepers]

Hello guys, umm yeah second update. let's go whoop whoop. So this one is a bit a bit late, dam why can't I do anything on time?? If I'm not careful my journal might end up like my YT channel. Anyway enough rubbish talk, you guys want to see ants, so I'll give you ant alright. So I won't be updating on my C. parius colony and my Polyrhachis queen this week, because well there isn't much to update on, except that they are doing pretty well.

 

- Oecophylla smaragdina

 

- Odontomachus sp.

 

- Cataculacus granulatus

 

- Tapinoma melanocephalum

 

- Nylanderia sp.

 

 

 

So the warrior of a queen with her very fast progress, Oecophylla smaragdina makes a, uh something.

 

As you can see, she now has pupae. Many of them, I counted 7. She actually got her first pupae within a day or two after I uploaded my first update, expecting a worker soon. Still not sure on their future though. Please leave any suggestions if you have any.

 

Next up will be my, drum roll. Odontomachus sp.

 

And yes, I still haven't identified their sp. because I am lazy . I will get to it though and be a decent ant keeper at least. So these guys are doing well, as you can see you can actually see them this time. They have moved into a new clear test tube, well I ended up forcing a move, but luckily this time I did not have to use heat. I have lost count how many times this poor queen has moved test tubes. Today though is a day, a weird day. Don't know what to call it, scary? I found something that might just be nothing, and I am panicking inside for no reason, or it is the start of something very, very bad. So I gave them a new roach nymth for them to feed on, and as I watched one brave and active worker at work I noticed something on her gaster, something small. To me it looked like a mite, and mites are common around Odontomachus, they are usially bright while in color and harmless, probably only after the protein I feed my ants, so it's possible that it's just hitching a ride on a worker. However the mite was greyish in color and it would be weird to hitch a hike on a gaster. It could also just be debris, so maybe it is nothing, but uh defenitely concerning. I don't have any advanced equipment, I mean look at the quality of my images, the best I have got is a magnifying glass, so it would be easy to mistake a mite for a peace of debris. I will definetly though monitor this colony closely to see if this mite spreads.

 

Next we have my tank-like C. garnulatus colony.

 

Look at their new home, I love it they look so cute inside. I hope they like it more as well. Wait I think I did already showed this setup, it's how I introduced them I think. Ah I'm so.. I don't know, I'm tiered. They got their 5th worker which is indeed very exiting to me at least and they have 2 or 3 pupae. Man I really should have prepared, I'm so unorginised, this is going directly down the path of my YT channel, ah stay on topic. So that is their progress, they are climbing up slowly but surely, love them to bits.

 

Tapimona and the sp. name that I probably could never pronounce, Tapimona actually sounds pretty nice though. Up next.

Oh wait, just relised I don't have a photo for them, dam it's dark, I'm a terrible host. Ok so basically 3 days ago, I woke up checked up on them and their test tube went incredibly dirty. It went from mildly dirty to there was a sandstorm inside of the test tube over night, literally, it looks like there was a sandstorm inside the tube. The brood is also gone, so these are bas signs, immediately when I sa this I prepared them a new test tube. They still haven't moved in, I will hae to force move them towmorrow, I feel like I have no other choice.

 

Duck! In comes the flying Nylanderia into the next update, to be updated next, um to show them next.

 

Again, sorry for the quality, this one and the O. smaragdina are particularly bad. Surprisingly the queen's wings are still intact. She did la eggs so that is a good sign and the next gen of workers are pupating. Things are just lookng good for this colony, which I like to see.

 

Anyway that is my overdue very bad second update, hope you at least found some enjoynment in this chaos. As always, thanks for your time, good bye for now.

[T.C.]

Is there a hydration source for the Oecophylla smaragdina ?

[JaydenScheepers]

Yes there is. It is that cotton which I rehydrate every 4 days. However there seems to be a mold growth which I cannot throughly clean out with the O. smaragdina and the brood inside, and the mold has alreadykilled one pupae. So I moved them into a 25mm diameter test tube, but uh.. the move didn't go well at all. And now I having to deal with a parasitic mite infection in my Odontomachus colony, I also killed one worker.

[JaydenScheepers]

Things are not going well

[JaydenScheepers]

I wish I could take it all back

[T.C.]

Jeez, is everything alright now? It might not be mites, see if you can get some macro footage?

[JaydenScheepers]

No, infact the situation has gotten worse, I'll make an update tonight.

[JaydenScheepers]

Hello guys... unfortunately todays update is bad news. You may notice that it is an early update, and that's due to recent developments.

 

So about two days ago when I was observing my Odontomuchus worker in their out world, but I noticed something small attached to her. My mind immediately when to mites. If you ever kept Odontomachus chances are you have seen mites, they seem to just attract mites some how, maybe it is because of how much they love substrate. But most of these mites are fine, some are even beneficial, acting like sprigtails, cleaning up waste. These mites are usually white in color, and may even from time to time climb onto ants as a form of transportation. However what I am talking about are parasitic mites, which are darker in color. They will attach to the ants, suck out their Hymolemph, get off breed, then more gets on and the process repeats until the ant dies from them. At first there weren't many on the worker, I noticed them, but I knew it wasn't the white mites because they look nothing alike, however I thought it was possible that it could just be debris. Hmm, I don't have great macro tech so how do I decipher whether it is parasitic mites or not? Well, I decided to monitor them daily, if the number of spots increased then it is mites, if it doesn't or it is gone then just debris. Day one of observation it looked ok, maybe a bit more on her, but I don't have great macro tech so I can't be sure. Day 2, well why don't you guys take a look?

 

It looks so horrible, I felt so sorry for her. In addition this is the worker I killed. I asked for help from people on discord, and while I was waiting for them to reply I was testing to see if lime would kill the mites.. it killed her, I had added too much. I'm a terrible ant keeper. A day later I found this:

 

My Tapimona melanocephalum are also infected, see those dots, how do I know that they are mites at all? Well I spotted some on the gasters of the ants. These mites have spread to other colonies, this is VERY bad. All my colonies could be potentially infected now. I can't find predatory mites, and lime kills my ants. Guys, I'm lost. Please, what do I do? I will buy lemon twomorrow and put a slice of that in the entrance of the test tube for my ants and see if that works, as someone in the Ant-Keeping and Ethology server said that's how she/he dealt with her/his mite infection, and it worked. So that plan will be put into action ASAP if there are no other suggestions. It is better to risk killing my ants with the possibility of saving them, instead of doing nothing and watching them die, in my eyes. So please I urge you please give me suggestions, any suggestions. Except predatory mites, I've looked for them, or tried to at least, don't know where to look and the local people can't point me in the right direction, because we can barley communicate to each other. Plus ants are usually considered pests to them so why would they know how to save them?

[Dan_Not_Found]

https://www.formicul...mites/?hl=mites

On post #13, a member explains different methods he used to get rid of mites. I will say that I personally have never tested any of these methods so I can't speak for how effective they are or if they can be potentially dangerous to your ants.

 

Here is another post https://www.formicul...hl=neivamyrmex 

In post #153, page 8, this member tests another form of treatment used for mites on bees, and it seems to be successful. Again, I have never tested this so I can't speak for how effective or safe it is.

 

I hope I could help at least a little.

Edited by Dan_Not_Found, November 10 2022 - 9:11 AM.

[JaydenScheepers]

Alright, thanks for the help. It is much appreciated.

[JaydenScheepers]

Hello dear readers, I apologize for the late update. Last week was a very sad week for me .

 

- Ocephylla smaragdina

 

- Parasitic mite situation

 

So as I just said, last week wasn't very pleasant for me and here's why...

 

 

 

Now incase you don't know classic and menacing weaver ant queen behavior, and how she is resting on my hand, I have to announce that she is dead. I felt very sad and guilty for this and still do, it looked like things were going so well. Let me tell you the whole story of what had happened to her. So it started with her still being in that container you saw her last. I decided to move them into a 25mm daimeter test tube, because mold was forming inside of the container, and because she was still in there with her brood, the container being so small and not wanting to stress her too much and/or risk her accidentily harming her brood, I decided it wouldn't be possible to conduct a thorough cleanout of the mold. I have also seen amny scary videos on the internet of other people's starting colonies dying off from mold, and at this point the mold had claimed two pupae, so this spooked me A LOT. Out of desparation I ended up moving them into that teat tube (the move went very badly), I had stuck in a small leaf before the move as suggested by a experienced antkeeper on discord. Of course though, me being me I can't do anything right, I for some unknown reason folded up the leaf and tuck it in prohibiting the queen from going futher into the test tube towards the water cotton, instead of just sticking it in. A short few days later and the first few workers enclosed, they could fit through and feed the queen. So I though great, created an out world for them which I was very exited for, and I even recorded them for a wile after that. I gave them an roach nymph, and som- alot of honey. Called a day, happy I decided to give them their space so they can get comfortable, and tucket them away under the foundation isolation area. A few days later, I think it was 2 days later I got very anxious and wanted to see how they were getting along. Guys what I saw was depressing. I looked around and saw dumped outside of the test tube dead molded up brood, I looked inside, saw one worker that had molded up. I glanced at the queen and saw she had tucked herself under the leaf, maybe trying to get to the other side, I glanced at her and first thought,"aww she's making herself comfortable". However after seeing what I saw, with only a few remaining pupae, I looked back at the queen. Getting vibes from my Odontoponera queen which I had mistaken to be alive, but when I looked closer there was no movement. I looked at this O. smaragdina desperatly hoping she would move, just a little bit, as time passed I saw nothing.. I triet waving my hand, picking up the tet tube, and even shaking it. All to try and invoke a response, any response, but nothing. I sat there, feeling a deep loss. I inspected the test tube closer and saw two more dead workers whom have yet to start molding. What was left of the precious and young colony was three pupae, and two workers. I chased them out of the test tube trying to prevent their deaths. A day later one of the workers died, and over the course of a few days the pupae died, it was the the one worker, alone. That broke my heart, I removed her from that container and tried to prepare her with something she could be more comfortable with, hopefully living out a stress free life, obviously I not able to do any job right she escaped. Have no idea what happened to her, but I hope she is fine. I did that to her, took everything away form her. Something like this is also why I don't like leaving my ants, why I want to constantly check up on them and make sure that they are ok.

 

For the parasitic situation, it got a lot better. I have developed a theory and I will explain ehy I have come up with it in a moment. So I think my Isopod and springtail culture has both parasitic mites and predatory mites. That is because I put some of that substrate into my Odonomachus out world inorder to more easily manage mold, a few days later the parasistic mited pread throughout the colony and were very prolific, they then also got out and infected my other ant colonies. The Predatory mites soon caught up and the parasitic mites on my Odontomachus died off. The perdatory mites however didn't follow the parasitic mites out of the enclosure and so the other colonies were under high distress, until I exposed them with substrate from my Isopod and springtail culture, and the parasitic mites also started decreasing over the course of a few days which strengthened my hypothesis even more. What do you guys think?

[DRpepper]

It's okay man everyone makes mistakes, Just learn and don't make them again. I look forward to future updates.

Edited by DRpepper, November 28 2022 - 6:51 AM.

[JaydenScheepers]

Thank you.

[SYUTEO]

Your Odontomachus is O. simillimus. Nice ant colonies you have there, especially the Cataulacus, from what I know not many people keep Cataulacus.

[JaydenScheepers]

Indeed, which is why keeping them is scary. I am actually in a panic position with them, I do not think they are happy. I took their wood peace and shoved them into a clean test tube, because the wood I try to put into the tube keeps molding every time. Their stay in the barren test tube should be temporary, as I intend on buying a small wood formicarium from Foranto, maybe they'll be happier there. I also am not sure if they can manually hydroregulate the nest like Camponotus can, however knowing that they are arborial ants naturally. They should be adapted to so so.

[JaydenScheepers]

Hello guys. Sorry for not updating in so long, had to sort stuff out. But I am back now! So much has happened regarding my ants, first thing is first, the mite problem is gone (thankfully). However, one of my Odontomachus queens got reinfected somehow, I immediately isolated her, I noticed it too late, her and her two workers were badly infected. I don't know why, but I just put them away and pretended like that problem didn't exist.. I am ashamed, I did nothing to help them. They ended up dying, and shortly after I noticed I proceeded to go to extreme lengths to sterilize those pieces and make sure there is no way any of them survived. Anyway, mites are gone and have been for a while, on to the update:

(Also the photos aren't good quality, this is sort of rushed so I can just upload something)

 

- Camponotus parius

 

- Nylanderia sp.

 

- Pheidole parva

 

- Oecophylla smaragdina

 

- Tapimona sp.

 

- Polyrhachis laevissima or ratellata

 

- Odontomachus simillimus

 

 

 

Starting with the good old og, C. parius.

 

Aight so the setup for them is pretty decently sized, out world and nest are a similar size at about 20cm by 15cm. Colony is doing very well, active lots of brood in all stages, and I recently moved them into this bigger ytong nest. Very happy with how the nest came out. The colony is at about 500 workers, and majors are finally starting to go out. However the gaurd dead debris or do warning strikes that miss completely.

 

Next we have Nylanderia, which I still cannot ID to their exact sp. I think I may have two of these colonies.

 

Alright, so as we can see the old Nylanderia colony is doing well. Defenitly have over a hundred workers, and they swarm their prey, workers respond quickly to one another so recruiting happens quickly. Though, there is no more brood, which to me is concerning. I had to move them into a new test tube as their old one was growing uninhabitable, mainly because of mold taking hold, but they were also digging into the cotton, so I connected a test tube incase they flood themselves. Spoilers, they did. I added a thick layer of cotton actually hoping to see some burrows, because I thought that looked cool, however I now realize that I did not think this through, because now the front part of the cotton, the part that they are supposed to drink from may dry up.

The other colony recently founded and are progressing well, they are not brown, but instead black. however look exactly like the Nylanderia.

 

Pheidole parva

 

Gave them a bigger out world and put them in a tubs and tubes setup (partly because I am too lazy to drill a hole through the side of the container), but they needed a new one, because they were escaping from the old one. Other than that, everything is going extremely well with them, they also respond and swarm pretty quickly, and the majors actually go and be useful by helping process the food.. ahemm C. parius.

 

Oecophylla smaragdina!

 

They are doing so well, and keeping them has just been a blast. Earlier in their growth they actually ended up destroying their weaved silk, which was a cause for concern. But thier still fine now, so I just think they saw it as more of an inconvience. Now they are at 25 workers a so much brood, so interesting to see how they handle their prey.

 

Tapimona

 

These are the smallest ants I have, workers are less than 1mm. Which makes them pretty intresting, to have such a small species. They are actually doing surprisingly well, and have about 40 workers.

 

Polyrhachis

 

Now with them it's a bit more of a complicated situation, yes in this image they are doing well. A dual queen colony with seven workers and brood. However, there used to be four queens, they started ripping each other apart and so decided to sepirate them into groups of two, and see how they reacted. They seemed a lot happier, and tolirated the other queen's precence.

 

image of the other two, I stuck a bunch of rice husks into their test tube to see if the make a fort later on. So far they haven't layed eggs.

 

I also had another queen pending for a new home at the photo was taken.

 

Odontomachus simillimus

 

I have two of these queens currently, this one I could not get a proper photo of, because the walls of the tube are too stained, so I tried this little thing, unfortunately I wouldn't get the callow in the shot. She's doing well, she has got one callow and a small batch of brood.

 

This one has a somewhat clean tube, however her founding has been quite slow to be honest. She has a batch of eggs and two or three larvae that recently hatched.

 

Alright, that is all for now, hope you enjoyed this mess of a post, and till next time.