26 replies to this topic

[FelixTheAnter]

After needing to take a 1.5 year break from antkeeping due to overseas moves, I'm back at it!

There has been a major nuissance colony of what I believe is Tampinoma Erraticum living just outside the sliding back door of my new house. We have a portable AC unit that has a hose that goes outside, which means our back door is always slightly cracked for the hose. The door has a bug screen, but that isn't enough to stop the ants.


They recently had a nuptial flight, from which I managed to collect 13 queens. This species will gladly mate in a test tube if you put a male and female together. Some studies show that this species readily mate inside the nest and keep the newly mated queens (which I witnessed during their flight) so inbreeding apparently isn't a concern.


After the flight, they moved the colony under a nearby umbrella stand. I flipped it over and it turns out they were *in* the umbrella stand, which made it super easy to gently brush them all into a container with a paintbrush. I put the colony with the 13 queens collected several days prior (who had already started laying eggs) and let them get settled into test tubes.

Photo is from a different colony (or maybe a satellite nest) underneath a different umbrella stand on my patio



The tub was way too small for them, and 3 test tubes was not enough.



So they're being upgraded to 6 tubes in a larger tub.

From a quick count, I'm estimating that this colony has around 50 queens. The sheer amount of eggs they have in just one of the tubes is insane.



There are still more queens/workers/brood outside that I'm going to see if I can collect.

My plan is to either build or order a proper nest for them within the week. I haven't decided yet what I want to do, but am leaning towards building a ytong nest. This way I can drill custom holes for the heat cable, as these guys are insanely thermophillic. They love to stack their brood directly on top of the hot cable. Also, most nests you can buy lay flat on a table, and I really want a vertical nest.

Anyways, I'm super excited to watch this colony develop! I've always LOVED these massive super-colonies, I can't wait to see how big this one gets.

Here's one more picture showing both a queen and a drone.


(Edited title to reflect a more accurate queen count)

Edited by FelixTheAnter, May 24 2025 - 10:43 AM.

[JesseTheAntKid]

50 QUEENS??? That's insane, you're gonna need to keep up big-time lol.

[FelixTheAnter]

And I immediately have an update, because I wrote this post this morning before I checked the umbrella stand again.

The colony is even more massive than I thought.




From a quick count I'd say there's probably another 75 queens in here...and a bunch more still outside.

I'm going to take the 3 original test tubes i put this colony in, cover them, and put them outside next to the umbrella stand. Maybe if I'm lucky they'll recognize their nest scent and move in by themselves, we'll see.

I'm so excited, I've always dreamed of having a massive supercolony like this.

[FelixTheAnter]

50 QUEENS??? That's insane, you're gonna need to keep up big-time lol.

Apparently we can more than double that number haha!!

I'm so ready for it, sugarwater costs next to nothing & fruit flies breed like crazy. Already got 3 fruit fly cultures started, might also get some dubia's. We'll see.

The biggest hassle will be getting a nest that works for them, but honestly I really enjoyed making ytong nests in the past. I just checked the hardware store today, and they have HUGE ytong bricks. And I've been needing an excuse to get a dremel since moving to this country, so...

[JesseTheAntKid]

125 queens is CRAZY work. At this point, you might need your entire living room for a nest. Have fun.

[FelixTheAnter]

Thankfully they are quite tiny ants, if they were Camponotus sized this wouldn't be possible! But I am ready to sacrifice my living room if needed haha

[JesseTheAntKid]

"Farewell big TV, you have served me well." - FelixTheAnter, 2025

[FelixTheAnter]

Decided to build a nest instead of buying one! Been really wanting a good reason to get a Dremel anyways.

Got a dremel, ytong, big sheet of plexiglass, some paint, etc.





Made good progress today, hopefully can have it finished within a few days.



Super excited to get this thing done!

Edited by FelixTheAnter, May 24 2025 - 10:27 AM.

[Ants_Dakota]

Rip Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker. Other than that, looks good!

[FelixTheAnter]

Rip Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker. Other than that, looks good!

I ended up using a regular tipped sharpie but it also was NOT good for that one haha.

[ColAnt735]

That is a lot of eggs! How many workers do you estimate there are in this colony? Must be at least a couple hundred.Also, which of the dremel’s drill bits are you using for the ytong nest? It looks really good! I’d like to know because whenever I try my hand at making DIY nests the chambers look like I used a jackhammer to carve them out.

Edited by ColAnt735, May 24 2025 - 1:10 PM.

[FelixTheAnter]

That is a lot of eggs! How many workers do you estimate there are in this colony? Must be at least a couple hundred.Also, which of the dremel’s drill bits are you using for the ytong nest? It looks really good! I’d like to know because whenever I try my hand at making DIY nests the chambers look like I used a jackhammer to carve them out.

I'm using the wall tile cutting attachment, you can see the box for it in one of the pictures in my last post it basically turns the dremel into a router!

In the past I've used something like the 952 grinding bit, which worked okay but took forever. This thing cuts through it like butter, and you can lock in a specific depth. Absolutely obsessed with this tool.

I can't wait to finish this nest. It's turning out pretty okay considering it's my first time using this attachment and my first time carving ytong in a couple years!

Depending on how crazy I want to get, I might even recess the entire nesting area by about 2mm so the plexiglass is flush with the surface of the ytong. We'll see. That might have been easier to do before starting the carving.

Regarding worker count, I'm not sure. I'd say at least a few hundred? Half of their test tubes are covered though, so I can't see a lot of them. I've been trying to take off the covers but my hands get absolutely covered in tiny, angry ants every time haha

[FelixTheAnter]

Finished carving tunnels, they're about 8mm deep (after sanding)



Used a flat hand sander to go over the entire surface, especially the front to make sure it's super flat. I'd prefer not to have to silicone the plexiglass, if possible. We'll see - I always do a test with some workers before introducing a full colony.

Lots of dust! Proper PPE is important



Drilled three holes through the nest for the heat cable


Entrances in the top left and right corners


A larger chamber for water, for hydrating the nest. I've learned the hard way to do a water test at this point - if you've gone too close to the nest chambers, water will leak through. This one passed the test


Gave the entire thing a good spray in the shower, because no amount of vacuuming will get all the dust removed.

It's now in front of a fan to dry. Next step is to cut the plexiglass, paint the entire thing (except the chambers the ants are in, of course), pre-drill/screw the plexiglass in place, and test with some workers if the plexiglass is as flush as I'm hoping it will be. Might be able to finish today, we will see! Only thing is that I don't have any silicone, so if I end up needing that, I'm stuck waiting until tomorrow to finish up. Everything is closed on Sundays in my part of Europe.

Edited by FelixTheAnter, May 25 2025 - 5:30 AM.

[FelixTheAnter]

Almost done!



Also caught another 20ish queens and some workers/brood from under the umbrella stand yesterday. I think I've hit an infinity glitch in the matrix at this point

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

You’ve found an infinite ant glitch!

[RushmoreAnts]

You’ve found an infinite ant glitch!

Tapinoma as well as Solenopsis molesta among others breed in the nest, and often have 100s of queens.

[ps004ynos]

Neat! That's a lot of queens!

[FelixTheAnter]

Nest is done!

It wasn't quite as perfectly flat as I'd been hoping, so I went ahead and siliconed the plexiglass to it.

Put the entrance tube into their tub, with some olive oil around the outside of it. They hate olive oil and won't touch it, it seems be a better barrier for them than talc powder.



Did the tried and true "dump em out" method when they weren't interested in moving out of their tubes.



To which they decided they'd simply move some of the colony into the new nest, keep some in the tub, but move *most* of the colony to the silicone tube.



Also, I ended up attaching the heat cable to the front of the nest, because unfortunately it was causing too much condensation on the plexiglass when it was in the holes I'd drilled inside the nest.

I thought maybe removing their tub would be a good way to get them to move to the nest, since they seemed to view the entire tub (and therefore the tube) as their nest.

Built them a nice outworld. Replaced the tube with a fresh one. Covered the nest, put a bright light on the outworld. Left the house for several hours.

Came back home to this!





Peeked into the nest, some have moved in, but the vast majority of the colony is again in the tube that leads to the nest



C'mon girls. I put so much work into this nest :')

For now I will leave them be, but give some food in the outworld. Going to leave the light on & the nest covered overnight. Let's see what I wake up to...not getting my hopes up tho lol

[ANTdrew]

Myrmy’s Law. Ants will always do what you don’t want or expect them to do.

[FelixTheAnter]

Seems about right. If they really insist that they hate their new nest, I will have to think up something else. For now it's not a big deal if they want to be in the tube, but it's not ideal long term. I am, however, gently harassing the ones in the outworld with a soft brush. Seems to be helping at least move them out of there.