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AntsCali's Pogonomyrmex rugosus Journal


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#1 Offline AntsCali098 - Posted June 7 2023 - 6:23 PM

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The only reason I haven't started a journal on this colony, is that they dirtied up the glass to o much for me to film into.

 

I managed to clean the sand of the best I could for now, but it is still hard to film, especially in the mini hearth.

 

Anyways, I got this queen and a few workers about 4 months ago. They were growing well, but I had an incident where I forgot to refill their nestmate, resulting in maybe 5 workers of the 10 workers deaths. They were able to recover, and have a great amount of brood. The queen has a dent in her abdomen which doesn't seem to affect her. 

 

They have about 15 workers and 15 larvae/pupae.

 

Rugo queen
PXL 20230608 015032838.MP
Pogonomyrmex brood 2
Pogonomyrmex
 

 


Edited by AntsCali098, June 7 2023 - 6:26 PM.

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#2 Offline antsinvirgina - Posted June 9 2023 - 6:46 AM

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I Love this sp! 

I hope they will continue to thrive 

Good luck!


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#3 Offline AntsCali098 - Posted July 13 2023 - 9:10 PM

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This colony is starting to blow up. 

 

They now have ∼25 workers and at least 3 workers in the outworld at all times and are extremally sensitive to light for some reason, but i don't have much of a reason to check them that much since they are seed eaters.

 

They also still have 5-10 fat larvae and probably some eggs as well.

 


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#4 Offline BleepingBleepers - Posted July 13 2023 - 9:29 PM

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Man, those ants eating better than I did while I was in college :D

 

Very nice!

 

For the glass, if you got a spare hearth glass laying around, I'm thinking if it were me, I'd switch it out and clean the old glass. I haven't tried it myself as I haven't gotten my THA Hearths yet (2-3 week eta...) but it's an idea. Gonna try that as soon as I get it (and hopefully remember to do so hahaha)


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JOURNAL: Camponotus CA02 - First Time At Ant Keeping CLICK HERE

JOURNAL: Ectomomyrmex cf. astutus - Ant Species #2 CLICK HERE


#5 Offline AntsCali098 - Posted July 13 2023 - 10:10 PM

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Ty for the tip. I did clean the glass and I can try replacing it, just don't want to stress them too much.


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#6 Offline Full_Frontal_Yeti - Posted July 14 2023 - 10:16 AM

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Ty for the tip. I did clean the glass and I can try replacing it, just don't want to stress them too much.


On the THA mini hearth you got there and the glass.
I got one too and this trick works, but it is tricky to do the first time you try it.
Once you do get it right, it's easy to repeat.

If you have a 2nd glass ready to go* (magnets on it already in the right position and orientation), you can basically swap out the glass without ever opening the nest.
It's just the first time you do it it's a little tricky, takes a steady hand and quick but not rushed smooth motion aciton.

 

 

 

1: the 2nd glass has to be ready first. Hold it up on front of the current glass, and use the magnets to hold it in place on top of the first glass. This will ensure that all the magnets are in the right positions and orientation(magnetic polarity) to hold the glass in place on the nest just like the current one. The magnets will hold it in place and you can take one off at a time to put the glue dot on it and back on the glass. No need to press hard the magnetic pull will press the glue dot down well.

2: now set the min hearth on the edge of a table so the front 1/2" or so is hanging  off the edge of the table.

 

3: making sure the replacement glass is in the correct orientation for the magnets to line up. Line the bottom edge of the new glass onto the top edge of the old glass.

 

4: in one smooth non-stop motion that's not overly rushed, but not too slow either, push the new glass downward forcing the old glass out of the way as it goes.

 

 

the tricky part that i messed up on my first try, is that you have to push a little harder at first to move the current glass off the magnet. But as you move the new glass into place the magnets will pull on it downward. I was not ready for that and it slipped out of my grasp moving so fast it wedged up under the old glass making a gap ants spilled out of.
I did a reset and on the 2nd try i got it exactly right no problems, because i was ready for the pull and had a better grip on it. As well i was ready for when the old glass's top magnets get near the bottom nest magnets and will also be pulled on which could cause a gap if you  were not holding the old glass from the bottom to control that ti can't move downward faster than the top glass is pushing it.
 

It worked perfectly the new glass pushing down into place as the old glass slides off below the edge of the table it is hanging over. No escapes, the bottom edge of the top glass stayed in contact with the top edge of the bottom glass for no gaps. Just a quick easy swap of the glass without actually opening up the nest.


You could do this as a left/right slide, but that is almost three more inches of slide to make without messing up. top to bottom is a shorter slide distance to have to not mess up over. This is why i went for top to bottom.

Again important tip is, no stopping, just make it happen in one smooth non-stop flow. But don't try to be super fast in the movement, as much be steady and smooth.
They will of course freak out for all the vibrations and movement of the nest this will be. But no need to actually open it up, we can slide a replacement glass into place without opening it. It's just a little bit of a dexterity challenge to do it right.
 

 

 

 

 

* magnets are in the nest material where they are, so the best fit for the glass is likely asymmetrical placement of the magnets. Which is why you want to line it all up in actual use potion, before gluing the magnets to the glass. And just do so on the nest itself, rather than try to measure it out and get the magnets in the right spots. I know the magnet is going into the right spot and orientation, because it is literally right on top of the old magnet and it sticks to it.
Also real important is magnetic polarity. We will of course try to ensure they are all in the same orientation, but mistakes can happen. One of my nests has three of the magnets in one orientation and one in the opposite. This means the glass is "keyed" as it will not stay fastened to the nest unless the one opposite oriented magnet is in the correct position. So be sure you would not have that issue at all, if you do have this situation, be real sure you get the glass's keyed orientation correct to do this slide maneuver. And also be ready for that magnetic push it might give during the slide, if you have to pass opposite oriented magnets over each other to get it in position.

NOTE 2:

I did that and then just about 72 hours later the ants had totally messed up the same spot on the glass just a bad as it had been. So a nearly pointless effort and now they are in a top down nest anyway which has the magnetic polarity issue i had mentioned. i;ve not tried to swap out that glass yet as they don't futz with the overhead glass as much so it's mostly clean still.


Edited by Full_Frontal_Yeti, July 14 2023 - 10:16 AM.

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#7 Offline AntsCali098 - Posted July 14 2023 - 11:52 AM

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Thanks for the detail. I tried this with them once, and for some reason even though the magnets were in the right position in the original hearth, they just weren’t sticking right on the mini hearth glass i wanted to replace.

I resorted to just cleaning the sand off the glass, but it needs water to completely clean.

I am moving them into an xl soon, so I can properly clean it later before moving.

Interested buying in ants? Feel free to check out my shop

Feel free to read my journals, like this one.

 

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Atta sp (wish they were in CA), Crematogaster cerasi, Most Pheidole species

 

 


#8 Offline Tanks - Posted July 14 2023 - 5:18 PM

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The only reason I haven't started a journal on this colony, is that they dirtied up the glass to o much for me to film into.

 

I managed to clean the sand of the best I could for now, but it is still hard to film, especially in the mini hearth.

 

Anyways, I got this queen and a few workers about 4 months ago. They were growing well, but I had an incident where I forgot to refill their nestmate, resulting in maybe 5 workers of the 10 workers deaths. They were able to recover, and have a great amount of brood. The queen has a dent in her abdomen which doesn't seem to affect her. 

 

They have about 15 workers and 15 larvae/pupae.

 

 
 
 
 
 

 

 

How did you post the pictures like this?



#9 Offline AntsCali098 - Posted July 14 2023 - 8:30 PM

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Upload to gallery

Interested buying in ants? Feel free to check out my shop

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#10 Offline AntsCali098 - Posted July 14 2023 - 10:00 PM

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This should help
https://www.formicul...e-walk-through/

Interested buying in ants? Feel free to check out my shop

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#11 Offline AntsCali098 - Posted July 24 2023 - 4:37 PM

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I can't get the best shots, but they look awesome in their mini hearth. Their growth continues, and they have plenty of fat larvae.PXL_20230725_003410748.jpg PXL_20230725_003333068.jpg
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#12 Offline 100lols - Posted July 29 2023 - 11:46 PM

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Love their dark almost purple hues. Beautiful!
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#13 Offline AntsCali098 - Posted August 6 2023 - 5:53 PM

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Finally managed to get some half decent shots, and the colony is beginning to explode.

They have grown a bit from the last update, and I spotted a pretty fresh callow today. The dent in the queens gaster is definitely not hindering her, as the colony has more brood than ever, containing mostly small larvae and pupae. They are beginning to fill up the nest rapidly so I'll probably do what I did with my Myrmecocystus mexicanus, and add a second mini hearth.

I'm feeling like they'll be ready for it as soon as this generation of brood ecloses. Here's some pics plus a yt short:

PXL_20230807_012502809.MP.jpg 2023_08_06_18_36_03_414.png PXL_20230807_012532670.MP.jpg

https://youtube.com/...8?feature=share

They now have my estimation of 35 workers.

Thanks for checking out my journal!
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Interested buying in ants? Feel free to check out my shop

Feel free to read my journals, like this one.

 

Wishlist:

Atta sp (wish they were in CA), Crematogaster cerasi, Most Pheidole species

 

 


#14 Offline 100lols - Posted August 7 2023 - 9:11 AM

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Oh nice update! They definitely seem happy. I’m glad you posted the video too because I was looking for your YouTube channel lol.
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