#antkeeping — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #antkeeping, aggregated by home.social.
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Came across this dramatic scene in the park today: These two Messor Barbarus beauties are locked in a territorial dispute. Both individuals belong to the 'Major' worker caste, easily identifiable by their size. These are soldiers from different colonies fighting for dominance. Notice how caked their gasters are with dirt, a sign of a long fight, since they use to be very clean. A fight of titans in miniature.
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I gave them food but they are scared of it.
I will post a census of the dueling queens later and we will see who is ahead now that the pavement ant queen’s brood has “popped”
They all came to life in a one hour stretch at the same time! Suddenly there is so much movement in the tube. They are so tiny it makes my heart ache.
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My Tetramorium immigrans (pavement ant) queen has made excellent progress. Her larvae are now pupae. (you can tell because they are now ant-shaped with legs) immigrans does not spin silk cocoons as my carpenter ants do. The queen keeps them clean and safe as they develop— she is their cocoon.(look at the second photo to see the progress she has made in just one week)
#antqueen #antkeeping #tetramorium #tetramoriumimmigrans #nature #petant #ants
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Just used this tool today. I thought she only had 11 workers but no, there are 15 now!
This is an excellent tool for counting your ants. I need to convince the guy who made it to get rid of that horrible image ... it sells the tool short.
It's impossible to count ants when they are moving around. And I would have missed the one hiding under the queen.
Why are they so cute?
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“we little ants are starving… it very sad please feed us more bugs”
(You can see the queen on the right in this photo. She has never had a distended gaster in all the five years that I’ve known her. She nonetheless lays a lot of eggs)
#camponotus #CamponotusPennsylvanicus #antkeeping #ants -
They have moved into the new home and sealed the door (but only after eating most of the food I offered) They choose the second most humid chamber of three options.
Last week there were four workers, now there are six! and more on the way.
You can track the growth of this colony from the day that I found this queen here: https://sauropods.win/tags/antqueen
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The new colony has moved.
They left an egg behind so I decided to give it to my much larger (nearly 5 year old) Camponotus pennsylvanicus colony. I made a paper tool to gently move it. When they noticed the paper they seemed aggressive at first— but, then one ant gently picked up the egg to take it “back” to the nest.
One of this colony is now from a different queen and I will never know, her sisters will never know— even *she* will never know who she is!
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I've hooked the queen and her now FOUR nantics to a new outworld with a better nesting option.
Her daughters are nervously exploring the new space until they get freaked out and run back to mom.
It's amazing to watch.
#queenant #antqueen #antkeeping #ants #petant #carpenterants #camponotus #camponotusPennsylvanicus
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Her pupae have begun to hatch!
Here is a link where you can find her whole journey:
https://sauropods.win/tags/antqueen -
She is such a good mother! Five pupae now!
And still more larvae to go. She was very calm for the photos this time. #antqueen #carpenterant #antkeeping #petant
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Queen ant update!
Her brood pile is the same size as her body almost. She has five larvae in silk pupae ready to grow up to be nanitics (in about two weeks)
She’s doing great living in the fountain pen drawer. #antqueen #ants #antkeeping #camponotus #nycants
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It is unreasonable that any bug could be this cute! when I open the drawer she always carefully picks up her eggs. She’s holding the most mature larva and it’s silk cocoon in the first photo. I guess she’s ready to run and start over if needed. What an incredible mother.
If you look back through this thread you can see how far she's come!
#ants #antqueen #antkeeping #carpenterAnts #camponotus #camponotusPennsylvanicus
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Queen update!
She has two larvae ready to spin their silk cocoons, and one that has already cocooned itself and started to pupate and mature. As a treat, I soaked a grain of bee pollen in a bit of sugar water and fed it to her. She seemed delighted with it, and I hope it made up for the bright lights of the photo session. Here she is eating her treat. (Better photos of the cocoon in the next post. ) #antkeeping #petant #ants #antqueen
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Queen in a drawer. A test tube can seem like a small space for such a large, majestic insect, but this mimics what she would have built or found for herself in the wild, a narrow hollow under bark, a repurposed carpenter bee burrow, or a hole excavated with her own mandibles queen ants seal themselves in creating a space with no exit, total darkness and seclusion to maximize moisture and avoid discovery.
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Hey bug-lovers. A great new ant video just dropped from SyneAnts. He's just getting his channel going and the video has only 3 views. Why not stop by and say hi?
Ant keeping in NZ is kind of like "hard mode" for the hobby as the islands have only 11 native species due to the recent glacial past. It's a fascinating example of taxonomic radiation in action.
#ants #insects #bugs #cute #CuteAnimals #antArmy #videos #youTube #newZealand #nz #antKeeping
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Ayer #hormigueando capturé unas reinas de Pheidole pallidula, a ver si esta vez consigo que alguna me dé una colonia grande y hambrienta.
Si alguien en #Valladolid ciudad me ayuda con alguna pistita o consejo, por ejemplo por dónde hay más posibilidades, para conseguir reinas de las #hormigas Camponotus sp., especialmente Camponotus cruentatus, Formica rufibarbis o cualquiera que vuele estas fechas, se agradece.
Mi zona de caza suele ser por la facultad de Filosofía y alrededores, por si a alguien le interesa. Ahí he visto reinas y princesas de Camponotus cruentatus, C. aethiops, Pheidole pallidula, Crematogaster auberti, Lasius grandis…
(AVISO: mis identificaciones pueden ser imprecisas, no soy ningún experto)
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Been working on some outworlds (foraging areas) for some Pogonomyrmex ants. Made with a high heel shoe box, some custom 3D printed fittings, Ultracal 30 and some Arizona sand.
Sorry no banana for scale, but would fit inside for sure.
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Yeah my carpenter ants need more space to explore… look at how they have slowly gnawed down this tube. So today I hooked up a new outworld for them. #antkeeping #happyants #ants #antposting
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My carpenter ants have a small pile of "winter brood" as soon as it gets warm they are ready to increase in numbers. I can't wait to give them more places to explore #ants #CamponotusPennsylvanicus #carpenterAnts #antkeeping
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My Camponotus americanus queen (an uncommon species I find here during flights), has the biggest brood yet of any #Camponotus queen I've ever raised. Curious if related to the new dirt/clay nest type I've been testing, or just a queen that's a bit more prone to egg laying
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They are such beautiful ants! You *almost* forget how ravenous, warlike and sneaky they are!
The queens are all about the same shade of yellow/orange— which shows they all emerged at once. As their exoskeletons harden, their color will darken. In this species the wings are almost black—very striking! I hope the next batch isn’t all males— though this colony is massive— to think there were only 8 of them years ago.
(read alt text to learn how to spot a queen ant!) #antkeeping #ants #camponotus -
My carpenter ant colony takes up two bookshelves. They have two "outworlds" or places to find food and do ant stuff. They have three nesting spaces. (More about the setup in the alt text. )
Glass on antkeeping enclosures often has a hazy look. We use "fluon" to keep the ants from climbing out. It basically makes a powdery slippery layer near the top of the glass that ants struggle to climb. I wish I could find a solution that didn't look so messy.
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FYI for ant fans in Oregon, one of the formiculture forum members has started a small ant concern selling local species and some basic supplies.
I have not shopped with them, but were they in NY I'd be interested! Out west ya'll are lucky to have so many ant shops (there are a few good ones in CA too)
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This is how I return escaped ants to their home. This works great for one or two ants. If there are more than that I get the aspirator. #antkeeping #anttips
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New outworld and nest for the tiny cone ants. A little slice of desert for them to explore. #antkeeping
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Watch "My Queen Ants Died, Covered in Mites" on YouTube
> My queen ants have died and I found them covered in a swarm of mites who were devouring their dead bodies.
#AntsCanada #YellowCrazyAnts #AntKeeping #Ants -
Look at this big beautiful carpenter ant major from my Camponotus pennsylvanicus colony! I picked her up with the paint brush and just let her wander around on my hand for a bit. She's so gentle and curious.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/tMaD2fNfz0E
#CamponotusPennsylvanicus #ants #carpenterAnts #antkeeping #petAnts #antVideo
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It's been a few days since I've opened the enclosure for her colony, so she must have been lost in the apartment for several days. She managed to not get eaten by a spider or by #pica! (yes Pica will eat ants)
I gave her some sugar water before returning her to her home. #antVideo #camponotus #ants #antkeeping #antsOfMastodon #WithNarration
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My #Camponotus pennsylvanicus #ant colony had a nice population explosion this summer!
#AntKeeping #AntKeeper #CarpenterAnts #Myrmecology #entomology