ooper's Camponotus modoc colony (#2)

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calrodrigz

Re: ooper's Camponotus modoc colony (#2)

Post: # 3425Post calrodrigz
Thu Sep 10, 2015 10:06 pm

Do you think a Camponotus species could survive in a Pogonomyrmex Hybrid Nest?

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Re: ooper's Camponotus modoc colony (#2)

Post: # 3431Post ooper01
Fri Sep 11, 2015 12:56 am

Yes I'm sure they could survive. The nest designs are meant to mimic their natural nest design, but the ants will adapt to the nest they are provided. For example, the Omni nest series has successfully housed many different species of ant.
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Re: ooper's Camponotus modoc colony (#2)

Post: # 3507Post calrodrigz
Sun Sep 13, 2015 7:38 pm

Interesting. Though I hope to get a Pogonomyrmex colony started, I may have to switch to Camponotus due to my failure at finding any queens.

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Re: ooper's Camponotus modoc colony (#2)

Post: # 4257Post ooper01
Wed Oct 21, 2015 7:02 pm

October 21, 2015
The small colony moved into the Hybrid nest a couple of weeks ago. I believe the test tube finally ran out of water. I had been feeding them cracker crumbs and an occasional insect, but nothing really seemed to change for them. Then I fed them some honey on a piece of foil and within a day or two, the queen fattened up and produced a clutch of 8-10 eggs. I guess she just needed something sweet to get her going again. You can see the eggs in the two pictures here, but they are hard to make out. The queen is next to them in both pictures.
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Re: ooper's Camponotus modoc colony (#2)

Post: # 5142Post ooper01
Fri Mar 25, 2016 9:09 pm

March 23, 2016
To my dismay, I found the queen had died in this small colony. Yesterday morning I noticed that the workers had transported her dead body out of the Hybrid nest and into a connected test tube. One was watching over her and would not leave, even when I disturbed the test tube. The colony was just starting to grow again. There are 6 workers now and a small brood, perhaps 3 larvae and 4 to 5 eggs.

Since this colony is "dead", I followed the advice of WillWithAnts and transferred the remaining brood into a test tube with a Camponotus modoc queen, still without workers. She readily accepted the brood. I hope she raises them to maturity and that it gives her a little kick start of her own.

Here is the thread regarding the "brood boosting" suggestion:
http://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=874
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Re: ooper's Camponotus modoc colony (#2)

Post: # 5144Post WillWithAnts
Sat Mar 26, 2016 12:12 pm

ooper01 wrote:March 23, 2016
To my dismay, I found the queen had died in this small colony. Yesterday morning I noticed that the workers had transported her dead body out of the Hybrid nest and into a connected test tube. One was watching over her and would not leave, even when I disturbed the test tube. The colony was just starting to grow again. There are 6 workers now and a small brood, perhaps 3 larvae and 4 to 5 eggs.

Since this colony is "dead", I followed the advice of WillWithAnts and transferred the remaining brood into a test tube with a Camponotus modoc queen, still without workers. She readily accepted the brood. I hope she raises them to maturity and that it gives her a little kick start of her own.

Here is the thread regarding the "brood boosting" suggestion:
http://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=874
Good luck :D !

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Re: ooper's Camponotus modoc colony (#2)

Post: # 5150Post ooper01
Sat Mar 26, 2016 2:02 pm

I gave her a big drop of honey. Hopefully she can use that to keep the new brood fed.
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Re: ooper's Camponotus modoc colony (#2)

Post: # 5565Post ooper01
Wed May 04, 2016 11:38 am

Two of the adopted larvae pupated and eclosed recently. I will leave this colony in the test tube setup until they reach 20+ workers. I have them connected to a test tube portal and just added a second, clean test tube setup for them as the current test tube is nearly dry. Keeping my fingers crossed that this queen will start laying eggs again and that the new workers can help her tend to the growth of the colony.
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Re: ooper's Camponotus modoc colony (#2)

Post: # 5600Post AntsRule
Fri May 06, 2016 4:07 pm

SOOO cool... great pictures. :D
With all the things ants can do, you wonder, who rules the planet :?

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Re: ooper's Camponotus modoc colony (#2)

Post: # 5906Post WillWithAnts
Wed May 18, 2016 8:29 pm

How are they doing, Ooper?

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