11 replies to this topic

[klawfran3]

This is my first journal, and the first species I'm excited enough about to make a journal for.

On April 16th I found this queen under a rock just outside Laramie here and took her. She didn't have any brood or workers, but the night I brought her home and put her in the test tube she laid a cluster of eggs. Now I believe she has 8-12 eggs which I really hope are going to hatch soon. Here in Wyoming we had a freezing cold snap and she for sure would have died had I not found her, it went below freezing at night from a 75 degree day and has stayed in the 40s, and many of our native colonies have already left hibernation already so they're probably suffering a  bit.

 

So far she's accepted sunburst to drink and drank a TON the first day so she was definitely thirsty, and she went crazy for chicken I had for lunch the other day. She spent nearly an hour chewing on a piece of it. I offered crickets yesterday but I didn't see her eat any, so hopefully she ate a little.

 

The eggs were laid about two weeks ago so they should be hatching soon right? Maybe they have a while since Wyoming is normally extremely cold 9 months out of the year and has snowed every month of the year before. My buddy who grew up here said it's snowed July 4th and during August before!

 

Here are obligatory pics of her, they were used in my ID thread but I don't want to disturb her to get more until she has brood since I'll offer more food then.

Here she is picking up her eggs in a panic for a second before putting them back down again lol

Look at that cute face!

[klawfran3]

Update!

She has a few big larvae now, crazy how fast they're growing! I didn't get pics since I don't want to disturb her, but her larvae are quite large in only a few days. I'm thinking it might only take a week and a half for larval development which would be pretty cool!

Maybe if I offer food (could be a couple days) I'll get pic but I don't want to bother her too much since she's at an important stage in founding.

[klawfran3]

I bit the bullet but didn't move her, and just opened the closet door, took two pics, and closed it. I don't think I really disturbed her much at all but not going to take pics again until she has cocoons just to be on the safer side. A journal isn't fun without pics

[klawfran3]

Sad day, she's eaten all but one of her larvae, leaving what I believe was the biggest one she had left. Does anyone know why she would have done this? Definitely crushed my hopes for the colony now that she cannibalized her brood.

[T.C.]

Had a few formica do this as well. Typically they do it when they've been bothered too much. However other times they just do it because they felt like being a cannibal. Do you think you could get your hands on some cocoons of the same species from the wild? That would be your best chance of success in my opinion.

[klawfran3]

Had a few formica do this as well. Typically they do it when they've been bothered too much. However other times they just do it because they felt like being a cannibal. Do you think you could get your hands on some cocoons of the same species from the wild? That would be your best chance of success in my opinion.

I only bothered her every few days and even then it was only to look in real quick and then close the door so I don't think it was really stress, I guess i just have to wait until she feels like laying again. I can try and find the species but they're very uncommon around here, I'll try and dig some up saturday.

 

do they lay for you after theyve done this?

Edited by klawfran3, May 11 2017 - 9:58 PM.

[Jonathan21700]

Once hopefully she gets her first worker start feeding them as much as they want especially protein when they get larvae. I've had many Formica and they just don't do well and eat part of their brood if you don't feed them good amounts of food ( I feed mine almost every day). Also be sure to give them a founding nest or at least an outworld when they get their first workers as they make a mess in the test tube. Good luck!

[klawfran3]

Once hopefully she gets her first worker start feeding them as much as they want especially protein when they get larvae. I've had many Formica and they just don't do well and eat part of their brood if you don't feed them good amounts of food ( I feed mine almost every day). Also be sure to give them a founding nest or at least an outworld when they get their first workers as they make a mess in the test tube. Good luck!

I saw she laid a few more eggs when I was doing maintenance on a colony next to her so hopefully these hatch out. I fed her flies and chicken before so she should have ample enough protein stores to last without me feeding her again until her first workers.

 

Tomorrow I'm going to go out to find a colony of either the same or a similar species and dig up a few cocoons/ larvae if I can. Do you think she'd accept a similar species cocoon too? and how deep do you think I have to go to find them? If I brood boost her with wild ants perhaps she'll decide against eating her brood again.

Edited by klawfran3, May 12 2017 - 9:04 PM.

[T.C.]

No, I wouldn't get workers of a different species. Probably wouldn't work. Just look for cocoons and if you only find larvae give her like 2-4.

[klawfran3]

No, I wouldn't get workers of a different species. Probably wouldn't work. Just look for cocoons and if you only find larvae give her like 2-4.

I definitely wouldn't give any workers, but I would cocoons. I was wondering if she'd still accept cocoons from a similar species. I know the workers would kill her.

[klawfran3]

Just went out to look for queens and cocoons, couldn't find any cocoons at all (or larvae for that matter) but i did end up flipping a rock and finding a polygynous colony of the same species. I caught one of the queens (there were two or three) and a bunch of workers and set them up in a test tube setup. they're settling in at the moment but hopefully the queen lays. I have a Tarheel "little piece of haven" to use for them but it had it's glass shattered so I need to order a new pane before I can use it. Once I do though I'll get them in there so it's more natural and hopefully they adapt better to captivity. if they do end up settling in really well and start growing quick I might be able to brood boost my other queen if her larvae still keep getting eaten.

[klawfran3]

Her first workers eclosed finally, took a few months! The reason why is that she had gotten her first cocoons but I had to move, and the stress of moving into my new apartment caused her to cannibalize her larvae again. So I had to wait for an entirely new batch of brood to grow. Luckily I went on a month and a half long trip right after so she had no disturbances at ALL for a good month and a half, allowing her to have her first three or four workers eclose successfully. This has been the hardest colony I have ever founded just because of the timing of my personal life and moving. She seems to have a small pile of brood now that I hope will grow into more workers! I just moved her into a THA mini hearth.

 

She'll be getting lots of fruit flies soon since I'm setting up a dart frog viv and I need to have a constant culture of FFs to feed them, so looks like my ants are going to be super well fed from now on lol

 

Pics coming soon, I need to get a new flashlight before I do.