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delete-14751: Your oldest colony (24. Apr 2009 08:51)

Hi guys,

I was just wondering what was the longest time one of your colonies have lasted/been kept for?

Just thought it would be nice to get some sort of idea about colonies out of the wild, if i get enough data I may set up some tables with as much info as posible simular to the ant data base and share it.

Please tell me:

1. Species (full name, size of queen/workers, Single or the number of Queens, any other detailes)
2. How long they lasted/were kept for
3. Habit e.g basin/farm (any other info i.e moniterd temp/humidity, length, time and temp of incubation)
4. Food - Main, likes, dislikes, other..
5. Size of colony at its largest point (try to give as accurate estimate as posible)
6. Tips and Hints for the best results.
6. Anything else..

Let me know if you think I sould inclued other information.

Before you say that ant store has a database I would like to say this wil be a database of infomation from keepers and for data of wild species. Im hoping i'll get enough data to make it really useful to other keepers and maybe Antstore may wish to add it to their webpage.

Phasmid: Re: Your oldest colony (24. Apr 2009 19:07)

1.Camponotus ligniperda. About 18mm queen. About 9 workers 6-10mm.
2.A bit over two years now, since 6th April 2007. The colony was probably about a year old when I got it
3.At the moment they are in a y-tong, with a heat mat under one end, spray y-tong occasionally.
4.Loves sugar water and small crix. Will take most insects, alive or dead.
5.Today’s count only about 190 workers.
6.Give them the option of plenty of heat. Have loads of patience, don’t keep checking them, and don’t move them every two months :oops: .
7.This is my first real colony (before, I had kept Myrmica sp and Lasius sp workers). The colony would probably be much larger only I moved them about 5 times or more a year (forcibly :oops: ).
I got a Messor barbarus queen about a month later and had more patience (not much more, still some forced moves) and this year she has thousands of daughters and they are producing new queens 8) .

I can hardly believe I only started seriously keeping ants about 2 years ago. And got my first leaf-cutters a year ago. What was I thinking and why are they still alive!?!?