Solenopsis invicta- New ant keeper

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EffinBatman

Solenopsis invicta- New ant keeper

Post: # 9344Post EffinBatman
Sat Jul 30, 2016 7:58 pm

I will add pics as I get them.


Many moons ago I decided that I wanted to have an ant farm. So I did the normal thing and bought a plaster uncle miltons type farm. Ordered my ants and was very excited to watch them.

The ants arrived and I put them in the fridge for a bit and then put them into the farm. It was amazing. I fed them honey and mustard seeds and things like that. I sprayed the back of the nest twice a day to keep it moist.

Bam mold was my new best friend. Wife wasn't happy with a moldy ant thing in the house and after the ants died out the door it went.

Not to be deterred a few months later I bought a gel farm. Nothing could go wrong with that right ? They can live off that and they stay in there and I don't have to water them !! It was cool for a bit and then they all died also.

I decided that I would have to have a real colony and started doing he research to find out how that was done. I watched every AntsCanada video there was. I knew that this was what I wanted.

After ordering test tubes from Amazon and setting them up I was ready to catch a queen !! I walked nightly and in the day with vials in my pocket looking starting in February of 2016. I had three vials in each of the cars and kept ready ones in the house in case I needed to run out in a friends car.

February came and went with no queens. March came and I caught something !! It died within a week and I'm not even sure it was a queen. April rolled through with nothing and I was getting discouraged. By May I wasn't even looking anymore. " I guess ants are not for me " was my thoughts.

Then came June the 5th. Here I was sitting outside next to the pool at a birthday party in 90 degree weather and low and behold I see what looks like queens walking around the pool. I run to the car and grab my vials and head back. I pick up three of them. Put them back in the cars glovebox and finish out the party.

When I got home I put all three into new vials of water ( the old ones had lots of moisture in them and I did t want any eggs or babies to down.)

I'm so excited I check them daily. Then realizing that's not what I should do I just leave them. Three weeks in and one dies. I know this happens but I'm still sad.


Right around 4 weeks after capture I notice that there is eggs in the vials !! I run to tell the wife and she's excited that I'm a new " ant daddy " as she calls it.

I order some tubing and some connectors from the ant Canada store and get ready for the action here !!
Then I wait.
And I wait.

Then I get my first set of workers !! This is so exciting I want to throw meal worms and frogs and hippos and all kinds of things in there for them to eat.
But I wait.

I take a weeks vacation and leave the ants to themselves. When I come back I have two test tubes with queens eggs larve workers and cotton being pulled.

I have meal worms in the freezer already for this !! I take them out cut them into thirds and place on foil for the test tubes. Add a little drop of honey cause why not.

They love it all. I empty the old food and worm shells and plug it back up. I wait two days and do it again. They rush to eat again.

And that brings us to today. I currently have both colonies in test tubes on a book shelf with a pair of pants covering them. A heating coil near the tubing near the end of the test tubes. I have a small put world ready for when my floun arrives in the mail. I'm just trying to decide when they will be ready. And when I can start on my second out world cause I don't want them sharing.

EB
RIFA keeper in the panhandle.

EffinBatman

Re: Solenopsis invicta- New ant keeper

Post: # 9352Post EffinBatman
Sun Jul 31, 2016 1:30 am

Came home from work on 7/30 to find that I used too much honey and that I lost 3 workers in one test tube and 2 in the second.

I'm not sure my test tube has enough water or if I used to much cotton and they are having issues getting to it. I think tomorrow ill set up a new test tube and attach them so they can move if they want to. Should I make it sugar water ? Maybe ill set up a water one and a sugar water one and attach with a 4 way tube connector. Pics tomorrow morning.

Exels1

Re: Solenopsis invicta- New ant keeper

Post: # 9353Post Exels1
Sun Jul 31, 2016 2:25 am

Great story keep it coming!

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Batspiderfish
Posts: 3315
Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2016 3:47 pm
Location: Maine

Re: Solenopsis invicta- New ant keeper

Post: # 9355Post Batspiderfish
Sun Jul 31, 2016 7:45 am

Do not use sugar water in test tube setups unless your colony is huge and drinks that much. Best case scenario, the sugar will be broken down by microbes. Worst case scenario is lots of mold. Soak your sugar rations in tiny cotton wads to help prevent workers form becoming stuck.

Solenopsis like to try to burrow into cotton despite how much water there is. It only becomes a problem if they get really deep. If you want to give them access to an out world, you can use talcum powder mixed with rubbing alcohol and paint that along the edges of the foraging arena. This will work for a little while, but with Solenopsis invicta, you will definitely want to use the fluon eventually (make sure no ants are in the out world when you apply fluon).
If you enjoy my expertise and identifications, please do not put wild populations at risk of disease by releasing pet colonies. We are responsible to give our pets the best care we can manage for the rest of their lives.

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idahoantgirl
Posts: 1521
Joined: Sat Sep 12, 2015 11:52 am
Location: Idaho, USA

Re: Solenopsis invicta- New ant keeper

Post: # 9369Post idahoantgirl
Sun Jul 31, 2016 7:05 pm

cool! I have a solenopsis molesta queen, but I will probably euthanize her later because I don't really want solenopsis.
Proverbs 6:6-8

Go to the ant, you sluggard;
consider its ways and be wise!
It has no commander,
no overseer or ruler,
yet it stores its provisions in summer
and gathers its food at harvest.

Keeping Tetramorium immigrans, Tapinoma Sessile

EffinBatman

Re: Solenopsis invicta- New ant keeper

Post: # 9370Post EffinBatman
Sun Jul 31, 2016 7:19 pm

Fluon has been ordered from another ant site ( sorry but I had too ) should be receiving tomorrow some time. I have an out world all set up with the smaller tubing option so I can easily connect it to my current test tube set up. I used an old cricket keeper I bought for the purpose of testing barriers.

When I bought it I tried both olive oil and vasiline and neither of those worked well. ( like not at all ) so I decided when it was time I would just order fluon. I would like some kind of mesh for the top of it if only to help appease the wife. But I haven't found anything with small enough holes for it. I walked all through Home Depot and left with some more vinyl tubing and some cool connectors for them ( plumbing aisle ) and finally found the aquarium safe silicone I wanted. Now if I can just find mesh.

EffinBatman

Re: Solenopsis invicta- New ant keeper

Post: # 9464Post EffinBatman
Thu Aug 04, 2016 7:51 am

It's been a crazy week at work and I've had some sort of flu but the ants are still going!

I put some cut apples in the test tubes about three days ago and they seemed to enjoy them. I left them in for 48 hours then pulled out when they got a little brown. I have not attached either queen to an outworld yet though. I'm still worried about escapes having never used Fluon or anything else before.

I've been looking for some very small wire mesh like used in the hybrid nests to put over the top of the out world to make the wife feel a little more safe.

Next step is picking up some more meal worms and maybe some crickets to try them on.

EffinBatman

Re: Solenopsis invicta- New ant keeper

Post: # 9473Post EffinBatman
Thu Aug 04, 2016 3:32 pm

Thanks !! I was planning on making sure they are well stocked on sugar water in the out worlds. Honey I need to learn how to use better so I don't kill anymore. At least till I have more.

EffinBatman

Re: Solenopsis invicta- New ant keeper

Post: # 9492Post EffinBatman
Fri Aug 05, 2016 10:59 am

So I added an outworld to one of my two colonies today. Picture posted below. I used fluon for the barrier. I bought a premixed bottle from another ant site. I put a little cap of honey and water stuffed with cotton to make sure they don't drown.


Image



I connected the test tube to the out world by just using a smaller tube for the outworld. I'm wondering if I should have used some silicone to make sure they cant get out of that.

Image

EffinBatman

Re: Solenopsis invicta- New ant keeper

Post: # 9951Post EffinBatman
Sun Aug 14, 2016 8:30 pm

I don't uncover the queens very often and I was plesently surprised to find that both colonies have grown to 20+ since the last time I checked them out.

Currently I have one colony with access to an out world and one just In a test tube. I have tried to feed the colony with an out world super worms and they refuse to touch them. I chop them up and everything. But they will go after a few chopped meal worms.

The colony in test tube I'm still feeding small meal worms cut in half. I think his week I'll see about buying some crickets or fruit flys. Should I freeze the fruit flys because of mites ? Or just put a few in there ?

Watching them move the brood on and off the heating wire is great. I can't wait to get them into something more sturdy I can heat.

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