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Post by occultus on May 24, 2015 0:03:49 GMT
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Post by occultus on May 23, 2015 22:57:35 GMT
New Nest - Day 41So today I was looking over my Camponotus vagus colony and thought things are getting a little too cramped for these guys. Its been harder to clean the set up lately and removing waste results in a squadron running up my arm. They are going to have a DIY formicarium that I built a few months back for just such an occasion. The materials used for this nest only cost me £5. I was lucky enough to catch the queen in the act leaving her test-tube and heading into the new set up. Took about 45 minutes for the entire colony to move out. They have moved into the first chamber room at the entrance of the nest. The video overview is coming up shortly.
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Post by occultus on May 23, 2015 11:10:16 GMT
Good thinking with the gelatine Wood. I'll pick some up at Asda today.
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Post by occultus on May 23, 2015 0:40:05 GMT
She never runs but walks about her set-up with confident and slow but sure steps. It's as if she knows that other animals should leave her be or else.
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Post by occultus on May 23, 2015 0:32:05 GMT
The queen has been lapping up quite a lot of sugar water from the test-tube so this is a good sign. She still hasn't touched any proteins yet. Last night I offered her a choice out of 1 mealworm, 1 mealworm pupae, 1 waxworm, 1 adult cricket. All were ignored. Found an interesting article about bullet ants not being able to tell the difference between solid and liquid food (check it out link). As long as the ants could detect enough carbohydrates they would lap up the solution like a liquid, if they didn't detect any carbs they would start chomping at the liquid as if it were an insect. This has given me an idea. I have created a solution of 1 raw egg, half a cup of milk and plenty of sugar. I then soaked a cotton wool bud into this solution and have left it inside the nest box. In theory the Queen should treat this like regular sugar water and hopefully the proteins that she absorbs will do her some good. I have frozen the rest of this mixture inside a freezer bag for later use. Tomorrow I'll see if she takes to this solution and if so I could try my other colonies with this.
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Post by occultus on May 21, 2015 23:14:11 GMT
Here is that video I promised. This was recorded shortly after I opened her test-tube up for the first time.
She hasn't accepted any foods yet
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Post by occultus on May 21, 2015 21:25:55 GMT
I just bookmarked this thread as I will be watching very closely . It might sound slightly mad but I would love a sting from the monsters I suffer from a strange medical condition and very uncommon in men called fibromyalgia so it will probably be just annoying to me.I snapped a finger a year back and I just reset it myself then using a cut down chop stick and duck tape made my repaire..next day at work my boss went nuts and I was dragged off to hospital,The nurse had to xray but my diy splint was the only way to sort a broken finger and we just laughed Ha ha that's a bit different mate. The sting from one of these is supposedly one of the worst pains known to man so I'm not in any rush to get stung. I will not wear gloves or anything, it'll be just like caring for a snake or tarantula. I don't want to get tagged so I'll give her plenty of respect and distance...Just cannot be coming home drunk and decide its a good idea to feed her lol
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Post by occultus on May 21, 2015 21:20:23 GMT
She is as big as this baby then Occultus? Winged female of the "bala" or bullet ant, Paraponera clavata Looks about the same size, nice photo!
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Post by occultus on May 21, 2015 17:34:46 GMT
One big lady. How long do you reckon Occultus, around 2 inches long? I'd say she's very close to 40mm. She measured 3/4 of my little finger. I want to measure her but worry about causing stress after transit.
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Post by occultus on May 21, 2015 12:50:00 GMT
She's Here!My Paraponera clavata queen has just arrived and she's huge! She looks to be in good health and has 3 eggs!! The Queen Looks very laid back and relaxed as she moves about. It made opening her test-tube much less of an ordeal. I do hope Queen Pandora does well, she is already exploring her new nest box. 3 nice large eggs, hopefully this suggests that she is fertile. Still getting my head around the fact that there's a bullet ant queen in my house. I'm uploading a video of her exploring her Formicarium for the first time. Sadly I start work at 3pm, wish I could stay home and make sure shes alright.
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Post by occultus on May 20, 2015 15:49:22 GMT
My Paraponera clavata queen that was purchased from ANTDEALER will be arriving any day now. Please post comments for this journal here on this thread.I thought that it would be helpful to show the set up that I have put together for Queen Pandora. Please note that this set up is built for practicality and not for looks. If I am lucky enough to get the queen to settle down and establish herself then I shall look at creating her a beautiful set-up...1 step at a time though aye. Here is Pandora's Box that she will be residing in . It has a 30 Liter capacity. This is a 3 meter heat cable that will supply warmth to the entire nest. The thermostat which will ensure Pandora doesn't roast, It will be set to 28 Celsius. I got the heat cable into position using parcel tape. Once everything was ready I secured it in place with aquarium silicone. I allowed it to dry for 48 hours. This Bug Barrier will be my form of escape prevention. Its essentially ptfe I never spray the ptfe on, instead I'll simply unscrew the nozzle and apply it on with a paint brush. The top 7 inches are covered with this. The base of the nest is covered with large clay granules to absorb water and release humidity. Hopefully these large ants will be unable to move the large pieces of clay. Water will be added to the nest through a small pipe on the outside. For substrate I will only be using coco fiber as this holds moisture well and has good mold resistance. 1 hydrometer - 80-90% humidity is what Ill aim for In the wild Paraponera clavata nest at the base of trees. I was going to ignore this fact but thought that it wouldn't hurt to try and place a small plastic aquarium plant inside the nest box. Put 4 small holes into the lid for humidity purposes. I'm not very handy with tools so I just used a soldering iron. All set and ready to go! I really hope she settles in well A few final touches
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Post by occultus on May 18, 2015 22:43:10 GMT
I really want to know what they are doing with all this meat I provide them with. They never refuse a meal but I cannot imagine them having so much brood that they need to gather a mouses carcass worth of protein just to feed the brood. I did find an interesting article about how Solenopsis invicta stored meat inside their nest as a kind of jerky to use at a later date when food is sparse link . Perhaps Solenopsis geminata do the same thing? It would explain why they're are always hungry I gave the girls another rat pup to feast on this evening, the horde came rushing out from their many nest entrances simultaneously. Incredibly organised. The pup is double the size this time so It should keep them busy for a day or two.
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Post by occultus on May 17, 2015 23:02:17 GMT
I started out with 31 workers on the 24/04 and last time I checked I had at-least 54 workers on 12/05. Speedy development considering this is a Camponotus species.
I add 3 micro crickets and the occasional wax worm moth for them to feed on each night, they must like them.
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Post by occultus on May 17, 2015 22:45:29 GMT
DISTURBING APPETITESo yesterday I thought it would be interesting to try out a new food source. I bought a baby rat pup for them to try(pre frozen of course, I'm not that sick ) I gave the rat pup to the colony at 7pm last night. This is a video recorded of the feeding reaction to the rat pup, they start gaining more momentum after 4 minutes. I wanted to show you guys a nice clean skeleton today but shockingly this morning there was nothing left, not even bones.. Befor: After:
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Post by occultus on May 17, 2015 21:24:24 GMT
This morning I have raised this colony a little higher up inside my Ant cupboard (the aquarium cupboard under the S.geminata set up). This means that the colony is a few degrees warmer and on closer inspection I can see that most of the brood was moved out of the test-tubes and are now gathered in the center of their set up.
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