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I finally captured a live mated queen!

Dominus said:
All but one have workers. They are all doing quite well. The big colony gets unlimited resources so they would have plenty to feed their young and make more babies.

Despite popular belief, ants are rather inactive if they got enough food and water. My bf and I discussed about this. If we want to see them more active, then we need to ration their food. They will naturally be more active to forage for food. But we came to the conclusion that we don't wanna limit their food just for our entertainment. So they will continue to get plenty of food and sugar water.

That said, because they have plenty of food, almost all of them stay in their nest all the time to take care of their eggs and young. We have a red film over the nest so we can watch them. Ants can't see red light so to them it's total darkness.View attachment 2164470
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This is all very interesting...but only from a JUB distance. thumbsup.gif
 
Here is a picture this morning.

20230819_102009.jpg

Again, ants can't see red so to them it is dark in there. And we can watch them.

On the right are tubes of water and sugar water. The nest is in that white glass thing on the left. There are 2 groups of ants in the nest. Those who are tending to the eggs and pupae on the left side and those who are guarding the nest entrance on the right.

Here is the interesting thing. The ones that hang out outside in the water tubes. They regularly take turn going inside the nest and feed everybody sugar water. That's their job. These ants have 2 stomachs. 1 for themselves and a social stomach. What they store in the social stomach they can regurgitate to feed others.

I've spent hours watching them going back and forth getting sugar water and feeding the others back in the nest.

What's really important are the insects I drop in every day. That's protein that the queen uses to make more eggs and the young use to grow. The adult ants only really need sugar to live.

I managed to track the queen for about a day a few weeks ago before I lost her in that swarm. The thing that makes a queen so hard to find is these critters tend to be all over her and on top of her, I guess, to protect her. She is undoubtedly in the left somewhere because I keep seeing new eggs. She's in there somewhere still pumping out eggs.
 
So D., this ant colony seems to have grown fairly quickly. What happens when you get so many ants that they have outgrown the space you've provided for them?
 
cityboy-stl said:
So D., this ant colony seems to have grown fairly quickly. What happens when you get so many ants that they have outgrown the space you've provided for them?
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Soon I will get them a much bigger terrarium. Bf and I are planning out how to build their next nest that's simple and can accommodate a much bigger colony. The bigger the colony the better!
 
Dominus said:
Again, ants can't see red so to them it is dark in there. And we can watch them.
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Do you ever wonder if perhaps we are ants to some other beings whose existence we're unaware of? Maybe they set the world up and installed a screen or filter which is beyond our senses, and they've been sitting there watching it all with amused detachment for thousands of years like Kang and Kodos in The Simpsons.

Dominus said:
What's really important are the insects I drop in every day. That's protein that the queen uses to make more eggs and the young use to grow.
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Would they eat anything else, like dead mealworms? You can farm those at home using food waste. Even eat them yourself if you get desperate.
 
So, I was out back of one of my properties cutting and trimming tree branches.

20230905_191420.jpg


Anyway, holy cow I caught 2 more componotus queens. I'm now up to 4 camponotus queens and 3 tetramorium queens.

I've put the 2 new camponotus queens in their own test tubes. Hopefully, these are mated queens and will begin to lay eggs.
 
It's been a long winter hibernation for the ants. First of all, we did not lower the temperature in their enclosures. So I don't know how they knew it was winter and all went to sleep.

Anyway, they are starting to get active again. The really big colony is out hunting again. We give them plenty of crickets and sugar water.

For the past year, there's been a question lingering in my mind. We never adequately identified the queen in the big colony we have. Go back and read starting post 70 if you don't know what I'm talking about. So, for all we know we never got a queen in this colony.

Well, they are starting to have eggs and pupae again. Which confirms 100% that their queen is in there somewhere.

1000007699.jpg

They just woke up from their hibernation so not many eggs. There are clusters of eggs in random places. The picture just shows 1 cluster. And every time we throw in crickets they get all over them right away. We will try to grow this colony to see how big they can get.
 
Wow. I was just thinking about this thread over the weekend. I forgot the title and couldn't find it.

Does the amount of sunlight have something to do with hibernation, rather than temperature?
 
cityboy-stl said:
Wow. I was just thinking about this thread over the weekend. I forgot the title and couldn't find it.

Does the amount of sunlight have something to do with hibernation, rather than temperature?
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I don't know. But we have them in a glass cabinet. Away from sunlight. In the living room. No idea how they knew it was winter as we kept the place at 70 degree.
 
I wonder if they sense that the fuel they took in the last time they fed has run out and they need to eat. Do they all come out of hibernation at the same time or does it start with one or two early birds who go around stirring up the others?
 
Essex Boy said:
I wonder if they sense that the fuel they took in the last time they fed has run out and they need to eat. Do they all come out of hibernation at the same time or does it start with one or two early birds who go around stirring up the others?
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In the winter there was no movement at all. They looked dead. We always put food and water in there just in case and never once did they get them. Early in March we started seeing 2 or 3 actually moving around. Then a few more. Eventually a couple dozens were actively wandering around. Earlier this month (april) we started seeing eggs being laid again. And all the food are gone on a daily basis now. The whole colony is now active again.

Right now we typically put in 4 large crickets a day and those crickets are completely gone by the end of the day. The earliest eggs laid this year have started turning into larvae. Soon they will turn into pupae and then new ants for the colony.

This particular colony is very quickly outgrowing their home. Later this year we will have to build them a new home.

Last year they doubled in size.

This is the main nest. They also got scouts everywhere in the enclosure always looking for new resources.

1000007711.jpg

I must admit I'm having trouble finding the queen. Again I know for sure she is in there. The colony is still growing and very organized. She must be completely surrounded by guards in the middle there because I can't find her after a couple hours of staring at it.
 
Update on this.

My bf and I decided to release all the colonies we got. This included 7 queens with nanitics and a giant colony pictured above. We put them out in the wooded area behind our house 2 days ago. One more hobby we can cross off the list on our bucket list.

This morning I went back there to check and the big colony is still living in the glass nest I built them. They're in a good place. Should have plenty of resources out there for them.
 
I have a question. It doesn't matter now. Have you ever thought of adding vitamin drops to the sugar water? I use to buy the stuff for my cockatiels and it seemed to be a good thing.

I'm just wondering if it's a good thing to add to the hummingbird water.

Thanks for posting about your ants. Real interesting.
 
fredroy said:
I have a question. It doesn't matter now. Have you ever thought of adding vitamin drops to the sugar water? I use to buy the stuff for my cockatiels and it seemed to be a good thing.

I'm just wondering if it's a good thing to add to the hummingbird water.

Thanks for posting about your ants. Real interesting.
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LOL I have no idea.

We got a hummingbird feeder in the back window and all we put is sugar and water. We attract many hummingbirds there.
 
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