Solenopsis Geminata

[timl]

This place in the forum seemed as good as any  

SO IT BEGINS

Wish me good luck

[occultus]

Good luck with your future Empire mate. They are a challenging species but also very rewarding.

[Wood~Ant]

I will follow this journal closely, as I love this species and once kept them. I may try them again sometime if I can get the warmth and humidity right in a nest. Good luck with your colony.

[timl]

Current set up, large container with PTFE walls. (on the left Erratic Ants, On far right a test tube surrounded by Occultus' handy work with Lasius Niger in, T**H***Ants Formicarium with Camponotus Barbaricus in) In the center I currently have the Solenopsis still in their test tube in the dark while I decide what their home will be.

The set up is just being kept warm at the moment by a single heat-mat which according to those cheap thermometers is keeping the end of the Solenopsis at about 24C and 22C at the edge of the container.

[timl]

Just found out that Ants Canada are going to be doing a Christmas 20% off sale.... might have to treat these girls to an Omni nest (is it ok to mention companies like Ants Canada or Tarheelants?)

Mini Update, I have moved the test tube into a temporary home which is a Lunch box type container with PTFE walls and a thin layer of white stoney/sand. I have given them a cotton bud soaked in water and honey and 1 tiny dead cricket. Both of which they have fed from. I have yet to see the workers explore too far and so have not seen how effective my attempt at putting the PTFE on has gone. Time will tell

[Jenny]

Nov 27, 2016 17:20:22 GMT timl said:

Just found out that Ants Canada are going to be doing a Christmas 20% off sale.... might have to treat these girls to an Omni nest (is it ok to mention companies like Ants Canada or Tarheelants?)

You do need to read the reviews on the omni nests as the ones I read some time ago were not good, and neither was his after care. Many people never received their orders and when they did the shipping was through the roof. He has too many fingers in too many pies for it to be a quality business. Tarheel however gets good reviews, excellent nests but again expensive shipping. But you don't read about unhappy customers unlike Ants Canada.

[timl]

Aww that is a shame, I see what you mean I have an order from antkit arriving at some point. So I will be seeing if that would survive these girls. I will probably get something nice and fancy from tarheel for the arena and main nest and leave expansions for acrylic nests

[Wood~Ant]

I find that the acrylic nests made by Anthouse in Spain work well. Many of my own ant colonies are homed in these and thrive, or you can get jeoff82 to make one as I have an acrylic nest made by him which is fine for ants.

[timl]

Well I finally got my AntKit starter kit after a month of waiting so my girls will have a much more proper home until their numbers get a lot higher. Annoyingly though the lid to the outworld only has half the air holes going through fully so half are just dimples.... but oh well.

[Black Ant]

You could try using a hot needle held in pliers to make the extra air holes. 

[timl]

Think I'll just leave it be, its only a tiny colony that doesnt even really need an outworld yet and theres air holes in the nest itself. I tend to make things worse in my experience if I try to do things like that xD

[timl]

Oh dear, sad news about the fire at AntKit. Hopefully they will get back in business in the future

[timl]

About 2 weeks ago I put a second smaller test tube that came with my antkit nest into the outworld on the other side to the massive test tube that the colony came in. There are currently 2 heat pads in the large container that the set up is in. One is temp controlled to about 26C and the other is just on keeping the corner with the smaller test tube at about 25C - 27C constantly and the other side of the nest varies from 22C - 26C throughout the day.

The colony has now moved into the smaller test tube (still hasn't decided to move into the nest yet but I've seen workers go in there) and there is now a blob of eggs/larvae at various stages. Although this test tube is surrounded with a cotton wool bud to keep it darker so it's hard to tell.

So far I've fed them 2 - 3 fruit flies every couple days. I have tried giving them a little honey and a chunk of protein jelly as well as a little bit of giant mealworm and a small cricket. By far the fruit flies have gone down the best and them plus the heat I think is the main reason the queen started laying again since I got her. Will try and give them a little apple and fragments of nut/seed to see if that interests them over the next couple days.

Current worker count is at about 5 or 6 down from about 9 - 10 but think that was just due to time and the disturbance/change of their surroundings and hopefully this batch of brood will get their numbers back up over the next couple weeks

[timl]

Well no idea if the Brazilian Nut fragments interested them at all as I've been trying my hardest to not check up on them too often. I also have no idea if they enjoyed any of the tiny flake of tuna I also dropped in their outworld. I also tried giving them a tiny bit of jelly protein but again since there are only 4 or 5 workers that wander the outworld I can imagine them enjoying a nibble now and then and it wouldn't show.

Good news, last time I checked there was a good pile of eggs and some later stages of brood! I foresee hopefully that the brood will double over the next couple weeks (since solenopsis are so explosive) I will try stay skeptical and not get my hopes up too much. I would say there's a good ball of maybe 15 eggs and 8 or 9 other stages. I assume that the low (if you can call that low) rate of egg laying has been due to the winter temps in my house and the effects of traveling... maybe. Hopefully I can get some more crickets and fruitflies soon since they haven't seemed to be interested in anything else I've given them so far. I gather once there are more mouths to feed their picky-ness will disappear.

[occultus]

Hi mate, what temperatures are you keeping the Solenopsis geminata at?
They are most productive at 28 Celsius. Try to have fresh protein inside the outworld at all times like a cut in half cricket. The sheer abundance of food makes these girls overly produce and they enjoy drinking the fresh fluids from prey.