31 replies to this topic

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

MY CREMATOGASTERS HAVE ARRIVED

 

WHOHOOOO!

 

I came home from school yesterday only to find out that my Crematogaster cerasi colony that I have ordered from Canada Ant Colony has arrived, they are so cute and small and I am really impressed with the quality of the package he did. The queen is doing good and I have actually 6 workers instead of 5, which is nice. I am guessing that there was a pupa that enclosed recently because one of the workers were more of a brownish colour than the black workers, I have also noticed that the queen is wearing a larva!. I want to officially start this journal after diapause ends

 

the colony

 

Beautiful queen 

 

The queen is not a horse 

Edited by OwlThatLikesAnts, December 17 2024 - 7:39 AM.

[Artisan_Ants]

It's always nice to obtain a new colony! This reminds me of last year when I caught my two C. cerasi at aroud this time of the year. I miss them and their extremely fast workers (they died due to thirst cause I diapaused them last year, they laid eggs in March, raised workers until around June, and I went on vacation, and sadly, they were all dead due to test tube mold which means ad water and thirst). But yeah, it's definitley a good thing to hibernate them (it's far more stressful with founding queens though, as you never know what might happen to them at cold temps...). And when hibernating, make sure to keep them anywhere around the 40 degree range. Hope this colony does well! Looking forward to see an empire of these guys!

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

It's always nice to obtain a new colony! This reminds me of last year when I caught my two C. cerasi at aroud this time of the year. I miss them and their extremely fast workers (they died due to thirst cause I diapaused them last year, they laid eggs in March, raised workers until around June, and I went on vacation, and sadly, they were all dead due to test tube mold which means ad water and thirst). But yeah, it's definitley a good thing to hibernate them (it's far more stressful with founding queens though, as you never know what might happen to them at cold temps...). And when hibernating, make sure to keep them anywhere around the 40 degree range. Hope this colony does well! Looking forward to see an empire of these guys!

Me too! I love the fact that the workers are guarding the entrance like they are supposed to, and how they explore with their gasters up.

 

I also know that they ae able to live in dry nests, but they at least need drinking water to keep the larva moist.

[ANTdrew]

This colony has very little workers for this late in the season. I’d actually recommend letting them grow longer on heat. Hibernation is not strictly needed for these ants.

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

This colony has very little workers for this late in the season. I’d actually recommend letting them grow longer on heat. Hibernation is not strictly needed for these ants.

Ohhhhh, no wonder they are so active, my Formica and my Lasius parasite have slowed down and have stopped growth, meanwhile, my Cremas are laying eggs and I thought that something is wrong

 

how long should I put them on heat because they have a small hibernation, should I put them in hibernation during December / Late November?

[ANTdrew]

It’s entirely up to you. You could keep them going all winter if you want. Do a proper hibernation next season once they have a solid population.

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

It’s entirely up to you. You could keep them going all winter if you want. Do a proper hibernation next season once they have a solid population.

Ok, because I really think that they don't need one right now because of how they are very active

[ANTdrew]

Crematogaster colonies I raise usually have several hundred workers by this point in the year. They hit six workers in the first week after nanitics arrive. This colony seems like it has been severely neglected. It will need a lot of TLC to get back to where it should be.

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

Crematogaster colonies I raise usually have several hundred workers by this point in the year. They hit six workers in the first week after nanitics arrive. This colony seems like it has been severely neglected. It will need a lot of TLC to get back to where it should be.

Hmmm, ok, I guess extra attention for them! ( I was going to give them extra attention but I was scared that they would not eat all of the food I give)

They are not hungry right now because they have only one larva and a few eggs

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

Ok, so the workers and the queen have now slowed down and are huddling together in a circle, what do I do, should I put them in hibernation, AntDrew said that I could keep them going for the whole winter but they only laid one extra egg ever since I have got them.

 

They also stopped accepting the food I give them and have stopped guarding the entrance and doing "crematogaster" things all together.

Edited by OwlThatLikesAnts, November 7 2024 - 6:36 AM.

[1tsm3jack]

You could hibernate them, but I’m pretty sure that fridge temps aren’t really good for them, if I’m wrong ANTdrew will correct me but I’m pretty sure you can just take them off heat and put them in maybe a slightly colder room in your house.

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

You could hibernate them, but I’m pretty sure that fridge temps aren’t really good for them, if I’m wrong ANTdrew will correct me but I’m pretty sure you can just take them off heat and put them in maybe a slightly colder room in your house.

They are not on heat, I do not have any heating sources because I use sunlight to heat them up, but recently the room was getting colder and they did not mind it, but now it is warmer again and they are starting to slow down

 

also, I put my ants in my garage for hibernation

Edited by OwlThatLikesAnts, November 7 2024 - 9:10 AM.

[ANTdrew]

You will need an artificial heat source to keep them active through winter. If you don’t have one, go ahead and hibernate them. 45-50 degrees is a good temperature range, but they are quite cold hardy.

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

You will need an artificial heat source to keep them active through winter. If you don’t have one, go ahead and hibernate them. 45-50 degrees is a good temperature range, but they are quite cold hardy.

ok Thanks

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

So I have followed Ant Drew’s advice and they really don’t care about not having a diapause, the queen really enjoys guarding the nest entrance but she gets scared every time I put my tweezers in there to clean garbage.

She was also laying eggs but not many because of how she was guarding the entrance, but recently she decided not to be a timid security guard and to go into the the test tube and shred the cotton and by doing that she decided that she would lay way more eggs. Now there are 3 times more eggs than before, I think that some larva have finally hatched but I am unsure.

Other than that the colony is doing very good.

 

(I will post pictures later, for I need to take some)

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

Update time!

 

So I have not been updating because of how I thought that not much was going to happen and I would just end up hibernating them because of how they suddenly slowed down after giving them food and also how 2 workers suddenly dropped dead, little did I know…. One day, I noticed an egg hatched an turned into a tiny larva because of how I was giving them more constant heat, after a couple days, many eggs had hatched and I gave them a lot of small plant flies and a bunch of fruit flies. They ended up just eating it and feeding it to the queen, so I thought the larva would not grow. So I kept them on heat for a bit but no progress with the larva. If you thought that was what happened, well….. you’re wrong…. because literally the next day, one of the larva grew bigger, bigger 2 days later, now it is 2/3 the size of the worker and I think it is still in it’s 2nd approaching its 3rd instar. Right now, that larva is getting all of the attention because of how the workers are too small to move it and only the queen is able to. I am at school right now and I just finished an exam and have nothing to do so I am writing this journal entry, but this morning when I looked into my ant’s tube I noticed queen Ava (that is her name now) holding a more or less big larva, probably the second largest one so that means I am going to have a small population jump!

 

I will do a small photo dump when I get home to show the size difference between the larva then and now

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

Update Time!!

 

​So a lot of things has passed since the last time I updated, My Crematogaster has been doing the same thing as always, eating fungus gnats and the occasional spider. usually I feed them stuff from outside but it’s winter  

They had a die off where two of the workers died of old age and one died because of me   (I crushed her when changing nests…)

Actually, one thing that changed a lot is the fact that they changed from a test tube to a 3D printed nest, it’s basically a replacement for a test tube.

After that. They ended up with only one worker and the queen, but luckily for them a new worker was right around the corner to enclose, after a couple of days, the worker enclosed and it was a small grey nanitic! (because she grew up on fungus gnats) She stayed grey for three days before she turned black.

I then noticed that there was no way for them to get water, so I decided to make a small water feeder accessory for my out world, so I took some vinyl tubing, some small plastic tubing and finally some hot glue and cotton and voila, a small water feeder accessory for my ants  I also wanted to liven up my ants outworld so I glued together a structure of dark brown wood chips and fake moss.

Now, as I write a small brown pupa is turning brown and I expect it to pupate in 1- 4 days.

That concludes today’s update, here’s some photos:

 

 

​

 

These photos are not very recent, I will most likely post more recent photos when the next worker comes

[AntsND]

Beautiful queen!

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

Beautiful queen!

Thanks!, she was my dream species to keep that is native to Canada and I am very happy with how easy they are to raise

[ANTdrew]

You will need a more consistent protein source for them to thrive. Freeze a bunch of crickets from the pet store or consider raising mealworms.