# Trops Ant log.



## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

Hey im makin this thread about a few of my ant colonys lol, heres a few pics atm ill update every now and then. but for a start. I have Lasius Niger, pritty sweet starter ant easy to take care of also. my colony has a pop of about 200 and about 150 (larvae) young ants. For my second colony i have a Carpter ant Strain, they get fairly large to about 1 inch. The colonys pop is 2! lol worker and queen with about 20 larvae alot harder to care for it seems, their nutritional requirments for the queen and larvae are much higher. I make custom homes for my ants somtimes others i use an aquarium . The close up is the carpenter ant colony. The second one is of an colony that i let free roam in the 1 gal. They live in the litte dish full of sand on the left.


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## pat3612 (Jan 29, 2008)

Thats neat where did you get you ants from. One of my grandaughter loves ants always catching them at the cottage.


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## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

I gather my Queen ants when the major colonys do their nuptial Flights(queens/Males leave the colony.)and i start them right from the beginning.


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

I couldn't do that... ants are not my thing. One or two fine, an interesting collum, but a mass of ants just gives me the shudders.


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## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

lol its a different approach to keeping pets eh?. smallest to the largest .

Ive noticed they are getting more active too, looks like spings comin soon lol.


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

Omg yay!! I look forward to seeing your ant collections! 

I used to have to import carpenter ants from the states for some of my horned toads. I had a tub of them and the cats knocked them over one day.. Eee! Yay lol

I have always enjoyed watching ants


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## Jackson (Jan 30, 2009)

These are one of the only living things I am scared of. I cant even handle knowing they are around me. Once you have been to the middle east or africa and see the ants there you will know why LOL I used to watch my brother and a few friends feed them other bugs that they cuaght. These things are so aggressive when they eat.

How long have you been doing this?


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## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

lol yeah their awsome to watch especially when feeding and u see the whole colony come out. 

haha i know what you mean Jackson, Ants in Africa are especially Aggressive considering they are in 35deg weather all the time and with that heat they need to eat Constantly so their colony can grow etc.. I have been keeping ants for about 5 years, but the last 2 years is when it really started and i started to find queens and learn about their needs and a colonys needs.


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## Jackson (Jan 30, 2009)

Tropicana said:


> lol yeah their awsome to watch especially when feeding and u see the whole colony come out.
> 
> haha i know what you mean Jackson, Ants in Africa are especially Aggressive considering they are in 35deg weather all the time and with that heat they need to eat Constantly so their colony can grow etc.. I have been keeping ants for about 5 years, but the last 2 years is when it really started and i started to find queens and learn about their needs and a colonys needs.


That is pretty cool 

Have you ever thought of feeding them to your fish? I know some ants give off a nasty taste but I dont know if the ones we have here do that


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## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

you know im sure the Larvae of the ants would be very good for fish considering their like pure protein and very soft. But the ants them selves have a harder Shell like exoskeleton and fish dont accept them that much. lol i have tried on my cichlids and they spit them out most of the time.


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## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

Little update. lol The big larvae u see in the second pic infront of the queen has pupated(Cacooned). It takes about a month from egg to worker and this is the 2 week stage, hopefully the queen wont get hungry this time.. Their like new parenting fish, they suck at first but as they get more workers slowly they stop eating all their eggs lol.. (fish dont have workers though)


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## Cory (May 2, 2008)

Very cool ! I didn't know ants were cannibalistic like fish are. I once kept a colony of ants when I was at overnight camp in a plastic water bottle. Caught a queen ant somewhere and threw her in a bottle filled with damp soil. Don't remember what I fed them but I had a whole bunch of ants after a while. Then one day while I was off doing camp stuff the kid who liked to pee on stuff well.. peed in the bottle and thought it was the most hillarious thing ever. That was my last attempt at keeping the creatures .


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## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

Hahaha thats unfortunate. yeah i didnt think they were either untill i noticed that all the pupa were gone and only larvae were left. Im going to try a different species of ant this summer also Their called Meadow Ants or lasius Flavus. Their a very unique species which produce a smell that is much like citric acid that detours insects and other ants. I have also observed that they collect aphids and bring them into their colony and Farm them after placing them on roots which is pritty amazing, and i think they do this because they are never seen above ground probably because they hate sunlight and are a bright orange colour. anyways ill see what happends this summer and try to get a queen.


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## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

Well a little Update on one of my colonies. The Species Camponotus Pennsylvanicus or Carpenter ants i have are Fully active and the queen has produces many new eggs and the larvae are pupating and some are becoming huge to what i presume to be Mega workers. I will Add better photo's tommorow when their is actually light lol flashlight worked ok for now though.

In the photos you can make out the Pupa mostly and a few larvae and a small pile of eggs and the workers. The queen is at the top of both pictures upside down.

Note. Threw in 2 more shots one of the same colony in the daylight and one of a different but related species Camponotus Chromaiodes which is in the small tube starting out.


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## pat3612 (Jan 29, 2008)

Thats a big ant cool pics


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## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

Thanks Pat  she is a beauty eh? lol.


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## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

*NEw shots. with Names.*

Hey guys tossed a few shots in here showing some of the things in the ant world.


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## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

Very cool colonies. Im curious, with your Camponotus Chromaiodes, whats the significance of a initial small tube?


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## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

The Tube acts as a Claustral Cell for the queen its the first Cell she would make in the wild until she has about 10 workers then they start to expand a little. They tend to make the nests in Rotting stumps. Also in the picture i have Cotton cutting off half of the tube from the queen. in the other half is water so it keeps it humid in there and she can drink from the cotton.


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## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

ah, interesting. So once the queen estabolish a small worker colony, how do you move her + worker to the actual nest (or do you?). Do you move her to an already dug out little nest? or do you just put her and the workers in the and wait for the workers to build the nest.

Also, in the time that it takes to make that colony, does she feed?


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## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

Well you can design a nest yourself out of plaster and place the tube and the plaster nest(1 pane of glass on top of plaster) in a tank and they will move to it once they outgrow the tube. the workers scout out for new nest locations if the colony is to big.

you can also fill a 1 gallon tank or how ever big of a tank you want half with sand and dirt mixed and they will dig a new nest but you will only be able to see there holes since they don't like light they will dig away from the sides.

In some species the queen will forage for food herself but in most The queen will reabsorb her muscle from her wings until she has 1-2 workers which will start to gather small amounts of food/nectar. also in many cases she lays a lot of brood at the start so in a bit when she does need food she will eat half to feed the other half to ensure survival.


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## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

Interesting, never thought there's be so much going into the ant hobby. But I guess with any pet, its research research research.


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## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

Yeah, it is a hidden hobby it seems very few people get into it to the point where they have a significant colony. or even a queen for that matter.


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## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

you should go check out the new exibit in the ROM, the leaf cutter colony they have in there are pretty cool.


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## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

yeah I really want to just gotta plan for it some time.


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## Cory (May 2, 2008)

I'll be at the ROM at the end of June. I'll check it out and take some pics for ya .


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## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

Sweet man thanks, i look forward to seeing them . 

This summer i will be collecting new queens of different species so i will be able to open up the ant world even more.

I wish i could get leaf cutter ants even honey pot ants but its illegal to import foreign ant species.


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## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

Alright little update. I found a new Queen ant on my way out the door from work, species is Camponotus Chromaiodes i now have 2 queens of this species in total. The new queen is in the first picture in a CD case with a small claustral cell inside. the second queen is one i had for a while and mentioned earlier but this is a better picture and shows a little fixing up of the nest and also about 20-30 new eggs under her head. she also has one worker with her as you can see.

Yesterday i released my Lasius Niger colony into the garden so i hope they will live there now.


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## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

just curious, how many diff species of ants are there native to Ontario?

*I didnt realise that you just get them wild... *


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## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

lol yeah it must look pretty funny sometimes seeing a guy run over to the sidewalk picking what seems to be nothing up haha. I do catch all my ants locally though, purchasing is crazy lol... how many species eh? well there is at least 50 since there is know to be 50 carpenter species alone. carpenter ants fall into the Camponotus species and there is still Lasius and formica and others i dont know to consider which are totally different species so i would guess at least 150+/- 50 species alone in Ontario and about 10,000 known in the world. A lot of these species seem to stay hidden in deeper parts of Ontario that dont have many people living around them. ive seen a few really weird species out camping before though.


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## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

Ah, cool. Thanks for all of the info.


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## Cory (May 2, 2008)

Well, I was at the ROM this weekend and unfortunately the leaf cutter ant display was under renovation and nothing was inside. It looked like it would have been pretty cool though. The SW reef tank across the hall was still open though and looked great. It was one of the most popular displays.


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## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

Cool stuff, lol Thats a bummer because Hitch went not long ago and it was closed then also. 

On the other hand I had a Major Worker Enclose (hatch) and she is huge compared to her sisters. I have also made a Plaster Ant farm so it will be VERY easy to take pictures of when i move them into it.


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## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

*New Setup*

Well a few days ago i made a Plaster setup using play doe and it ended up staining the plaster but it wasn't to bad. Today i moved them in and they seem to be doing well.

you can also see the other three queens in there Claustral Cells


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## bluekrissyspikes (Apr 16, 2009)

interesting. i didn't know those big ants were the queens. i will have to tell my daughter to stop playing with them. we have flying ants here. do you have them down in TO as well? they are pretty neat.


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## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

Hey, I live out near Barrie and i have not seen any flights around my area yet, though i have found a few queens i guess i just missed it. Since its been so cold and rainy this summer a lot of colony's have delayed their flights because the queens have been developing slowly in the cold. And the Queens are very neat .


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## bluekrissyspikes (Apr 16, 2009)

i have not seen any fliers yet this year either.  i just know we have them, i see them every year. i usually end up with at least one going on my face or hair...lol.


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## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

lol yeah no kidding, they do fly in huge numbers.


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

OOhhh we had a large one at my mums house just last week and I saw another the week before. We are around birchmount and st.clair. The thing was a good inch or so lol

Not used to the biggies hehe


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## bigfishy (Jun 19, 2009)

wow! those big black ant is the queen??? 

I seen them a lot and they run pretty fast  

and

trop... isnt that colony a little bit small??? I thought an ant colony should have ants up to hundred if not thousand


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## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

Lol yes they are small They are only a year old now and the species of carpenter ant i have takes a while to get into the hundreds or thousands. and yes they do run Very fast, especially when it is warm out. The rest of my colonies are in the very beginner stages with only pupa and maybe one worker. 

In conclusion next year i will have a few hundred or so. Queens are normally 1.75 cm for carpenter ants.


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