The AntsCanada Ant Forum's

MorbidBugg wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 20, 2018 1:31 pm

Needed some good news you delivered. Awesome! When do you plan for hibernation for your colony?

Probably the last week of October. That is when I notice ants stop foraging. A lot of our flights here actually take place in October. I.e Solenopsis, Myrmica, Crematogaster and Ponera.

There were some mistakes in last post which can now be clarified now that I was able to see the full colony today.
Corrections:

*There are 24 workers, 1 Median and 1 Major (26 in total) (One major enclosed today, and I had accidentally saw an additional worker. It is very hard to see them when they're all huddled up.)

*There are currently 12 pupa (the queen was hovering over them with a group of workers / there were a lot of mature larva which pupated I presume. I got to see all pupa and brood today because the queen got scared and ran into the tubing.)

*We're getting another major that is close to being full size. Depending on how much larger it is than the other workers, that'll decide on if our current "majors" are actually majors and not median worker OR our one major is actually a major but just not full size due to it being the colonies first.

The 3rd gen of this colony is about to enclose!! I see some larger major pupa so I'm very excited. More updates on them when something happens lol


Pictures taken 4 days ago

This colony is at 34 workers with about 8 more pupa left to enclose. The rest of their larva has stopped development as the temperatures have dropped to a low of 14 degrees. I never knew I'd be putting my ants into hibernation so soon but it seems to be the case. Last year September temperatures were double this and so many species flew this month. Sometimes I despise of Canada and it's weather. But oh well, what can you do

Wow my queen is taking a break from laying right now but there seems to be development on my brood so I'm hoping I can get the last few larva done before the weather here drops. There's been alot of funky weather patterns in ontario this year I don't doubt another 20+ day coming still so hopefully the weather peeks a little higher for this month but it's gonna be touch and go I'm hoping to get closer to 15+ workers before hibernation.

AntsOfOntario wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 09, 2018 1:56 pm

This colony is at 34 workers with about 8 more pupa left to enclose. The rest of their larva has stopped development as the temperatures have dropped to a low of 14 degrees. I never knew I'd be putting my ants into hibernation so soon but it seems to be the case. Last year September temperatures were double this and so many species flew this month. Sometimes I despise of Canada and it's weather. But oh well, what can you do

pictures?

AntsIkhlef wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 09, 2018 3:39 pm

AntsOfOntario wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 09, 2018 1:56 pm

This colony is at 34 workers with about 8 more pupa left to enclose. The rest of their larva has stopped development as the temperatures have dropped to a low of 14 degrees. I never knew I'd be putting my ants into hibernation so soon but it seems to be the case. Last year September temperatures were double this and so many species flew this month. Sometimes I despise of Canada and it's weather. But oh well, what can you do

pictures?

Sure. I'll include them in the final update which will probably be coming soon.

MorbidBugg wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 09, 2018 2:18 pm

Wow my queen is taking a break from laying right now but there seems to be development on my brood so I'm hoping I can get the last few larva done before the weather here drops. There's been alot of funky weather patterns in ontario this year I don't doubt another 20+ day coming still so hopefully the weather peeks a little higher for this month but it's gonna be touch and go I'm hoping to get closer to 15+ workers before hibernation.

Yeah. When do you plan to hibernate all of your ants? I know mine are already slowing down but I really want to push it to the first week of November. If I start now they'll have 7 months of diapause which is way too much.

Oh and I forgot! This colony has lost it's first worker (to my sight there could be more) to unknown reasons.

Well because I house them in my indoor greenhouse I try to keep it set to a more American side of the border temperature. I usually stop my veggie production near the begining of November so I'm hoping I can keep the room warm enough without extra heating til mid October then begin the starting processes to put them to hibernation... but that's assuming they don't decide to do that on their own. Which would be totally cool regardless.