14 replies to this topic

[benjiwuf]

So after deciding to wait on getting some ants i happened across hundreds of queens running under my feet on my way into work. I didn't really think about it, i just grabbed as many as i had time for. I caught somewhere around 20 of these queens that day. Each queen laid a large batch of eggs by the second day, roughly the size of their thorax and most a laid a few more than that.

So now i was back into the ant collecting hobby whether i (or better yet my fiancè) liked it or not haha. Now that that was settled, i've since moved two queens into two of my byformica grotubes. I didn't really be gentle since i carried one queen around with me for 3 days or so not realizing it (i hid her in my backpack). She went without food or water as i had her in my small capturing tube.

So i dumped her into the nest and tried to move her eggs in too. That was pretty tricky, and now they're stuck to the acrylic. She knows they're there though and is taking care of them anyway the other queen i moved doesn't have any eggs as she was my first attempt (I may have squished them all in the process). So right now i have most queens in the bedstand drawer with the two grotubes on top.

The queen without eggs is by far more comfortable as she is currently blocking up the entrance with some medium i put in. However both seem really happy. I'll uplaod pictures of them all in a few minutes.

 

Edited by benjiwuf, December 10 2016 - 6:50 AM.

[drtrmiller]

What's with the colors?

[benjiwuf]

On the cotton? Yea i needed cotton so i asked my fiancée to pick some up since she was shopping at the time. I happen to only have colored cotton balls now.

Edit: also i should add i can't drive here right now so i have to be a little more flexible than normal. Lol

Edited by benjiwuf, July 16 2016 - 7:33 PM.

[benjiwuf]

since i updated my other two, i'll give a quick write up here also. all my Lasius queens are doing well and seem quite content. the one queen in the glow in the dark grotube has blocked off the entrance up to about 80% now and seems quite content cleaning herself. the queen in the other grotube has since moved her eggs off the acrylic, only to move them almost to the exact same spot on the acrylic again. the egg pile seems a little bit larger also so maybe she has laid some more.

[benjiwuf]

I'm quite surprised by these queens. It seems they have been laying eggs non stop (every single one). They all now have egg piles roughly 2 or 3 mm in diameter now. Even the one queen whose eggs i squished now has a sizable pile. I might have to think about what to do with them all sooner than i had imagined. However all in all they're all doing wonderfully.

[sgheaton]

Hahaha....Such a good problem to have..... I'm there with you in not knowing what to do with all the queens. I'm down to 11 though I only have 4 set ups in mind- and as it it, only one of those actually built. Some good news that you have about 2-3 weeks until you have to be ready to go so you've got some time still

[benjiwuf]

So i've since lost 2 queens. one was in the glow in the dark Grotube, the other was in a test tube. i've since given all eggs to another queen that looked healthiest. this puts my count at 17 now. the rest seem to be doing really well and continue to lay eggs. most piles now are closing in on the size of the queen themselves. no photos until i see nanitics though as there really isn't much to see.

[benjiwuf]

These queens are all doing well. most have rather large piles of larvae now, and some have spun cocoons. i also found some wild brood from colonies similar to the colony closest to where i found these queens. i've since given some almost hatched larvae to 3 of these queens. two queens were extremely hesitant, and a third was overjoyed with the new brood. so i wondered how much she would take. i hooked up her test tube to a tube with roughly 30 larvae, and she took every last one into her tube. within hours one worker eclosed and started helping out. it's been a little over 2 days since then, and she now has roughly 6 full sized workers, with many more on the way. there has been absolutely no fighting either. so now i'm working on transferring her and the new workers into a formicarium.

 

 

Edited by benjiwuf, August 6 2016 - 12:22 AM.

[benjiwuf]

I typically don't like to update journals so often, but I feel these queens deserve it. I've seen in the last few days quite a difference between all of them. Quite a few queens have roughly a dozen pupae all wrapped up in cocoons for the last few days. Some have only large larvae, one has only small eggs that are scattered a bit, and one queen still has both wings and caught up to the first group with cocoons even after starting a week later. Then there is the special queen who adopted roughly 20 pupae ready to eclose, which has since her first workers eclosed has managed to have her workers collect every single last pupa they could find (last count was over 20 workers, with roughly 30-50 more pupa pretty close to eclosing from several wild colonies). The differences in growth and rearing capabilities is astounding. One queen i gave 3 pupae to also thought it was better to eat 2 of them than have the workers. The only other queen i gave them to has since killed the only one pupa that eclosed into a worker after it was past being a callow, and then seperated half of the remaining pupae. Tomorrow i will take a short video of the queen that found the pupae absolutely wonderful since they're exploding in population now (new eggs every day, not just eclosing wild pupae).

 

Edit: also the two queens whose eggs I squished by forcing them out of test tubes into various new setups have also almost caught up to the queens with cocooned pupae. I find it crazy that they are still doing so well even after being sabotaged and lost the resources from their first batch of eggs.

 

Edited by benjiwuf, August 9 2016 - 1:13 AM.

[benjiwuf]

so i made up a batch of ant food based on the same research as etherwolf's ant diet, and his instructions with a few alterations. within minutes the Lasius colony in the formicarium went bananas. i mean i only ever see 1 or 2 ants out foraging ever no matter what i've given them. now there's a permanent posting of 6 eating with roughly 3 more searching for more (all within 10 minutes or so). so i decided to give some to the queens that i haven't boosted. there again within minutes they were practically glued to the food. that being said it's time to update what these queens are up to.

 

so i lost 2 more queens since the last update, but the rest have very healthy piles of brood and each have roughly two dozen pupae. the colony in the formicarium have had quite a few die offs, i'm sure it's due to boosting with brood from a few colonies. however i have noticed something interesting. the dead ants are not discarded, but rather recycled by being fed to the larvae. only when they're all dried up are they discarded. the pile of eggs is now 2 to 3 times the size of the queen with roughly 30 larvae in the formicarium also.

 

 

edit: realized why it was highly accepted, i left out most of the protein. so this batch is mostly honey/agar/water/vitamins with a touch of protein. *sigh* will try another batch tomorrow.

Edited by benjiwuf, August 16 2016 - 9:39 AM.

[benjiwuf]

so...another update! 3 of my queens now have at least 1 nanitic each, two have 2 nanitics. the last queen in the Grotube has also died, but upon closer inspection she had mites so i assume they eventually killed her. i will have to thoroughly clean and sterilize that Grotube now before it's next intended use for Formica. I can only assume that the other two queens also had mites which is why the others didn't work out either. the rest must not be far behind with nanitics on the way. In the meantime here are some photos.

 

Edited by benjiwuf, August 22 2016 - 7:59 AM.

[benjiwuf]

So. every colony now has at least a dozen workers (most have more). they all seem quite healthy and energetic. Other than that, nothing really new has happened. Although i do have some nice pictures and a video showing active recruitment to my ant food. The blue food is mostly sugar with a little bit of protein added, and the orange is a high sugar high protein blend.

 

 

Edited by benjiwuf, September 5 2016 - 1:37 AM.

[benjiwuf]

So, these girls are all still laying eggs like crazy. No signs of preparing for hibernation yet. Although i'll probably only give them to the end of November at latest. No more deaths to report, and all colonies seem to be doing well.

[benjiwuf]

Most of these queens (really all but one colony) are currently in hibernation so this is more of a single colony update. This colony i boosted absolutely refuses to stop producing eggs! every time I think "perfect, they're finally ready" the queen cranks out another 100+ eggs give or take. They're all doing quite well, although the boosted workers seem to be dying off or escaping (it's hard to tell since this colony cannibalizes it's dead no matter how much protein they are given). So these girls are all staying also in a cool room, but fed rather regularly.

 

[benjiwuf]

So update for this colony since I took some photos of a few newly eclosed nanitics. Things are going well, and I have also not hibernated the large colony this year. Everything seems to be going well with a large pile of new eggs every 3-4 weeks (I mean a seriously large pile! I honestly can't believe sometimes how many eggs a single Lasius queen can lay). No mites in this colony and i estimate that the worker count is above 50 at least (too many moving bodies to count). I spent a bit of time taking some photos so there's a bunch.