W1Z25's Camponotus pennsylvanicus #1 Journal (first colony!)

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Canadiananter
Posts: 132
Joined: Tue Aug 30, 2016 11:20 pm
Location: Toronto,Canada

Re: W1Z25's Camponotus pennsylvanicus #1 Journal (first colony!)

Post: # 12964Post Canadiananter
Sun Oct 02, 2016 10:31 pm

Wait I think I know you from formiculture..

MichiganAnts

Re: W1Z25's Camponotus pennsylvanicus #1 Journal (first colony!)

Post: # 12965Post MichiganAnts
Sun Oct 02, 2016 10:33 pm

yeap same person. i post to both

MichiganAnts

Re: W1Z25's Camponotus pennsylvanicus #1 Journal (first colony!)

Post: # 13468Post MichiganAnts
Sun Oct 09, 2016 7:45 pm

Stardate 109.2016

I've ordered 2 new homes for my ants, and then ill be getting a wine chiller this week so i can safely hibernate them. i was just going to put them on my concrete floor in the basement but the temperatures would be random and uncontrollable. Once they arrive on Tuesday they will be in the final homes until the spring.

Good news from the white queen. today i was checking her out when i noticed.. she has laid a new egg!! she now has 3 eggs. I couldnt get a pic of it though. It surprised me greatly, i was so convinced that she was about to start hibernating so all egg producing would stop. To reward her for the surprise i was going to give them some honey. Then a friend told me that i should try doing honey water. I've never done that, i always just gave straight honey, so i tried it anyway. and boy they loved it!! I gave some to the Tupperware queen aswell land her and her nanitics ate it all aswell.

So the plan this week is Tuesday the new nests arrive. then hopefully by this weekend the wine chiller will be here and hibernation will start.

MichiganAnts

Re: W1Z25's Camponotus pennsylvanicus #1 Journal (first colony!)

Post: # 13539Post MichiganAnts
Mon Oct 10, 2016 11:31 pm

Stardate 1010.2016

*note im more than likely going to be retiring this journal since the name is no longer valid. so this will be the final entry*

http://imgur.com/a/21Ssn

AMAZING NEWS!! Today, as i have for the last 3 days. searching through my woods and woodpile looking for more queens. And i hit the mother load!! I found a species i've only ever seen in AntsCanada's videos. its camponotus noveboracensis!! the species Mikey himself loves the most to raise! And she has everything you'd want in a first year colony. 1 very healthy looking queen, 25 workers(most are nanitics but a few are 2nd gen workers), and i kid you not.. 50 to 100 eggs!!!

But im getting ahead of myself. I was just looking around.. hoping that maybe.. just maybe id see another camp. penn. queen. I got to another average looking log. i could see the bark had a ~1/4 inch space between it and the actual hardwood. i opened it up, as i did about 10 other logs today.. but then i saw it.. the fast scuttle of ants.. and then i saw the brood.. but all i brought with me is a simple test tube. now i didnt remove the bark entirely, i just barely opened it up and took a peak. so i quickly and gently put the bark back... and ran to my house. I got to my house and ran into the kitchen, looking for a good temp home. i found a plastic container that would be perfect.. but i couldnt find the lid!!! no!!! after about 2 minutes i grabbed a tall metal container with a lid, but i knew they could climb up the wall.. HOWEVER, i remembered that i had a brand new jug of fluon. so i used it to make a 1 inch wide barrier after i quickly washed out the bowl and lid. i then ran back out to the woodpile. my heart is pumping like mad. i peel the bark open even more.. and i started to grab workers who had brood in there mouth and kept getting them into the bowl. i thought i saw the queen but i wasnt sure. so i got as many workers as i could. but i hadn't seen the queen, and all this would be for nothing if i couldnt find her. i moved the log the nest was in and i saw more workers on the ground.. i grabbed them all.. and then i saw her.. the queen!! i grabbed her aswell. WOOT!! i then spent the next few minutes grabbing every ant i saw in that area. However i noticed right away i messed up, i had grabbed some parasite queens aswell. and while for the most part they were ok together.. the 2 2nd gen workers knew better, and began killing them! after i saw no more ants i sat back and admired what i had done. i had manged to get ~90-98% of her workers.. and im fairly sure i got all the eggs to. I then grab all the non camponotus noveboracensis and got them out of the bowl. after than was done i brought them inside.

then i noticed a couple of the "workers" where being attacked by the 2nd gen still, so something was wrong. i inspected them more closely with a flashlight and tweezers and saw i had missed a couple of parasite queens. And then i saw the coolest thing to date with any ant i own. A 2nd generation worker had a parasite queen in her mouth and then.. it happened.. she cut its head off!!! it was so awesome!! i wish i had a way to record it. I then used tweezers and grabbed out the other 3 ants that they attacked. and i noticed as soon as the last one was out they began to calm down.

I then quickly made a tiny test tube out of a syringe with a wet cotton ball on 1 end for water and then put them into dark isolation for ~5 hours. I then decided to check on them and all is well, they are cleaning the bowl and organizing the eggs. the eggs, its awe inspiring just how many this queen had made.. the pile of eggs is bigger than the queen herself!! I cant wait for this colony to explode once spring hits.

After i checked up on the Nova colony, I decided to reward all 3 with some honey-water in foil. Its crazy how all 3 colonies react differently to it based on time with me. the white colony isnt afraid at all, they go up and drink within 30 seconds on the foil being in. but they've been in captivity for months, and are used to it. The Tupperware queen is still fairly nervous about it, a couple workers run around, but for the most part they are calm, and after about a minutes workers can be seen leaving a trail to the foil so all may drink. And the Nova colony, still shaken up by the ordeal just panics once they sense the air pressure change of me opening the lid. i hope that in the morning they are calm and manage to enjoy some of the sweets.

Tomorrow My first 2 nests (for the white and Tupperware queens) will be here, and later this week my wine chiller, and 3rd (even bigger) nest will be here for these girls. I've now tripled the amount of queens i intended to raise. for now its easy.. but when they start to grow.. i may have to sell 1.. and it will suck.. but this is all assuming that all my queens make it through the winter.

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