18 replies to this topic

[jo16]

When I woke up this morning and looked at my pavement ant colonies I was surprised to find workers! I had checked on my queens the previous day and their hadn't been a single worker, what was weird is that today multiple of my colonies had workers, around five out of twenty colonies now have workers, so what I'm saying is that they all must have had workers on the same day, is that not weird? it took almost to months for them to develop into workers and I didn't catch them all on the same day. Any way it's pretty exiting to finely see some workers. Here are some pictures of on of my colonies.

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[jo16]

Apologies for the bad quality.

[Artisan_Ants]

Congrats! I also have a few young tetra colonies. Make sure to feed them well because they grow fast!

[RushmoreAnts]

It is not unusual for queens exposed to the same conditions to get workers on the same day. Happens all the time. The 'weird' thing is that it took 2 months for them to develop. Normal Tetra development is around 3 weeks. Were they heated properly? Two months is insanely slow.

[jo16]

ya, I haven't heated them much because I only have a heating pad and that seems to warm, I wouldn't want to cook them to death.

I am trying to figure out a way to heat them.

If you have any suggestions then please tell.

[jo16]

I also live in the basement so its not particularly warm.

[RushmoreAnts]

They should be 80 - 90 degrees F (25 - 30 C) in order for them to grow at their full potential.

[jo16]

I understand, but I don't know what to heat them with.

[ANTdrew]

Get a 15 watt heat cable or turn down air conditioning.

[RushmoreAnts]

Do you have a garage or shed you can keep them in?

[jo16]

I don't have space in my garage for them right now but I'm moving soon so I might in the near future. 

[jo16]

I figured out a way to heat them so now I am, before when I was heating them their hydration chamber kept flooding so I only put part of the test tube on the heating pad and that seemed to work so I guess that fixed the problem. 

[jo16]

Yesterday I gave some of my colonies some sugar water and one of the nanitics went in the sugar water and I think it got stuck I tried to save it but it died, I don't know why it did that but I took the sugar water out after that, I can't help but think their was something I could've done to prevent it.

[ANTdrew]

Soak sugar water into cotton or paper towel pieces to prevent drownings. Better yet, get liquid feeders.

[jo16]

Ok, thanks.

I can't use a feeder yet cense they are all still in test tubes but I will use cotton next time.

[ANTdrew]

Open the test tube and put it in an outworld.

[jo16]

I will with some, but I have 19 colonies, I will try to sell some of them.

I was also wondering what kind of material I could use for an ant nest, because the colony I have had for a wile is almost to big for my test tube, I have herd that I can use clay or concrete, is that true? 

[cooIboyJ]

I would go to hobby lobby if you have one in your region and buy Hobby Lobby Perfect Cast; it works very well for nests and is hard so ants can't chew through. I think UtahAnts has a good tutorial on this forum but I can't find it right now. Good luck with your colony!!

[jo16]

Thanks!