56 replies to this topic

[dspdrew]

Update 6-24-2015
 
All the new queens are doing well so far; I haven't had any deaths since the last update. I actually haven't had hardly any deaths at all. Most of them seem to be keeping their eggs in nice neat piles. The queen that wouldn't dig a nest finally did after I made a little hole with a barbeque skewer. I guess that was all she needed. There are now a total of eleven queens living in the ant farm boxes, one being the older colony with workers already.

[dspdrew]

Update 8-7-2015
 
Almost all the colonies have workers now. There has only been a couple deaths. A few of the ones in the dirt boxes are doing really well, with a few workers and a lot of brood. The original colony has about 15 workers now. I moved a few of the ones in test tubes to some small foraging containers. Since these are doing better than I had planned, I'll probably have too many to properly take care of, so I think I'll be selling a couple of these colonies.
 

 

 

 

 

 

[dspdrew]

Update 10-14-2015
 
These are still doing well. I had one queen die in one of the last colonies in the little test tube containers, so I put the two workers she left behind in with another colony without chilling them or anything, and they immediately got along with them just fine--no aggression at all from any of them.

 

I now have all the colonies living in the small dirt boxes.

[klawfran3]

Will these guys make repletes like other Myrmecocystus?

[dspdrew]

As far as I know, yes.

[yen_saw]

Looking good! Wish i live close enough for me to buy a colony from you.

[dspdrew]

Update 1-15-2016
 
I have seven colonies of these left. They all are doing well and continuing to grow. A few are quite a bit larger than the rest, and one of those looks like it might be starting to get its first replete too.
 
All seven colonies have been put into hibernation in my new "hibernation cabinet".
 

[dspdrew]

Update 4-4-2016
 
I just took these out of hibernation last week. I sold one colony, and one lost their queen. The other five look like they're doing fine.

[dspdrew]

Update 5-17-2016
 
I just found six more of these queens in Angelus Oaks, CA, on 5-12-2016. I just put them all in test tubes.

[dspdrew]

Update 5-25-2016
 
A few of the new queens have died, leaving me with four. I moved one of them into a vacant "dirt box". The three remaining queens are still in test tubes. They all have small piles of eggs now.

[Foogoo]

Any update? Both of the two I have remaining each have two workers.

[Saftron]

Myrmecocystus Testaceus is my dream colony, they do live in my area but I've never seen any colonies of any ants besides Tetramorium and Argentine ants. The drought hasn't been helping either, I don't know when to look for queens or where it's like the bay area is a death zone for all other species besides tetramorium and argentines. Ill probably have to stick with tetramorium for the rest of my hobby sadly I really wanted to find some cool species like Camponotus, formica, pheidole, Myrmecocystus, crematogaster basically any type of ant besides Argentine ants and tetramorium. Argentine ants don't even have nuptial flights so my interest in this hobby probably won't last as long and when I got bored of my colony Ill let them go and spray the wild argentine ant colony around me so they have a higher chance of living..

[dspdrew]

Unfortunately there haven't been hardly any mating flghts in California this summer.

[dspdrew]

Update 11-20-2016

 

All I have now is my older colony, which hasn't really changed at all since the last update. I just put them into hibernation.

[SamKeepsAnts]

Myrmecocystus Testaceus is my dream colony, they do live in my area but I've never seen any colonies of any ants besides Tetramorium and Argentine ants. The drought hasn't been helping either, I don't know when to look for queens or where it's like the bay area is a death zone for all other species besides tetramorium and argentines. Ill probably have to stick with tetramorium for the rest of my hobby sadly I really wanted to find some cool species like Camponotus, formica, pheidole, Myrmecocystus, crematogaster basically any type of ant besides Argentine ants and tetramorium. Argentine ants don't even have nuptial flights so my interest in this hobby probably won't last as long and when I got bored of my colony Ill let them go and spray the wild argentine ant colony around me so they have a higher chance of living..

Argentine ants do have nuptial flights only some mate in the nest

[gcsnelling]

when I got bored of my colony Ill let them go and spray the wild argentine ant colony around me so they have a higher chance of living..

You should never release a captive colony.

[Vendayn]

 

when I got bored of my colony Ill let them go and spray the wild argentine ant colony around me so they have a higher chance of living..

You should never release a captive colony.

 

Outside of releasing non-native ants (which is a very bad thing to do), and depending on if not if the ants would naturally be found in the area if there wasn't Argentine ants or another invasive ants. So like taking Camponotus modoc up from Northern California, bringing them to Southern California is also bad. But, taking a local ant or an ant that would be there if not for invasive ants and releasing it...

 

I'm pretty sure the governments of the world spraying for mosquitoes do way more harm to the environment by an immense amount more, than someone releasing a native ant. Which doesn't harm the environment in any way.

 

More than likely, Argentine ants would kill them anyway if Antkeeper has to spray for them. And if by chance the captive colony got a 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001 chance of some weird disease only found in captivity. Good riddance, hope it infects the Argentine ants!

 

I personally release native ants. Not like they can do any harm than Solenopsis invicta and Argentine ants. And people do way more harm to a huge range of creatures and wildlife killing mosquitoes than anything else. The environment around me isn't even natural anyway, its all terraformed human made urban environment. However, I only release native ants I find in walking distance. I don't release ants I get out in the desert or even local mountains. Since that isn't very natural, and I'd say that makes them not native to the local area. I'd say releasing is completely fine, but ONLY if they are native to the local area.

Edited by Vendayn, November 30 2016 - 6:56 PM.

[dspdrew]

Update 3-16-2017

 

I just pulled this colony out of hibernation today. The "dirt box" looked a little dry, and I think a few workers may have died.

[1b7h2]

one month later and still waiting for a update

[dspdrew]

Update 9-22-2017

 

This colony died a few months back. Not sure why I never updated the journal.