Dork (Dayton) 16 Posted April 14, 2019 I'm not much for journals. But I'll give it a shot. Narien and I were working on our new black light "catch us a C. americanus and C. castaneus" set up when I got a PM from Orbyx asking for an ID on this photo. It looked like C. nearcticus to me and I confirmed that via Discord. Then I joked with her to grab the queen for us because she knows our #1 goal is to keep all of Ohio's Camponotus species. A few minutes later my phone dings ... "I think I found the queen." She then explained that this colony was in her wood pile that they need to use. The colony had to go anyway. So she sent me her address and started scooping the colony into a 5 gallon bucket that she hastily lined with fluon. By the time we got there, (8 minutes and 17 "holy shit's" later) she had just about the whole colony in there with minimal casualties ... but no queen. All that was left was a small rotten knothole with a few ants in there. Sure enough, as it was dissected away, the queen was found ... unharmed !!! Orbyx said we probably got 90% of the colony and brood. We cleaned up some stragglers and rushed home to get these ladies set up ASAP because the stress of such an ordeal on a colony is immense. Fortunately we had a couple of set-ups about ready to go because we are about to move a couple of founding colonys to formicaria. Bing-Bang-Boom and they are settled. They explored the set-up almost immediately and began to move into the tubes within minutes. By 2 hours they seemed very calm and content with minimal movement or activity. It sure seems that they are happy and will do well. And looking around ... we see very VERY few casualties. Our estimate is that this colony is about 300-350 strong right now with tons and tons of brood. (see first pic) A mature C. nearcticus colony should cap out at only a few hundred workers. So this is a dream for us. We are absolutely ecstatic and have nobody but Orbyx to thank. Her generosity and consideration towards us is only surpassed by her care and attentiveness to this colony that she gently and efficiently collected for us. Thank you and ant love forever. We will update this log as time goes by. Below is the first video. 2 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Vexation 8 Posted April 14, 2019 I love the backstory! Can't wait to see the colony grow! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Orbyx 33 Posted April 14, 2019 Thank you for your kind words! I'm just glad I knew someone who was setup to take them, most of that lumber pile is going to be turned into a raised bed garden in the next few weeks. Can't wait for them to get officially moved into the formicarium! But, I'm mostly glad they are doing well ? 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mike McBrien 7 Posted April 16, 2019 This is awesome, thanks for sharing the story, looking forward to seeing this colony grow! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cole Dybik 8 Posted April 22, 2019 its good to see people working together, this is quite a small hobby that is picking up a bit of speed so people should work together :) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dan Li 1 Posted May 7, 2019 Banning you for swearing in a ant forum. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Carissa 2 Posted May 28, 2019 I think that I must have a C. nearticus queen, then; picked her up a week or two ago. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
