Feeding my Beasties

[nepenthes]

Hey guys, I saw a post where some one wanted to see some of my ants eating away. I have a few pictures not many though!

Mostly of my small colony's development.

Tetramorium caespitum aka the common pavement ant, downing a meal worm.

First they brought in the head

Then the body!

you can see the queen in one of the pictures, shes easy to point out. This is a smaller colony in a large plaster set up.


Paratrechina sp's (deceased now)

I can explain that very familiar blurry figure at the bottom near the test tube. I promise! I had my first attempt at a Mantid, and well, you see I didn't and still don't know to much about them, and the little tike died, and well what else was I supposed to do, I couldn't turn down my hungry little ants. I swear I didn't kill him (or her I'm not sure).

Otherwise I don't have any good pictures of my ants eating The Katydids sorry!

 

[TNeal]

Interesting pics. How many ant colonies do you keep? I thought it was illegal to keep queen ants, or is it just illegal to ship them? I have always been interested in ants also.

 

[nepenthes]

You cant ship queens across state lines, and some times that goes as far as county lines I would check with you're county before shipping. Right now I have 6 colony's, All fairly small though. And all started from queens so they are slow to get big and usually (depending on the species) will have 40 or so workers in the first year, unless you boost them with brood from a colony of the same species, but then you would have to worry about mites infesting you're colony's.

2 Tetramorium caespitum
1 Formica species native to Ohio
1 parasitic ant species, Aphenogaster tenneessennsis the queen killed the Aphenogaster fulva queen to start the colony, one of the many parasitic ant's
1 Slonepsis molesta colony with 4 queens, and a small number of workers.
1 Camponotomus pennsylvanicus colony

I plan on next year hopefully getting a species I've allways wanted! Pheidole which is the most diverse ant in the Americas! 600 some species and many with subtle differences its almost impossible to tell. This species gets the very defined major castes, and minor castes.

 

[Gemeines]

Good stuff!!

Long ago I had an ant farm, they looked similar to this group you have here.. My older brother put a carpenter ant in with them.
Not out of older brother spite but he thought,
"Heres a big ant He will like a big ant!"


the little ants defeated the giant carpenter ant, processed it AND all of their fallen bretheren into food.
As sadistic as it seemed it was very fun to watch.

Thanks for the pics. quite interesting.

Are you just using a normal aquarium?

 

[Mr. Mordax]

Those pictures are AWESOME! They seem like the more bloodthirsty relatives to the leafcutter ants I saw in Costa Rica.

 

[nepenthes]

Nope, Just a plaster set up with a foraging area about 7 inches by 3 1/2 inches. What I could have done is set it up so the entrance was on the bottom and poured it into a 10 gallon aqarium on its side... and pulled out the plaster once it dried and set it back in after I took out what ever I used for the impression. Put it back and sealed it with Silicon. Theirs so many different ways to do it its not even funny I was thinking about taking wood, letting it run along the bottom of a aqarium taking a dremal tool and carving out chambers and tunnels and then having a couple entrances and filling the rest of it with peat, and then they could do what they wanted.

Or you could just put a smaller aquarium inside a larger one. say a 29 gallon in a 30 gallon, even though thats a HUGE size difference its what you could do. Theirs endless possibilities. Just think of something that could contain ants, and you're good to go.

If you need me to explain how to make one cause youre interested, nows the time to do it so when spring comes! But I usualy start my colonys out in a test tube bunged up water with cotton like this

once it starts getting crowded.

you should have a set up ready!

 

[Gemeines]

Very interesting and informative.

I like the setup you have there.

The ants I had were very confined.
The cage was like a rubbermaid set of flat pannels full of moist sand. connected to each other by what looked like aquarium tubing.
they would create very elaborate tunnels and nurserys.

It was a gift from a teachers supply store and it came with a Mail-in-certificate
for a queen and some ants.

just curious, Where are you getting your queens from?


a few months back I was thinking the Ebay route.
Also these space gell and containers looked different.

 

[bugmankeith]

Thats cool seeing the whole life cycle right in front of your eyes, you invented your own ant farm, and because they multiply they will be around a long time

 

[nepenthes]

Gemeines-

I'm collecting Native ants, well Tetramorium caespitum isn't native to North America but an import from The Britain. Paratrechina sp's is native though, and so is the Formica which I found to be, F. subsericea for those who were really interested

I can tell you now if you order those harvest ants (Pogonomrymex Sp's) their will be NO queen in the USA their is no way to get a queen in mail, only native ants are possible to get due to USDA trade laws and preservation of agricultural land. If you get a queen from you're area, I wouldn't go the Ant gel rout, how would you like to eat/drink what you defecate and live in? I mean hey I'm not like "omg don't step on ants", its just not the proper environment. Ants like it dark, though I do'nt always give mine dark, you can tell clear signs of when you're ants are happy, more foraging and a whole other slew of traits. Ants in this "gel" may take weeks to dig into it, and then they dig tunnels. Thats it! with dirt they will go in after a few days they will have a good amount of tunnels and then they will start foraging. I personally haven't or would never use one, because of all the negative feed back I have gotten.

Wait to spring buy some vials for collecting ants, and test tubes for keeping them in (6 inch would be a good size test tube).

bugmankeith-

plaster/hydrostone have been used by myrmecologists for a while, its just easier to observe them in. If you're able to! Get hydrostone, cause it doesn't mold like plaster and you don't have to worry about you're ants getting attacked by a parasitic fungus (only attacks ants lol) or them just getting sick from the fungus. And Then you would be able to put a medium in their for the ants to figure out what they want to do.

Cheers all!

 

[What]

nepenthes, how do you collect the queens?

i am interested in keeping ants, i just have not been able to find a queen...

 

[Scolopendra55]

ANTS!!!!! I love ants I've been looking for a queen so I can start a colony of my own for years. Where do you get your queens?

 

[nepenthes]

Gemeines-

I'm collecting Native ants....

Hurray for reading! lol no I'm just kidding! But It can take a year or two for ants to start from queens. A few tips for Catching Queen ants!

-Talk to other Myrmophyles!
-Learn general times of year, Ants tend to fly early summer and late summer
-Check in the morning after a good rain and the next few days
-Check on you're car after a good rain
-Check in pools puddles and water dishes for dogs
-Keep an eye out for swarms... makes sure you're queen is mated if you find one!
-If you really feel like it set out flat boards, and rocks over you're yard to turn over, queens will de-alate under them (take off their wings)
-know the difference between male alates, and female alates! (males tend to be more smaller smaller heads and mandibles, females tend to be fat and easier to recognize.

I'm sure i forgot something. But I usually carry around a couple test tubes or a vial or something so they can stay in their until I get home.

Once you get you're queen you will want to set up a test tube or a CD case or petri dish set up for larger species (Camponotomus is one that comes to mind). Get metric measurements of you're queen once she is in her set up, check the number of waist segments, and if at all possible the number of antenna segments, and to be 100% sure you have a ants make sure it forms an "L" shape. Color is a good way to ID, and area found.

Other than that theirs an easier way to collect colony's with a risk though!

Turning over stones.that are large and flat might result in a colony that is allready mature! But I dont sudgest digging it up, But if you turn it over see tons and tons of workers and then a larger ant this is more than likely a queen sweep her into a container, or if you have an Asperatior (aka pooter, hehehe ) suck her and at least 100 workers and some brood if you see any! dump them into the foraging area off you're setup, well assuming you have one!

Give them at least a week but always provide food, sugary at first and small amounts of protein, then move on to more protein and still stick with the same amount of sugar unless they are wiping it out fast! You learn over time how much food to give them, I know some one who gave their ants unlimited supply of roaches, I mean adding one a day, and then eventually 2 or some times 3 a day, this colony had to be moved 4 times but I lost track of the person and their colony I'm sure they had 3-4,000 ants (reaching full capacity for this species I believe) all from one queen in the time span of 3 years. VERY fast for an ant colony too!

I'm not sure what ealse to bring up but I'm sure you will ask a question I forgot!
Cheers!

 

[Gemeines]

This is all very good info.
I just want to verify, that when we see those annual swarms of larger ants with wings, Those are queens??

I always wondered about this. it happens every year in the same spot...

Thousands of winged ants take clumsy flight.
This may sound crazy but they smell good too. Im not kidding, like a lemon Pine sol smell.

Maybe its some kind of breeding pheromone?

I have lots of those chemist vials laying about. sooo,
When the time comes, should I just grab a dozen or so and hope one of them has mated?



Oh, and thank you nepenthes for all the information.

I have always been a fan of ants too. I just still have much more to learn.

 

[nepenthes]

I believe you about the pine sol smell, but a few things, where do you live? At least down to state would be fine (like "Im in South Western Ohio" would be fine), if you're worried about that kind of thing. Now when was the swarm? And where was it? It sounds allot like Lasius umbratus but I cant be certain!

Its not a pheromone, just a deafens mechanism to keep predators away, allot of people describe the smell as Citronella.

 

[cliff]

I live in north central Nevada. We have many ant colonies in the desert which I believe are a Pogonomrymex sp. (harvester ants). What would you recommend as the best type habitat for these and what to feed.

Thanks

Cliff

 

[nepenthes]

Harvester's are fun!

They are a good species to build one of the vertical set ups. Not laid down flat like mine, or you could make plaster set ups like mine with one twist.

Allot of harvesters (I think maybe all) Have a way of making their nest They don't tend to be sporadic and just random
0-\
|-o

for chambers and tunnel instead they do more like this they have lots of structure an organization

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So you could make set ups big enough for the workers and queen to get through the tunnels and the make the tunnels vertical like that. Harvester ants require seeds and some meat, and honey! I would give variety in seeds. I can show you an Idea on how to make a plaster set up good for Harvester ants. But I cant be 100 percent sure it would work! :?

 

[cliff]

Harvester's are fun!

They are a good species to build one of the vertical set ups. Not laid down flat like mine, or you could make plaster set ups like mine with one twist.

Allot of harvesters (I think maybe all) Have a way of making their nest They don't tend to be sporadic and just random
0-\
|-o

for chambers and tunnel instead they do more like this they have lots of structure an organization

------|---
---|------
|---------

So you could make set ups big enough for the workers and queen to get through the tunnels and the make the tunnels vertical like that. Harvester ants require seeds and some meat, and honey! I would give variety in seeds. I can show you an Idea on how to make a plaster set up good for Harvester ants. But I cant be 100 percent sure it would work! :?

I would love to see your idea! I am planning on trying a colony in the spring. The local grasses are most likely what they eat so I was thinking grass seed, rye etc. would be a good vegetative food source. Vegetative dynamics here are primarily sage and short grasses and forbs.

Cliff

 

[nepenthes]

Ill draw it out, but it would be a tough first time Plaster attempt! but you could always Make a petri dish set up until you get a chance to attempt the plaster.

but me If I were you, I would be looking for Honey pot ants which name escapes me at the moment.

 

[cliff]

I have done some research and the honeypot ants in my area (myrmecocystus testaceus) apparently are found in the same areas as the pogos. I will do further research on them. What type of formicarium do you suggest for the honey pots?

Cliff

 

[nepenthes]

Uhmmm Plaster Would work I guess... Bigger chambers I would think I don't know any thing about Myrmecocystus sp's other than that if you feed them to much honey allot of the Repletes (the callow workers that hold honey until they get older) will fill up and just do nothing. Ill let some one who knows about them chime in if not I can do some research.