The AntsCanada Ant Forum's

Here's a better picture of the major

Those are sick, u got a major really fast. I wanted to buy those ants from the same gan farmer (west Sacramento). How long did he take to respond to you?? It's been a few days since I sent him an email...

YSTheAnt wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 11, 2017 3:55 pm

YSTheAnt wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 11, 2017 1:22 pm

Those are amazing, you got a major really fast. I wanted to buy those ants from the same gan farmer (west Sacramento). How long did he take to respond to you?? It's been a few days since I sent him an email...

It only took about an hour for him to respond. You should send him another email.

Colony journals are REALLY interesting, especially this one. Update any time soon?

Ok thanks. He responded yesterday night. Ran out of c hyatti but I'm getting c quercicola tonight.

AntsOnTheCoast wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 15, 2017 4:41 pm

Colony journals are REALLY interesting, especially this one. Update any time soon?

I've been pretty lazy and haven't felt like updating it lol. I keep counting the number of workers and keep coming up with 12. I know that last week they definitely had 13 workers. There's a spot where the tube connects to this test tube adapter, which connects to tubing that connects to the test tube portal. It's covered up with cotton and tape and I can't see what goes on under there. I sometimes see the major and the queen going to that area and coming back, so I'm hoping there are some new eggs there that they decided to keep separate from the other developed brood and that there are one or two workers tending it out of sight. I think a new worker hatched cause I've never seen it before today. It looks like a tiny major, but slightly bigger than the workers, and has a different coloration than anyone else. I could have 14 workers, or 2 of them escaped somehow, which I don't understand how they could've since there are no openings. The test tube that I purchased them in, which they reside in right now, has mold on the cotton and the water is completely light green. To combat the mold they kept tearing off pieces of molded cotton and placing it in a new tube that I gave them so they could move into. They won't move into the new tube.They used to move into the entrance of the portal, then whenever I fed them they would move it back. After awhile they learned it wasn't a good spot so they are just staying in the middle of their test tube now and placed the brood far away from the mold. At least they have fresh drinking water from their new tube. They keep tearing at the water portion cotton. I find that whenever there is cotton that blocks off something, they always will try to tear at it. It's like their natural behavior or something. Right now they have a ton of brood and well over 10 pupae.They are going to all hatch soon and I'm kinda excited and kinda not cause my mom is moving houses down the street which means I have to take my colony to my dads for a week until she moves and it's just gonna be complicated. So yeah this is pretty much all that happened since the last update.

If you want your colony to move to the other tube, try moving the heating cable closer to the current one, while making the other one dark. Also add light to the old one, which will probably make them move out. By the way, your colony is amazing!

YSTheAnt wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 15, 2017 11:31 pm

If you want your colony to move to the other tube, try moving the heating cable closer to the current one, while making the other one dark. Also add light to the old one, which will probably make them move out. By the way, your colony is amazing!

Yeah, that's what I did while I left them for a week and they haven't moved out. I think it's cause they're in a drawer and there's an outlet in the drawer where I connect the heat cable to. I guess the whole drawer is just generally warm, and making the heat cable touch the test tube would just make it a bit warmer. I thought of doing the light method by keeping them on my desk underneath a lamp. Not a heat lamp, just a normal one. I think my colony may be partially desensitized to light because whenever I used to take them out of the drawer the entire colony would freeze up and pretend their dead, but they rarely do it anymore. Also, I know that my mom has cleaning lady's come over and clean the house sometimes, so I didn't want to risk them messing something up. Maybe I'll do it when my mom moves, or maybe next week, the first day when I'm at my dad's. I'll just get a flashlight and put it right up to them, but not too close that it's hot for them. Maybe they'll move then. But they could also just be fine where they're at now cause they SEEM to be doing good. But then again, they used to try to move their brood to the entrance of the test tube portal so maybe they actually want to move but haven't considered the new test tube as a suitable home. The GAN seller told me that he kept older colonies in a completely dry nest, and only offered them water through the out world. I did some research and it turns out that in the wild they nest in completely dead, dry wood. I want to see what would happen if I offered them a completely empty test tube and see if they move in. The GAN dude, when he caught the queen, put her in a normal test tube setup, so maybe she viewed it as the only claustral chamber that was available to her and had to just not mind the humidity in order to start a colony and have drinking water. But with the test tube portal, I could just offer them a completely empty test tube with another test tube filled with water and who knows, maybe they'd prefer a completely dry test tube over a dry one.

I think I'm one of the few people who are raising a thriving colony by leaving them completely alone for an entire week, just giving them all the food they can eat for a week a day before I leave. Before I started keeping ants I really didn't think this would work out. But I guess it is lol.