172 replies to this topic

[dean_k]

If a colony accepts Blue 100, I will certainly give it to them. After all, it is much cleaner and I have more control. I will certainly try Blue 100 on Lasius and future colonies I will be getting.

 

But as for this specific colony is concerned, I won't be trying Blue 100 for weeks. I feel they made it clear that they don't want it, for now.

Edited by dean_k, December 18 2014 - 10:06 PM.

[Crystals]

Those worms are mostly water, so the Myrmica have an easier time getting the good stuff.  If they don't eat it, it also evaporates pretty quick.

If they are taking this much protein at once, then watch for the queens to start laying batches of eggs.  They usually start again once the original brood starts eclosing.

[Myrmicinae]

 

Are you guys speaking of Myrmica rubra? I want to see those as well. The colony that Antscanada had on his channel were amazing. 

Myrmica rubra are not found in Canada, I am not even sure if they are anywhere in North America.

This is a list of Myrmica species in Alberta: http://www.antweb.or...ect=albertaants

I haven't put a worker under the microscope to ID them 100%.  I think most of the ones I have are Myrmica latifrons. I haven't post pictures because most of them are either for sale, or already sold and just waiting better weather for shipping.  I keep them in the test tubes as long as I can, as it is easy to move them, and they do very well in test tubes with an attached outworld.

 

 

They actually are present in some parts of Canada, as well as the United States.  Take a look at this article:

 

http://www.for.gov.b...s/fire_ants.htm

[dean_k]

Myrmica is really hard to ID. I tried to ID the ants I have with the link Crystals provided but I couldn't tell and I've been looking at them with a microscope pretty much everyday.

[dean_k]

After their massive buffet around a week ago, they've been steadily taking the worms.They ate 5 on the first day. 3 the next day, and then 2 ...

 

Now I simply toss a small worm into the outworld and they play with it until they are ready to eat it. They bring worms to queen's chamber and prevent it from crawling out. When they are ready to eat, they bite the crap out of it and suck its content.

 

I also gave them their first mealworm today which they duly devoured.

 

This video is the first one I took with my new Canon Powershot SX700 HS. My old camera was Canon Powershot A510 which is 9 years old. I had no idea digital camera could take video as well! When I read that, I ditched the idea of buying a camcorder.

 

 

Edited by dean_k, December 23 2014 - 5:52 PM.

[dean_k]

Just 2 videos to share.

 

The first one is about a newly born worker trying to have a maggot all for herself. I just throw a small maggot a day into the outworld and they do the rest. They catch it and bring it to queen's chamber and let it crawl around until they decide to eat it.

 

 

 

The 2nd vid is rather meaningless. It's just a simple video of showing the colony in an ideal situation. They do have a piece of mealworm to play with.

 

Edited by dean_k, December 26 2014 - 9:28 PM.

[DesertAntz]

How are you liking your Omninest now that you've had it for a while? 

[dean_k]

It's been 3 months now and I also have some experience in ant keeping and their behaviors now.

 

I will run down pros and cons.

 

Pro

 

1. The outworld can easily be cleaned completely since you can take it apart. It's much easier to dry as well.

 

2. Visibility. But it works both ways. Since the nest is so visible, you can see thing rotting much easier as well.

 

Con

 

1. It won't be an issue for big ants but for medium and small ants, the circle passageway has too much of a bump for ants to pass through with a load (Like insects and such). The Myrmica ants have had really hard times dragging stuff into queen's chamber. And their efforts to drag stuff around wasn't helped by the smooth surface that the plastic has because they were slipping A LOT with a load.

Therefore, I cannot recommend this nest for small species. Medium species size is bare minimum.

 

2. The nest is held together with plastic sticks with hooks. They are inherently brittle and tend to break fairly easily. The nest did come with 10 extra pieces, so I am sure AntsCanada is aware of this.

 

3, The distance between nest entrance and moisture foam: they are on the opposite side and ants will almost always favor to settle down by the foam, making the journey to outworld much longer. I am sure this will be less of a problem for a much bigger colony though. But my colony has to pass through 4 chambers and they take a lot of efforts to carry big loads into queen's chamber, again because of the bumps at each chamber entrance & exit and slippery floor.

 

4. I feel the moisture foam needs to be on the both side. The moisture gradient appears to be too big from one side to the other which, I feel, makes the ability to lock floors kind of pointless. The floor is too long and ants can get lost.

 

 

Conclusion for my colony:

 

I am considering relocating the colony to something smaller and something more neutral like Tar Heel Ants Hearth nest -> http://www.tarheelan...ria/hearth.html.

I do not like acrylic formicarium. Ants slip under high moisture.

 

You can see how much they slip from the video below at 14:00 and 20:50 mark.

 

Edited by dean_k, December 26 2014 - 10:31 PM.

[drtrmiller]

I enjoyed reading your synopsis.  I'm developing an acrylic nest, and all the problems you mentioned will be solved by my forthcoming design.

 

More details very, very soon.

[Gregory2455]

Yeah, actually Antscanada should have made those circular holes into notches on the floor...

[dspdrew]

Any plastic nest I make, I rough up the plastic so hey don't slip. Obviously a problem if you want it to be transparent.

[dean_k]

Ants have no problem dragging stuff as long as moiture is low. They begin to slip when moiture gets high.

 

I also forgot to mention but I found this out only after I started to give them pieces of mealworms.

 

Worms leak juice when cut (obviously) but this juice can dry out fairly quickly and it works like glue. Ants have had a hard time unstucking them and eventually gave up. I am sure this won't be an issue if you add a thin layer of substrate in outworld.

[drtrmiller]

But really, can you see any reason why those holes in the dividers between each column could not be tangent with the floor, from a design standpoint?

Edited by drtrmiller, December 27 2014 - 12:32 PM.

[dean_k]

But really, can you see any reason why those holes in the dividers between each column could not be tangent with the floor, from a design standpoint?

 

No idea really. It could easily have been a hindsight in the design. Regardless the bumps, ants are able to drag stuff into the queen's chamber, so the nest overall works. But it's sometimes painful to watch them trying to drag stuff into the nest, so I will be relocating them when I get a new formicarium.

[drtrmiller]

The nest I'm designing has three little humps in the chamber layout as a necessity to the design.  

 

I'll be implementing small ramps to allow ants of all sizes to crawl over these humps.  That should solve that problem.

[BugFinder]

  I keep roaches and crickets in my 10 gallon setup that houses my Camponotus colony, which end up eating all the scraps, so I have zero cleanup. 

 

You keep roaches and crickets with your ants?  I'd love to see a photo of your set up!

[drtrmiller]

 

  I keep roaches and crickets in my 10 gallon setup that houses my Camponotus colony, which end up eating all the scraps, so I have zero cleanup. 

 

You keep roaches and crickets with your ants?  I'd love to see a photo of your set up!

 

 

[dean_k]

Dec 31, 2014 update

 

The colony is doing fine. A worker died today but I believe it was natural death. She was found in a corner of outworld.

 

I took 3 close shots to perhaps ID this species.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Despite of a death, 3 workers eclosed and I see 2 mature pupae and few young pupae. 20+ larvae are present. Eggs are hidden under files of larvae by blue foam, so I can't really see other than white chunks.

The above video is pretty uneventful. It's just there to show how they are doing.

 

Below video is about my utter failure. I thought the ants could catch the fly but oh no no. The fly brilliantly avoided the ants by sticking to ceiling. After this, I froze another and gave it to them. They loved it.

 

 

 

[dean_k]

Just a video of them enjoying 2 fruit flies.

 

It seems flies are the best food for these because they can eat it at their pace. Worms go bad fairly quickly once dead and cut up. In the video, you can see 4! recently born workers. The larvae field seems to remain the same size which means eggs are somewhere and queens are laying eggs now and then. It's getting hard to track them because the plastic is dirty and it's getting harder to see.

 

[dean_k]

Jan 3, 2015

 

This is something I noticed as of late. These girls are drinking A LOT more than they used to. I used to refill the liquid feeder because I feared it might gone bad. Now I need to refill because it's near empty.

 

I am also using the old feeder from Byformica, not the Lightyear feeder. The Myrmica seem to like this feeder better. I see them going inside for a swim sometimes. I think they actually like swimming in there.

 

No video today but pictures.

 

I also intentionally did not clean the outworld for few days and you can see garbage filing up in far corner of the outworld. That is their garbage disposal site.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by dean_k, January 3 2015 - 3:45 PM.