My crematogaster queen has eggs!

Share your Ant Journals, Youtube Channels, and Blogs with the global ant community

Moderator: ooper01

Ants1so1cool
Posts: 10
Joined: Mon Jun 22, 2020 3:26 am
Location: Pretoria, South Africa

Re: My crematogaster queen has eggs!

Post: # 74007Post Ants1so1cool
Fri Sep 25, 2020 12:51 am

You know I was going to go for my first trip overseas and was hoping to see different species of ants and then stuff happened and we didn't go.

User avatar
antnest8
Posts: 1438
Joined: Tue Jan 02, 2018 2:11 pm
Location: Detroit, MI

Re: My crematogaster queen has eggs!

Post: # 74019Post antnest8
Fri Sep 25, 2020 9:45 am

I've caught so many crematogaster, but they are relatively difficult species to keep.
Some of My Informative Sheets
https://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=19099
Includes :
  • Ant Care Sheets
    Queen Hunting
    How To Identify Ants
Goal is to become #2 poster on the forum

timeshell
Posts: 75
Joined: Tue Sep 17, 2019 7:34 pm
Location: Port Hope

Re: My crematogaster queen has eggs!

Post: # 74026Post timeshell
Fri Sep 25, 2020 3:56 pm

antnest8 wrote:
Fri Sep 25, 2020 9:45 am
I've caught so many crematogaster, but they are relatively difficult species to keep.
I guess I got lucky. My first crematogaster is the only queen I've had success with so far. All my other queens of all other species ended up dying. I hope my new queen works out.

timeshell
Posts: 75
Joined: Tue Sep 17, 2019 7:34 pm
Location: Port Hope

Re: My crematogaster queen has eggs!

Post: # 74120Post timeshell
Sun Oct 04, 2020 12:28 pm

antnest8 wrote:
Fri Sep 25, 2020 9:45 am
I've caught so many crematogaster, but they are relatively difficult species to keep.
I'm trying something different with my new crematogaster queen. All my other queens that I collected died when I placed them in a new test tube setup. I checked on my new queen a couple days after putting her in there and she was very unresponsive. I decided to connect her tube to a small outworld similar to my other one. I figure that maybe it's too humid for her in just the stopped up tube. This was about a week ago. As of today she is still alive and appears to be doing well. A couple days ago when I checked on her she was outside the tube in the outworld. Today she was back in the tube again. I placed a fruitfly in there today for her as my first crematogaster seemed to appreciate it. Incidentally, she still has her wings.

We'll have to see where it goes.

timeshell
Posts: 75
Joined: Tue Sep 17, 2019 7:34 pm
Location: Port Hope

Re: My crematogaster queen has eggs!

Post: # 74132Post timeshell
Mon Oct 05, 2020 3:16 pm

As of today, there are about 35 workers with my first queen, Black Widow, with a small pile of brood.

timeshell
Posts: 75
Joined: Tue Sep 17, 2019 7:34 pm
Location: Port Hope

Re: My crematogaster queen has eggs!

Post: # 74450Post timeshell
Sat Oct 31, 2020 4:32 pm

Short update. All's good. Not much activity. The first colony is very inactive. I have them in my buffet, not a fridge. Interestingly, the newest workers are still lighter colored even though they eclosed weeks ago. The new queen is still alive. She still has her wings. I placed a couple fruit flies for her but she hasn't touched them. I have fed either otherwise.

timeshell
Posts: 75
Joined: Tue Sep 17, 2019 7:34 pm
Location: Port Hope

Re: My crematogaster queen has eggs!

Post: # 75904Post timeshell
Mon Mar 15, 2021 9:29 am

Update

The colony is doing well. I have mostly been feed them fruit flies over the winter. A few of the older workers have now died. The count appears to be over 50 workers now. Sadly, my second crematogaster queen didn't survive. The water in the main nest tube is almost dry so I'll need to be preparing a new tube for the nest shortly and possibly to nest layout adjustments at the same time.

User avatar
AM1C39
Posts: 1012
Joined: Wed Jul 29, 2020 12:17 pm
Location: Canada, ON
Contact:

Re: My crematogaster queen has eggs!

Post: # 75905Post AM1C39
Mon Mar 15, 2021 9:57 am

My crematogaster queen also just got eggs a few days ago.
My current colonies:
-Miniature Military(formica neogagates)
-Black Hearts(crematogaster cerasi)
In search of new camponotus colony
[Have a look at antmaps.org]

timeshell
Posts: 75
Joined: Tue Sep 17, 2019 7:34 pm
Location: Port Hope

Re: My crematogaster queen has eggs!

Post: # 79819Post timeshell
Sat Jul 17, 2021 10:51 am

Update. Not a lot new. I think I'm up to 60 workers now with this colony with near an equal number of eggs. I haven't fed them much since the winter and they had slowed down quite a bit. Last week I feed them a giant dying spider that I found on my kitchen floor. They were quite happy about that and made quick work of the spider's body, but left the legs behind this time.

On Thursday, 2 days ago, I was walking by the river and found what I believe to be a tetramorium queen. She was scurrying across the sidewalk and had already broken off her wings. I had picked up tetramorium queens before who still had their wings on and they always died on me. However, I was more hopeful about this one since she had already broken off her wings.

I didn't bring any containers with me! I did happen to have my airpods with me so I stuck her in one of the slots in the airpod case. Later in my walk I stumbled across an ant dragging a another large bug on the sidewalk. The bug was barely alive and I could only see it's antennae moving. Seeing as this bug was interesting to the ants here, I decided to steal it to feed to my crematogasters. I went to also stick in in my airpod case, which was I when I realized just how big this bug was. I needed to use a stick to guide it lengthwise into the opposite slot from the one that had the tetramorium queen and it took up most of the length of the slot.

Anyway, I put the bug in with the crematogasters and they loved it! Before long at least a quarter of my colony was out working on it. By comparison think of 10 to 15 people along side a giant great white shark! And to my surprise, they still managed to move the bug through a long vinyl tube from the outworld to their nest. The bug barely even fit into the opening of the tube. I came back the next day and the bug was nowhere to be found which means they must have moved it into a 4 way junction that I can't see into. Today, a number of the workers gasters are just enormously gorged and look like they are going to burst!

And as a final surprise! Two days after I picked up my tetramorium queen, she already has eggs! YAY!

SYUTEO
Posts: 1395
Joined: Thu Aug 29, 2019 8:58 am
Location: Malaysia

Re: My crematogaster queen has eggs!

Post: # 79822Post SYUTEO
Sat Jul 17, 2021 11:38 am

Omg just reading a few posts on this topic is making me nostalgic :( , mainly because it reminded me of my first Crematogaster colony. The time the colony has around 20-25 workers their test tube is getting moldy so I decided to move them to a new test tube, but after a few days the colony hasn't moved and the queen mysteriously died. :cry:

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 13 guests