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Post by myrm on May 9, 2015 8:02:31 GMT
Here I will have a journal about my current Lasius umbratus journal. You may comment directly on this board.
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Post by myrm on May 10, 2015 10:00:26 GMT
10 May 2015, Sunday
Ant Room 20.4*C Heat Mat (15 watt): On Outside weather: Overcast but mild.
I just gave them two freshly killed crickets and two wax worms, all cut up.
Total so far in my Dermy-style OFC: 59 PIC
KK, well normally it’s my Lasius niger that are the naughty ones, but this morning it was my Lasius umbratus that had their naughty bottoms smacked today. This morning I woke up to find approximately 60-80 umbies out of their tank, on the box thing that my ant farms stand on and on the floor. I am not sure how they got out (though I suspect it was my not putting the lid on properly), and I am not sure why they were out, as in what they had found. I suspect it was probably an escaped Lasius niger worker or two. So I spent the first hour of my day scooping up escaped ants, using the shaving brush method which I find vary effective, though more effective on the nigers than the umbies.
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Post by Formica123 on May 10, 2015 11:15:31 GMT
10 May 2015, SundayAnt Room 20.4*C Heat Mat (15 watt): On Outside weather: Overcast but mild. I just gave them two freshly killed crickets and two wax worms, all cut up. Total so far in my Dermy-style OFC: 59 PICKK, well normally it’s my Lasius niger that are the naughty ones, but this morning it was my Lasius umbratus that had their naughty bottoms smacked today. This morning I woke up to find approximately 60-80 umbies out of their tank, on the box thing that my ant farms stand on and on the floor. I am not sure how they got out (though I suspect it was my not putting the lid on properly), and I am not sure why they were out, as in what they had found. I suspect it was probably an escaped Lasius niger worker or two. So I spent the first hour of my day scooping up escaped ants, using the shaving brush method which I find vary effective, though more effective on the nigers than the umbies. If that happened to me, I'd get my whole house sprayed with pesticides The colony is getting quite big now I guess.
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Post by myrm on May 10, 2015 14:07:21 GMT
It is getting bigger now and there is a vary good number of brood of all developmental stages present
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Post by myrm on May 23, 2015 11:38:49 GMT
22 May 2015, Friday
Ant Room 20.5*C Heat Mat (15 watt): On Outside weather: Cloudy but warm,
I just gave them two freshly killed crickets and two wax worms, all cut up.
Total so far in my Dermy-style OFC: 63 PIC
Just realised; this isn't much of a OFC as I only seem to feed them at weekends. I need to start stepping things up. >.<
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Post by Formica123 on May 23, 2015 12:36:12 GMT
22 May 2015, FridayAnt Room 20.5*C Heat Mat (15 watt): On Outside weather: Cloudy but warm, I just gave them two freshly killed crickets and two wax worms, all cut up. Total so far in my Dermy-style OFC: 63 PICJust realised; this isn't much of a OFC as I only seem to feed them at weekends. I need to start stepping things up. >.< I finished mine with the Pheidole and there is around 100 new workers
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Post by myrm on May 23, 2015 12:39:23 GMT
That is vary good news Formica Bin Lid
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Post by myrm on May 23, 2015 12:49:23 GMT
23 May 2015, SaturdayAnt Room 20.5*C Heat Mat (15 watt): On Outside weather: Cloudy but warm, Just took a peek into the colony. Saw the queen running about looking vary healthy. She's 6, maybe 7, years old at the moment and still churning out eggs like mad. Here is the tube that connects their two nesting boxes which they often put cocoons in, though not all of them. Difficult to get a shot as I didn't want to expose it too long else they would have started removing them from the sudden light. There are loads of eggs, larvae and cocoons in the main nest itself.
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Post by Formica123 on May 23, 2015 12:57:58 GMT
Wow! Lots of new callows coming your way! 7 years old I've got a 1 year old camponotus queen who has no brood, she's like a pet to me now lol
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Post by myrm on May 25, 2015 11:46:00 GMT
25 May 2015, Monday
This is the entrance from the tube that links the nesting box to the foraging box, taken from the foraging box end.
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Post by myrm on Jun 6, 2015 12:18:50 GMT
6 June 2015, Saturday
Ant Room 20.8*C Heat Mat (15 watt): On Outside weather: Overcast but mild.
Have fed these ants several times over the past week, giving them waxworms, flies, crickets, ant jelly and morio worms. They have been busy, but not as active as the Lasius niger are. Still, they are up and active earlier than I am at even at 5:15 AM when my alarm goes off. Saw the queen the other day looking healthy.
Total so far in my Dermy-style OFC: 70 PIC
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Post by myrm on Jun 20, 2015 14:58:30 GMT
20 June 2015, Saturday
Ant Room 22.8*C Heat Mat (15 watt): Off Outside weather: Overcast but warm.
Just fed my ants 2x crickets and 1x wax worm and 1x blob of protein jelly (banana flavour)
They have piled up dirt up against and into their water bowl which has caused the water to soak into soil into which they have burrowed, but not made a nest. As a result the nearby food went mouldy and there was loads of that hairy mould stuff all over the place which I had to remove, much to the annoyance of the ants.
Loads of brood, and I mean LOADS! and the queen is alive and well.
Total so far in my Dermy-style OFC: 78 PIC
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Post by Formica123 on Jun 20, 2015 15:28:45 GMT
I hate that hair mould, it brings up half the soul with it >.< Sounds good
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Post by myrm on Jun 20, 2015 16:53:06 GMT
I hate that hair mould, it brings up half the soul with it >.< Sounds good
Yes it does.
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Post by myrm on Jun 27, 2015 16:13:06 GMT
27 June 2015, Saturday
Ant Room 23.1*C Heat Mat (15 watt): Off Outside weather: Sunny and vary warm.
I had a look into both nesting boxes of this colony. The population is growing vary rapidly and as well as there being several hundred ants (smaller in number than my Lasius niger), they have hundreds of larvae, more so than my nigers.
I removed their heat mat some time ago as they really don't seem to like it; seems they are not the heat lovers that niger are.
Today I gave my ants two crickets and a blob of ant jelly, which makes a total so far in my Dermy-style OFC: 81 PIC
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Post by myrm on Jun 30, 2015 13:51:51 GMT
30 June 2015, TuesdayAnt Room 24.4*C Heat Mat (15 watt): Off Outside weather: Sunny and vary warm. It was a pretty quiet morning for my Lasius umbratus as the workers went about their daily chores. But then excited two ants went running up the ramp heading toward the nest [36 secs]. Ten seconds later two more excited ants ran into the nest. It turns out that they thought they saw Dermy Watch the road get busier and busier. The last one minute is where I remove the camera from its stand and try to hand hold it to show you why they were so happy. Vary difficult to focus. I also gave them a blob of ant jelly, which makes a total so far in my Dermy-style OFC: 82 PIC
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Post by myrm on Jul 4, 2015 17:33:20 GMT
4 July 2015, Saturday
Ant Room 26.1*C Heat Mat (15 watt): Off Outside weather: Sunny and vary warm.
Today I gave my ants a blob of ant jelly, which makes a total so far in my Dermy-style OFC: 83 PIC
The first clip show my Lasius umbratus ants going about their daily chores. I have just given them some ant jelly. The setting is in their foraging tank, and the nail file leads up to the entrance to their nest. I filmed this using a standard camera lens on a macro setting. The second clip shows the same with a dedicated 100mm macro lens. Apologies for the blurriness of the close up clip but the macro lens has such a narrow field of focus that it can be nigh on impossible to get everything in focus when zooming back slightly as I have done here. Oh well, you get the idea of their activity anyway.
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Post by Formica123 on Jul 12, 2015 16:49:00 GMT
That's a cool little trail >.<
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