I was cleaning out this old formicarium for my growing Formica colony— and I had to pause and take a photo because it made me feel so sad to destroy the tunnels designed by my Harvester colony— they were such a wonderful colony and I learned so much from them— and they designed this! I’m going to miss them so much. They lived with me for three years— wish it could have been longer. These tunnels have a little something of who they were in their shape.
It's all down to how long the queen lives. The queen of this colony died and I don't know why since there was a lot of brood, lots of ants, they were very healthy seeming, but she just randomly died.
After she was gone they started producing males for a bit but then their numbers waned and they were gone. :(
Maybe I'll keep harvesters again some day... although, I do feel less on edge NOT having ants that can sting like bees in the house (even though they never once stung me)
@futurebird@michaelgemar When you say "sting like bees" does that mean it would hurt as much as a bee sting, or just the act of stinging in itself being compared?
Because if there are ants out there that sting as badly as bees do I'm getting concerned.
Their sting hurts as much as a bee sting. Though, despite keeping them for years I never got stung. I was very careful. They are not aggressive, they can't climb glass and are much slower than most ants. (Since they don't hunt just look for seeds)
They sting to keep creatures like cows and humans from stepping on their nest. It makes them very upset when big mammals stomp around on their little dust hills.
@futurebird@michaelgemar Fair enough. Well, the area I live in mostly just had relatively harmless ants anyway. (I don't know ant breeds. Carpenter ants and such.) Sadly, it's one of the many areas invasive "fire ant" species are taking over. (Forgive me for not knowing what species they actually are, all I know is they're everywhere now, lol.)
The invasive fire ant is Solenopsis invicta they have a "mild" sting, but have a tendency to sting first and ask questions later... or just ... no questions... just stinging. And they can sting over and over in great numbers making it NOT GOOD.
@futurebird@michaelgemar Yeah, sounds right. In many cases they seem to sting just for the fun of it -- nowhere near to their actual nest. (For example, on the roof of my house for no apparent reason.)
I could tell you something gruesome about them, but I think you don't want to hear it.
You have probably seen me posting about escaped ants, these ants never escaped since they just can't climb the glass.
The one time I had an escaped worker (she fell off the paint brush when I was moving her) I looked for her for days since I was worried she'd give Pica a nasty surprise.
I found her a week later living behind the bookcase.