Formica fusca colony.

[Blem12]

Good evening,

I am happy to say that I now own a small colony of what I believe to be either Formica fusca or Fumica lemani.

But before starting the journal, let me tell you guys how I obtained this colony.

It was a couple of days ago when I obtained the colony.
I decided to meet up with a friend from school to go to Richmond Park, in order to see if we could witness up-close any stag beetles (Lucanus cervus) or any Nuptial flights.


I have to say that I really enjoyed my day there as we were able to witness two stunning, adult male stag beetles. I was very impressed by the shear size of them.

My friend, although he does not really like ants, he is fascinated by these gentle giants (stag beetles).
He wanted to keep one but I had to remind him that this species of stag beetle is protected in the UK.

After watching and observing the stag beetles we headed upward were there is more variety of ant species.

There were several nests of different ant species such as:

- Temnothorax nylanderi.
- Lasius flavus.
- Lasius niger.
- Myrmica rubra/ruginodis.
- Tetramorium spec.

All of which I had previously seen before.

Most of these species still had alates left in their nest, giving me hope that I could catch any Temnothorax or Tetramorium queens at a later date.

I kept on walking and walking with my friend until we sat down on a rotten log surrounded by many other small pieces of rotting wood.

Just as we were about to leave, my friend started complaining about being bitten by insects down his leg (He was wearing short trousers). After a quick inspection I realized that they were in fact, ants!

Not the typical naughty Lasius niger workers but Formica fusca/lemani workers!

Although my friend started complaining even more, I, on the other hand started to get happier and happier as when I looked closely on the ground, I saw that under most of the rotting wood, were several colonies of this species!

On closer inspection, it seemed that there were about 4 colonies or so.
I decided to get out my pooter in order to obtain part of one of the colony's.

In the colony, that I was trying to obtain part of it, had around 8 or 9 queens and many workers and brood.

I remembered what Wood had told me regarding the Myrmica rubra colony that I obtained so I decided to just take 2 queens, 30 - 40 workers and a couple of larvae and pupae. I also took quite a handful of rotting wood as I planned to use some for my set up, in order to feel more natural for the ants.

After collecting the ants, my friend and I bought two ice-creams in order to celebrate our little discoveries of the insects we very much love.

When I finally got home, I quickly prepared a small habitat for them (now their foraging area) out of small pieces of the rotting wood and sand until my Ant jungle set up arrived.

Here attached, was their temporary set up:



I used sand for the base and carefully placed the small pieces of rotting wood before adding the ants.
They quickly got settled and started to dig into the pieces of wood and into the sand.


Yesterday:

The Ant jungle set up finally arrived. I bought this set up from eBay as a bid, only paying £3.25 for the set up.

Here attached, are a couple of pictures:





After a couple of hours of receiving the set up I began putting everything together in order to connect it to what was, their temporary set up (now their foraging area).

I first started placing a ''bridge'' from one end of the ramp to the other. I used a piece of plastic jungle vine (from my hermit crabs) as a bridge, which can be seen here:



After placing the bridge, I started preparing the medium in which my ants would dig.
I wanted to make it very natural for them so what I did as following:

Firstly, I connected the electric seed grinder, which my mother surprisingly, allowed me to.
I got several handfuls of the rotting pieces of wood and placed bit by bit into the grinder, as you can see here :



Afterward I placed the grounded wood into a small bowl which was then mixed with sand, as you can see here (Please note that this was only a bit of the grounded wood as I was only just starting) :



Secondly, I started filling the Ant jungle set up with the medium I had prepared. To do this I had to flip the Ant jungle in order to pour in the medium through two, big gaps as seen here:





Before being able to flip the Ant jungle set up back I had to cover the two, big gaps.
To my surprise, to fill the gaps I had to use STICKERS to seal them off!

I knew there was going to be a problem since knowing that to seal the gaps I had to use the sticker provided. After many failed attempts of placing the stickers (they would just come off thus allowing ants to escape) I hatched up a plan.

I got my cutter and a piece of of CD plastic cover. I measured both gaps and started to cut out two plastic cut outs of the gaps. I finally stuck them to the gaps using my hot mini glue gun and voila!

But it was not over yet, when I tried to place the Ant jungle set up into the base it would not fit!
After many attempts of trying to smoothen the edges of the plastic cut outs I came up with an idea.

I got the base of the Ant Jungle set up and poured in boiling water (This would cause the base particles to vibrate vigorously enabling the base to expand).

I quickly got the water out and placed the Ant jungle in! This proved to be a success.
Here attached, is a picture of the Ant jungle nearly finished:



Finally, I made a hole in the foraging box in order to attach some plastic tubing which would then connect to the Ant jungle set up.

Here is a picture attached:



I then, connected the foraging box to the Ant jungle, completing the whole set up as you can see here:



I will most probably write a review on the Ant jungle set up, in order to make members aware of the positive and negative aspects of this product.

Today:

As of today, part of the colony (1 queen, 20 workers or so and brood) is now residing in the Ant Jungle set up whereas the other part of the colony still remains in their foraging box.

Thank you for reading,

Blem12.

P.S : Please ignore the date stamps on the pictures as my camera is faulty and sorry for the long post.

( If you have any questions or comments, please post them here: queenant.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=nativecomment&action=display&thread=4675 )

[Blem12]

Hello,

here's an update:

First of all, I would like to say that this colony is most probably Formica fusca not Formica lemani.

I am very happy as I have seen that both queens have now settled in the Ant Jungle farm with most of the workers and brood. Some of the workers are still residing in the foraging box but I hope that with time, they will move to the Ant Jungle farm with their fellow sisters.

I am also very excited as I have noticed new batches of eggs being carried by the workers through the plastic tubing into the Ant Jungle farm.

Also, I have observed that their favourite foods are as following:

- Flies.
- Banana Ant Jelly.
- Crickets.
- Honey water.

And finally, I fed all my ant colonies including this one with some sponge cake which seems to be going down rather well, as all the sisters take small pieces back into their nest to be shared.

Thanks,

Blem12.

( If you have any questions or comments, please post them here: queenant.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=nativecomment&action=display&thread=4675 )

[Blem12]

Good morning,

here's an update:

These girls seem to be slowing down as there only seems to be one worker foraging unlike in the previous weeks where there would be at least 10 workers foraging.

All the colony has moved to the Ant Jungle to my surprise.
They have dug two tunnels which connect to three medium-sized chambers at the bottom of the Ant Jungle.

It seems that the queens have stopped laying as most of the brood are all larvae.

Thanks,

Blem12.

( If you have any questions or comments, please post them here: queenant.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=nativecomment&action=display&thread=4675 )

[Blem12]

Good morning,

here's an update:

Despite being this time of year these girls have not hibernated fully yet as they still continue to forage (in small numbers). Their favourites seem to be crickets and ant jelly.

There has been quite a noticeable nest expansion.

They have quite a lot of brood which include eggs and larvae. I have seen both of the queens and they seem to be doing well as they are nice and round ;D .

Thanks,

Blem12.

( If you have any questions or comments, please post them here: queenant.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=nativecomment&action=display&thread=4675 )

[Blem12]

Good morning,

Being in December, these girls have now gone into hibernation showing minimalistic activity.
There have not been any deaths.

No brood is present, I believe that they have either been eaten, kept in a an area which I cannot see or simply have eclosed.

Best regards,

Blem12.


( If you have any questions or comments, please post them here: queenant.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=nativecomment&thread=4675&page=1 )

[Blem12]

It has been a while since I have updated my journals, and I apologise for that.

This colony is doing well and although they are still in hibernation, I can sometimes see 1 or 2 workers foraging. They have started to take interest in insects and sugary liquids as I placed some honey and after a couple of minutes there were 8 workers drinking avidly. I kept on observing and it was amazing to see how the gasters expanded bit by bit.

Luckily, I was able to witness one of the queens. She seemed healthy to my relief.
Here is a photo.



Click on it to view it in full size and you should be able to see the queen heading towards a chamber.

Well, that's it for now.
Thanks for reading,

Blem12.


( If you have any questions or comments, please post them here: queenant.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=nativecomment&thread=4675&page=1 )

[Blem12]

Good morning,

the colony is in full swing! More than a dozen of eggs have been laid by each queen! There are quite a few pupae and some callows have emerged!

They are actively foraging. I have noticed that they are not very keen on some insects such as meal worms but love insects such as crickets or earth worms.

Also, when I was studying, I noticed something crawling on my leg, what was it? A Formica fusca worker! I immediately put her back and searched for any possible escape routes and found a small hole which could possibly be it, so I sealed with a bit of silicone

Thanks,
Blem12.

[Blem12]

Good morning,

what can I say? This colony is doing great with a great abundance of brood and the new emergence of several callows.

They have been taking in all sorts of insects; bluebottles, crickets, grasshoppers, spiders...
And they also seem to be very fond of apple and banana flavoured ant jelly as you can see in the photo



Thanks,
Blem12

[Blem12]

Good morning,

it has been a while since I updated this journal
These ants continue to do well. However, they are now in hibernation mode. I started introducing them to hibernation in the last few weeks of October. They still readily take honey water but do not seem to accept any insects.

Thanks for reading,
Blem12.

[Blem12]

Hello,

there has not been much change as they are in hibernation. As I said in my previous update, they do not seem to accept any insects and hardly honey water. The queens are in separate chambers at the moment tended by their daughters.

Thanks for reading,
Blem12.