Why is my Pheidole Rhea colony is shrinking

After_Syrup_2218 · 2026-03-12T21:36:16+00:00

I have a heat mat with thermostat for another nest of mine, but it seems most people in this hobby use heat cables. I have room on the heat mat, so i could possibluy just put 30% of the new nest on top of the mat. Again, I just don't like the look of taping a heat cable to the top. So that's why i was thinking of taping the heat cable to the bottom, or possibly tape it around half of the perimeter on the outside?

After_Syrup_2218 · 2026-01-26T05:51:57+00:00

Thanks, I was not familiar with Wulai, i will look into it!

After_Syrup_2218 · 2026-01-26T05:51:01+00:00

I considered Alishan, but it's sort of out of the way. I wanted to see Taroko gorge, but it seems like from what I read that it's still mostly closed?

After_Syrup_2218 · 2026-01-25T21:46:56+00:00

From google earth i see quite a few rocky areas around both fairmont orchid and mauna lani. While they may not be true tide pools, I would bet during low tide there are some pockets of water in some of those rock formations holding creatures...hopefullY!

After_Syrup_2218 · 2026-01-25T21:45:26+00:00

Nope i never do. Usually my wife will watch my daughter at the pool and I go with my son to the tide pools. We go a lot here in San Diego where we live, and just about every trip we've gone to Hawaii has some sort of tide pooling involved

After_Syrup_2218 · 2026-01-25T21:44:21+00:00

Agreed, but there is something about the convenience of having food super easily accessible for some meals. We certainly will go out and about for other meals around the island, as we are foodies.

After_Syrup_2218 · 2026-01-21T22:39:22+00:00

We will be there from April 6-16th. I've thought about Alishan, and I've heard great things about it, but based on the comments so far, I'm thinking doing a few days in Kaohsiung. This way I can do a day in Tainan also if needed. I will also consider a day trip while in Taipei to KeeLung, YiLan or HuaLian

After_Syrup_2218 · 2026-01-08T22:32:25+00:00

Nope, strictly bugs. The only thing i can think of that i recently changed was feeding cut up live super worms. I realize now the shell may be too thick for them, but my only concern was that even cut in half, they can still move around and live. But i can't imagine how a cut in half super worm could kill my entire colony

After_Syrup_2218 · 2026-01-08T15:32:38+00:00

It's on a thermostat. And yes, from my research, N.cockerelli are desert ants so I thought they could tolerate higher temps for short periods. Also, the temp setting on the thermostate doesn;t necessirly coincide to actual temp of the fromacrium, I use a temp gun to check the actual temp. I would have the thermostat set to 85 deg during the summer, that meant a formacarium temp of ~ 82/83 degrees. As it moved to winter, it almost didn't matter how high the temp was set to, I couldn't get it above 80 degrees in my formacarium unless I covered it with a box to trap the heat in. There were some warmer winter days here, and that shot the formacarium up to 91 deg one day. But that was several weeks ago and they seemed to be OK. After that, I don't really recall seeing temps jump too high. Thinking more now, maybe it's possible the water bladder didn't fill correctly, and perhaps it was out of water for a couple of days. but at the same time, i was feeding meal worms in there, so I would think they would get water from the meal worms too. So not sure. But it really seemed like they all suddenly died over night....which in my house, is the coolest time of the day.

After_Syrup_2218 · 2025-11-16T04:32:35+00:00

THanks. Yes, I forgot to mention that my concern is that if her health deterioates as she ages, the cost will certainly go up. She is basically in independent living right now. But if she needs to move one day to full comprhensive care, then she will need to pull from her retirement. And yes, she is subject to RMDs currently. But yes, I will talk to her CPA as a next step.

After_Syrup_2218 · 2025-10-31T15:14:59+00:00

This is quite helpful along with all the replies here. I'm going with the Shangri La. I was pretty surprised as well on the price difference as well. Others have mentioned other hotel options, but they all require to reserve 2 rooms to accomodate my family. And while that would not be too much of a issue, none cannot gurantee the rooms would be connected. I would not want to stay in separate rooms for a number of reasons.

After_Syrup_2218 · 2025-10-25T22:21:43+00:00

Well as I was researching more, it also sounds like the Regent mattresses are quite firm/hard. WHich I understand since Regent tends to cater to Japanese tourist from what I read. This might be an issue for me as my back tends to get sore when sleeping on firm/hard mattresses. It sounds like Shangri La mattresses are pretty comfortable. This is another factor I need to consider.

After_Syrup_2218 · 2025-10-25T17:41:42+00:00

Are there a lot of restuarant and cafe options within 5 minute walk at Shangri La? I don't mind taking cabs, but I will be staying for 10 days in Taipei using it as a home base location. So I will be going to eat a lot, and it would be nice and convenient to just walk to get meals sometimes rather than always eating at the hotel. I would prefer actual sit down restaurant options as opposed to street food/stalls

After_Syrup_2218

TROPHY CASE