Aphaenogaster colony journal

[Dghergejg456]

9/1/23
I decided to start a journal on my small colony of Aphaenogaster Longiceps.
Right now, they have 7 workers and are doing very well, will lots of larvae and pupae.

I am going to move them into an esthetic ants thong small nest when they get to maybe 30 workers, but it will take awhile.

Video of them eating spider and eating ant shop Australia all in one ant food.
https://imgur.com/a/rieiKqq

[Dghergejg456]

10/1/23

They seem to have eaten their eggs.

Anyways, I fed them some honey and they really like it, they have 8 larva and a pupae.
Hopefully queen starts laying again.

[Dghergejg456]

12/1/23
She laid more eggs, good amount of larva and an enclosing pupa in the brood pile

Btw should I move her into an esthetic ants ytong nest or an arcrylic nest once they get to around 30 workers?
The arcrylic nest has separator gates so I can actually move them in right now, but I will have to wait for the ytong nest.

Picture of ants attached below
https://imgur.com/a/JlCcAYL

[Dghergejg456]

14/1/23

They have a huge batch of new eggs, around 15, over 6 developing larva, 4 developed larva and a pupa.
It turns out my concerns about her laying eggs was wrong, they now have over 25 brood in total.

the pupa is about to hatch too. so that will make the worker count 8.
They are doing great, I feed them every 2 days alternating between proteins and sugars.
I will keep you updated.

[Dghergejg456]

Umm guys uhhh I wrote it as 2023 it’s actually 2024 lol.

Sry for the confusion

[Dghergejg456]

16/1/24

All their eggs have gone again, is it because of stress?
I fed them a moth lately.
How should I move them into a new nest? I can dump the: in the outworld but that can be risky, I already tried using light and heat

[Dghergejg456]

18/1/23
They are now around 3 months old, i just realised how slow they were to start off, I only started this journal in January .
I moved them into a new nest, I think it’s a tiny too big for them, smoothly dumped them into the outworks, no causalities.

Here are some pics. I managed to get a close up 4K shot on one of the photos. There is also a video
https://imgur.com/a/ymFo886

[Dghergejg456]

19/1/2
3 of the workers died, I need urgent advice. There are only 5 workers in the nest now and it is getting big. I think there were a reason behind the deaths, my house recently underwent pest control and I fed them a moth that potentially had pesticide. Is there any way to get them eating and healthy again? Also, now there are a lot of space in the nest and I need urgent help. Is it natural for that to happen? However, the brood pile IS huge with over 15 brood in total.