The AntsCanada Ant Forum's

I caught a Crematogaster queen on July 3rd, and she has finally laid eggs. I do not know what day, as I do not check on her very often, which is key to raising this genus during founding, they REALLY hate disturbances. Once a week is about the maximum time I would check on her, better once every 12 to 10 days. But like I said, she has laid eggs, and not just a few, this ant is an egg laying MACHINE. She can not have laid less than 15 eggs in like, 2 days (I couldn't help but take a peek, I was moving her tube anyways, so it would be just as much of a disturbance.) Because when I moved her tube to my new rack (pics coming soon) she had no eggs. I have heard that this genus has RAPID growth, and I am quite excited, as I have wanted a crematogaster colony since I started antkeeping. More updates as I can!


PS. There will be pictures and videos coming soon, whenever my macro lens arrives, but I am going out of town for 12 days soon, so there will be no updates on any of my journals in that time.

I have a picture of my Crematogaster sp. egg pile. It has at least doubled since I last checked on her. - 7/14/17 (11 days after capture)

Nice! I'm so hoping to find creamatogaster queens this summer.

FarrAnts wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 14, 2017 7:25 pm

Nice! I'm so hoping to find creamatogaster queens this summer.

It's funny, I was not queen hunting, hell I didn't even have any test tubes or containers. I was in the pool, and she had stranded herself on a floating pool toy. I brushed against the floating thing and she crawled onto me, I got out and had to run inside, and she lived in a plastic bag for like an hour, until I got her into a test tube.

AntLove5Ever wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 14, 2017 7:49 pm

FarrAnts wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 14, 2017 7:25 pm

Nice! I'm so hoping to find creamatogaster queens this summer.

It's funny, I was not queen hunting, hell I didn't even have any test tubes or containers. I was in the pool, and she had stranded herself on a floating pool toy. I brushed against the floating thing and she crawled onto me, I got out and had to run inside, and she lived in a plastic bag for like an hour, until I got her into a test tube.

Lol, that's crazy! I found one queen floating around in the pool while I was lifeguarding, so I snagged it on the way back to our main office, it was a formica I think. Edit: Oh yeah, and since I was lacking a container I had it in my lifeguard fanny pack the entire time, the pack that has a ressistaion mask lol.

Not much is new. I see wat appear to be tiny larvae, or soon to be larvae, here is a pic.



She appears to have eaten some eggs, but I hear that is normal with this species, as they lay eggs, and realize they don't have the stores to feed all 30 of the larvae that will come soon.

8/3/17 - I have begun heating her and her brood. I have a heating mat, and she has taken a liking to the warmth. She moved her brood onto the heat. It was rather immediate too! I believe we are looking at workers in 2 weeks or so. Currently she has a large egg pile and a few larvae that are decently far in their development. No pupae yet.

8/7/17 - We have reached many pupae. I believe I will get workers within a week. The growth of Crematogaster is quite fast, especially when heated. The brood pile is extremely impressive especially since I don't even have nanitics yet. I counted around 44 brood. In under a month.

Nice, the first Crematogaster I caught already got her first notice but then I gave her to a friend. I have a 2nd as well that should be getting her first anytime. I also have a colony of like...id say around 150-200 workers now lol. And yes, they love the heat. I have a heat cable run thru the nest and they always keep the brood very close if not on the wall.

We have dark pupae! I am so excited for those nanitics to arrive!