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Post by deansyme on Jul 5, 2014 18:26:56 GMT
And tank 2 Attachments:
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Post by deansyme on Jul 6, 2014 8:56:00 GMT
If another couple of members could join in the experiment with similar set ups we could get a better idea on how to refine it.
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Post by deansyme on Jul 6, 2014 9:06:48 GMT
My hope is that if it works again this year I won't have to take another wild queen again, and since only take / farm some of the alates or cocoons from a nest, it has little impact on natural mating in the wild.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Jul 6, 2014 9:10:08 GMT
If another couple of members could join in the experiment with similar set ups we could get a better idea on how to refine it. The problem a lot of the time is finding nests with alate pupae, as ants that nest under stones are the best to find brood near the surface. By now many pupae have become adult ants, and all winged males and females will have eclosed ages ago and are ready to fly the nest. Worker brood is easier to find as long as the day is warm and sunny, as during cooler days this is taken deeper into the nest.
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Post by deansyme on Jul 6, 2014 10:36:20 GMT
Yes left it a bit late this year, I was lucky that many of the alates were still to hatch up here, where I get them from it was a case of going out on a nice day and when lifted their stones and other nest tops they were either at the surface or underside of the stone and easily brushed into holding containers
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Post by deansyme on Jul 9, 2014 9:47:24 GMT
Well interesting developments last night, while I was feeding the always hungry horde, I noticed 2 males mating with 1 queen, now given that there are over a hundred queens in there and no other males or queens were doing this, ( they always just sit with each other) it makes me wonder if they can sense when a queen is 'ready', ignoring the ones who are not. I left them for an hour or so and came back to a wingless queen in amongst them all. Now, I cannot guarantee that this is the same queen, however never noticed it before. this could just be a one off from some over excited males as the rest were not bothered by this going on, or it could be the way of things to come.As soon as a queen is ready she will be pounced upon. There are still many to emerge from cocoons so wasn’t expecting this so soon. also I noticed 3-4 dead males this morning, again this might or might not have anything to do with last night. I have my camera on charge now and will film any future matings I find
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Post by Wood~Ant on Jul 9, 2014 10:10:04 GMT
Like many other insects, animals, birds or fish, ant queens give of a kind of musk scent (mating pheromones) to show they are ready to mate. This seems to me what this particular queen has done Dean, as this would explain why the males singled her out and not any of the other virgin queens.
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Post by deansyme on Jul 9, 2014 19:06:41 GMT
Well I misted the tank earlier and returned around 45 minutes later to 5-6 queens mating. My video quality aint great but hope you can see what's going on. I also point out a wingless queen I mentioned in the previous post acting very queen like. Really hoping that I get 100 -200 queens, and signs are good so far. I also notied that they seem more 'excited' when the tempreture is higher and been misted.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Jul 9, 2014 19:57:45 GMT
Focus is a bit blurred, but you can still get the general scene of the matings. You have a lot of nice young potential queens there Dean.
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Post by deansyme on Jul 9, 2014 20:21:09 GMT
I think so far the main triggers and points to follow are, only a few workers, enough to do chores and housekeeping etc, and misting of tank, as in the wild I read they often mate after rainstorms as it softens the ground for the young queens to dig quickly.
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Post by James O'Neill on Jul 10, 2014 14:19:25 GMT
Would it work to collect alates which have already eclosed - and if so, can they have left the nest, or still be in the nest?
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Post by deansyme on Jul 10, 2014 19:28:12 GMT
I collected mine from nests, some were hatched some were not.
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Post by fraggs on Jul 25, 2014 1:31:19 GMT
This is a really interesting project, one which you've beaten me to. I had thought about this but many people discourage it as it's claimed all alates need to fly in order to successfully mate.
Any chance of more details of the set up and possibly pictures of the whole setups being used.
Thanks.
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Hibernating
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Post by Deleted on Aug 19, 2014 20:13:12 GMT
If you could do this with American ants a lot of people would be happy because American ant queens usually cost a bit more because they have to pay to get them out of America. This way you could make tropical ants more affordable and if you could do it with Atta ( yes I know how impossible that is ) you could make a small fortune.
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Post by deansyme on Apr 26, 2015 10:18:45 GMT
Hey all! Update! I ended up with around 40 queens which now all have eggs and larvae ( they a bit late as kept in a garage) Will post some images later
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