8 replies to this topic

[marcel]

Hello,

 

I heard from a lot of people from my ant community about sudden deaths of queens of already founded colonies once they reached 30-70 workers. And I never figured out what caused such a high death rate.

 

Those people told me that it started by them losing their honey pot workers (repletes) one after the other, even though food was enough. Then the queen suddenly died and a few workers stayed behind. I am still suprised what their mistake was. 

 

I also once kept a Myrmecocystus mendax colony that had about 42 workers + 5 honey pot workers (repletes) and reached almost 1/2 year of age. I had them under a temperature of 77-79 °F and they did just fine for months. Suddenly 3 repletes died then 2 weeks later the queen. I never understood why because I changed literally nothing. I fed them insects like small Blauptica dubia roaches, small crickets, mealworms, sugar water, honey water. They literally had nothing missing, even a small farm was offered that they never planned to move into, maybe the colony was too small yet? 

 

Other people had problems too.

 

I got some informations how those people kept their colonies and the answers were a bit similar actually, except the nest types. 1 Myrmecocystus mendax was kept with 30+ workers + brood in a test tube soon to be moved out with a temperature of 78 °F 

 

1 Myrmecocystus navajo had over 70 workers and was kept in a Ytong(celluar concrete) nest and had about 78 - 82 °F, the nest that he had was always kept a bit moist but not enough to cause condensed water.

 

1 Myrmecocystus mimicus kept in a Ytong Nest between 76 - 80 °F, nearly the same as the colony above. He lost the colony after 6 months.

 

Many more different keepers lost their colonies already after the first worker generation 8-10 workers also for unknown reasons.

 

I am soon getting a Myrmecocystus navajo and I really want to be the first in my community to be successful and make it to a 300 workers+ colony. Anyone ever kept a colony for more than 1 year maybe even 2?

 

What is the right way to have success with Myrmecocystus to have a colony that can live with you for many years? What nests do you use? How is the temperature and humidity? Do you keep the chambers very wet? slightly wet? almost not wet? I saw people on youtube keeping them in a dirt box nest, I am almost tempted to also use a dirt box nest or to make my own ant Farm with a soil + sand mixture.

 

Any advice or warning to give to a Myrmecocystus beginner? I kept all kinds of complicated and difficult to keep species and raised them to large colonies, including Paraponera clavata, Neoponera apicalis, Messor minor, Atta cephalotes (bicolor),exotic camponotus species, etc.

 

So what was your way to success anyone had a colony that reached more than 1 year of age and above 200 workers? I am happy for any answers and advices you can give to me and maybe some others here that ready my post and consider keeping honey pot ants.

 

 

Greetings,

 

Marcel

[Shaye]

My very first Myrmecocystus mexicanus colony was bought from Dspdrew (The owner of this site). He had it for approximately 3 months before selling it to me with 1-10 workers I believe. I bought it on November 4th 2015, and kept it in the provided 'dirt box' until it just could'nt house them any longer (likely about 80 workers). I then made a mini hydrostone cave of sorts and have continuously added more 'cave rooms' as needed. It is quite the large colony now and I have no intention of counting them, but I hope they are maxed out in regards to colony size..

My secret to getting them over the 'hump' that seems to kill some was really just Dspdrew's formicarium design. It's pretty excellent stuff.

Edited by Shaye, August 9 2017 - 11:27 PM.

[Bryce]

I keep Mendex. My oldest colony is almost 2 years old . I loose more the n make it. The biggest factor is the nest in my opinion. I learned a lot from Ray Mundez when I took his Ants of the Southwest course. I pretty much follow exactly what he does.I start them off in jars and then move them to a hydrostone cavern set up. I make my own so I just make bigger and bigger ones as needed. Mine eat crickets, apples, mealworms and honey. I find them easy to keep once they get going, it's the get them going part that's hard. It's a numbers game. I have 20 now 5 might make it and maybe 1 or 2 will thrive. I keep them in my ant room at 77deg 15% humidity or so, it's dry in Phoenix. I don't really have to hydrate them but 1x a week. They don't like a lot of moisture less is more with them. They seem to have sperts where they grow like crazy followed by a lull. I will say I do cull my colony from time to time to keep them it check.

Edited by Bryce, August 9 2017 - 4:23 PM.

[marcel]

I am actually also considering starting in a jar filled with an earth-sand mixture. I am just not sure on how moist to keep it there. I already prepared 1 actually. That 1 is based on the dirt box Formicarium, with the difference that I have a smaller jar in a bigger jar and filled out the corners that have a width of about 2.2 cm (0.86 inch).

 

Do you guys know any special tricks to check the required moisture level?

 

I hope the queen voluntarily moves in. Really don't want to force her into it especially if she has eggs in that test tube.

[marcel]

By the way, what is the temperature that your nests of your Myrmecocystus colonies measure? I forgot to ask that earlier.

[Superant33]

Roughly room temperature year round. A little hotter inthe summer and much colder in the winter. They semi hibernate in the winter.

[Shaye]

Mine were always at about 75. Not much flux since I keep all of my colonies in a separate room that is always a different temp than the rest of the house. I don't ever hibernate any of my colonies, and they do well. I didn't really notice any cues, on their end, for hibernation though.

[soulsynapse]

Will be watching this thread.

 

Of note from Snelling (1976):

 

[...]This has been a common experience for me, and when excavating a colony I have never found repletes above what I believe to be the level of permanent soil moisture.

 

 

This makes sense to me, that maybe this species needs two parts to their nests, a very moist nest for repletes and a drier and warmer top layer for brood.

 

My 2c

[Shaye]

Will be watching this thread.

Of note from Snelling (1976):

[...]This has been a common experience for me, and when excavating a colony I have never found repletes above what I believe to be the level of permanent soil moisture.

This makes sense to me, that maybe this species needs two parts to their nests, a very moist nest for repletes and a drier and warmer top layer for brood.

My 2c

Now that you point that out.. I always had a reptile heating cable on one of the four sides, 24/7. It was pressed completely against the face and that side was always dry in appearance and touch. They would always put brood directly touching the acrylic as close to the heat/dry source as possible (repletes as far away as possible, and queen halfway between almost every day). It made hydration last a bit less in Dspdrew's provided formicarium, but they seemed to thrive like that.

Edited by Shaye, August 11 2017 - 2:42 PM.