My Pets

[Myrm]

Hej

Thought some of you might like to see my pets

[Riboflavin]

Hello Commander Myrm,
thanks for sharing! I guess we can see the queen of the hive there? And they are awesome insects of course.

[Myrm]

Hi Riboflavin

Yes, the big one is the queen. That colony is only about 6 months old; started with a single, newly mated queen. She now has 13 workers and a small batch of larvae. I have two older colonies with up to 600+ ants in each with huge number of larvae, and still growing.

[Riboflavin]

I guess it is interesting to see a colony growing. How old do these colonies get?

[Myrm]

Well, that queen you see in my picture; on average she'll live 15 years.

[Riboflavin]

15 years?! I would have guessed maybe 1 year or 2 at the most. That's quite a long life they live.

[Myrm]

Indeed it is. The record is 30 years. The little workers only live for a year or two.

[Flip]

I find amazing is that they only need to mate once to lay eggs continuously for the next 10 to 30 years.

[TorTorden]

I find amazing is that they only need to mate once to lay eggs continuously for the next 10 to 30 years.

That must be some load.

Okay I hate myself a little bit for that one...

[Roger Wilco Jr]

That must be some load.

Yeah, that's why they do it once and then drop dead.

(ok, I'm full of shit)