AM1C39's Journal (many colonies)

[AM1C39]

The myrmica alaskensis colony is officially dead. All the other colonies are doing well.

[SolenopsisKeeper]

The myrmica alaskensis colony is officially dead. All the other colonies are doing well.

Any idea why they died? Age? Mites? Other parasites?

I feel your pain(Slightly). I recently lost tons of queens due to a temperate issue,(Some I have had trouble finding) and lost one due to loose cotton(Although that doesn’t compare, RIP)

[AM1C39]

I have moved the nests around a litle and have switched the formica neogagates's nest that they where suposed to be living in with the nest that the myrmica alaskensis colony was using. I removed the bottom of the nest so now it is a horizontal nest, they should like it more. They should move out from the outworld now XD. They will be needing the space because of their growing population.
All the colonies have a large amount of brood, espesially the formica neogagates colony whitch still have 4-5 queens. A population boom is going to happen very soon.
Also they are still eating a grape piece I gave them about 5 days ago. Will give them an apple piece to see if it hase the same reaction. They must be taking all the nutrients they can as they will need to feed all of the larvae.

[SolenopsisKeeper]

I have moved the nests around a litle and have switched the formica neogagates's nest that they where suposed to be living in with the nest that the myrmica alaskensis colony was using. I removed the bottom of the nest so now it is a horizontal nest, they should like it more. They should move out from the outworld now XD. They will be needing the space because of their growing population.
All the colonies have a large amount of brood, espesially the formica neogagates colony whitch still have 4-5 queens. A population boom is going to happen very soon.
Also they are still eating a grape piece I gave them about 5 days ago. Will give them an apple piece to see if it hase the same reaction. They must be taking all the nutrients they can as they will need to feed all of the larvae.

None of my small colonies eat grapes. Will have to try it with my Formica, as I just bought Formica from somebody recently.

[AM1C39]

Me: *gives new clean nest to the colony*
Colony: Nah, we'll just keep living in the outworld.

[SolenopsisKeeper]

Me: *gives new clean nest to the colony*
Colony: Nah, we'll just keep living in the outworld.

I Ligit heated the nest and put a really bright light on my Campo Floridanus for them to not have the queen and cocoons in outworld. Ants these days…

[AM1C39]

I'm back!

Updates updates updates:

Camponotus colony:
So I will start off with some bad news: the queen died a while ago. Maybe about 3 months or so. As all queen ant deaths usually are: I can't be very certain of why she died. Old age? Stress from lack of hibernation? Himidity leves unsatisfactory? I am over it, but it is still very sad to see the last 3 remaning workers, just living out the rest of their lives with the corpses of their familly lying around..

Crematogaster colony:
I do believe this colony to be doing a lot better. They are living in a glass tank full of hollow bamboo, so it is a bit hard to see how they are really doing. Besides the fact that the queen is [most likelly] still alive, I see foragers every now and then, even in winter. But of course they have a small mite population living with them. The nest is of course too big for them, as to let them have "extra leg space"... Yesterday, I captured a major part of the mite familly, capturing them and putting them in a quarantined container.

Formica colony:
This colony is [now] my favorite colony. Biggest news is that I moved them into the very large formicarium that I made a while ago. I of course blocked off the nest entrainces for now. They have a nice large foraging area now. I know for a fact that all 5 queens are still indeed alive! The colony is very healthy with a nice sized population. I am going to feed them a superworm and a half tonight... And the problem I have for this colony is that the fluon did not seem to work very well... They have not been exploring the new grounds really at all, but I saw an escaped ant earlier today, I put her back in and I'm not really woried. I guess I'll just put another bigger layer of fluon on. And maybe create some sort of edge to put on the top of the tank.


I hope to be active again and very helpfull, but i do hae 32 pages of unread posts to look true... I see that the bot problem seems to be fixed finally, thanks to antsluxembourg. Goodnight, Good day and see you lather!

[AM1C39]

So there is a very large temnothorax (or maybe an exotic tetramorium, I'll have to check) colony living in our school, or maybe just a lot of different colonies. Anyway, they are having their nuptial flights! There are alates EVERYWHERE and people keep steping on them :/ . I see them almost everyday, just a bunch of workers here or there eating a piece of food somebody droped. They are thriving .

[AM1C39]

So there is a very large temnothorax (or maybe an exotic tetramorium, I'll have to check) colony living in our school, or maybe just a lot of different colonies. Anyway, they are having their nuptial flights! There are alates EVERYWHERE and people keep steping on them :/ . I see them almost everyday, just a bunch of workers here or there eating a piece of food somebody droped. They are thriving .

There are even MORE today.

[Antloverhuman]

So there is a very large temnothorax (or maybe an exotic tetramorium, I'll have to check) colony living in our school, or maybe just a lot of different colonies. Anyway, they are having their nuptial flights! There are alates EVERYWHERE and people keep steping on them :/ . I see them almost everyday, just a bunch of workers here or there eating a piece of food somebody droped. They are thriving .

There are even MORE today.

You're lucky to actually see them. Our school had a tree area but they separated it and turned it into a parking lot. I saw some really cool species like some goldenish polyrachis and twig ants last time i went there. Now the main area has nothing but black crazy ants