42 replies to this topic

[jimbodw07]

On August 21st, 2013, we had an Easterly wave come into Southern California and it brought heavy thunderstorms with torrential downpours. At the end of the day, I managed to collect 15 Myrmecocystus queens and two Pogonomyrmex queens. I placed all of the queens in test tube setups and immediately placed them in a dark place. The first couple of days were hectic for the ants, but within one day, all of the Honey pot ants got comfy in their setups while it took about a week for the Harvester ants to get comfy. The queens seemed restless even with their setup conditions being dark, but after about a week all of the queens settled down. 

September 6th, 2013, all of the queens had large clusters of eggs! The Pogonomyrmex's only had a few, like maybe 3-6 eggs per queen while the Honey pot's had like 10 -15 eggs per queen. Man I was absolutely thrilled!

September 20th, 2013. I checked on the queens and 5 out of 13 queens already have larvae! I was so excited! So I decided to feed them some honey water soaked in bread and some of the queens consumed the honey water while the others were more concerned about their eggs. So far so good!

 

Edited by jimbodw07, November 21 2013 - 8:16 AM.

[jimbodw07]

Photo Update:

[jimbodw07]

September 2nd, 2013. Today I checked my queens and lo and behold, 1 out of 4 queens have pupae! Well just 1 pupae, but still, I'm so excited! The 3 other queens have larvae and they are getting big so I suspect that they will pupate pretty soon. The rest of the queens (11) are either laying and not producing anything or are not laying at all. See this is why it's so important to collect more than just a few queens.

The four queens that have larvae are in two different setups. The first 2 queens are in test tube setups while the other 2 are in dirt setups. Here is the interesting part, the 2 queens that are in test tubes don't have any pupae yet, whereas the 2 queens in the dirt setup have pupae. In other words, the queens have more larvae in the dirt setup than the queens' in the test tube setup combined! These queens seem to do better in dirt setups than in test tube setups. However, I won't jump the gun and say that these queens do better in dirt setups because well, these queens are still in their early developmental stages of starting a colony.

Now switching gears here, my 2 Pogonomyrmex queens aren't doing too well. One isn't laying at all and the other is laying, but the eggs seem to be infertile. Such a pity because I really wanted a Harvester ant colony this year. Oh well.

 

Edited by jimbodw07, November 21 2013 - 8:17 AM.

[jimbodw07]

October 17th, 2013.

 

I now have pupae from all 4 queens! So far so good! It looks like I'm going to have 4 colonies this year. Of course, the last 2 queens to have pupae were from the test tube setup. The 2 queens in the dirt setups have tons of pupae now. The only thing that is worrying me is that the pupae are taking forever to hatch. One of the queens have already unsealed her chamber and now there is a small opening so that I'm guessing the ants will be able to forage. All queens are on top of my computer tower for warmth.

 

[jimbodw07]

Ocotber 31st, 2013.

Hey peeps!
Aside from the 4 queens that are doing pretty well with their pupae and larvae, I went ahead and checked on the rest of the 13 queens that I decided to abandon. These 13 queens were placed inside a fruit roll up box because they were either not producing any eggs, or weren't producing larvae. I still had hope for these queens and lo and behold, I found two queens with larvae! I immediately placed them with the 4 other queens on top of my computer tower for warmth. So now it looks like I have 6 queens with some good progress!

So how are the 4 original queens doing? Well, I can see more pupae in both the dirt and test tube setups. The queens in the dirt setup are not producing any workers yet. This is taking so long! The queens in the test tubes have not produced any workers either, but I'm not expecting too much from these queens since their larvae developed just recently.

I did find something interesting in the test tubes though. I found a small white ant in both test tubes. It looks like they have eclosed, but both of them are not moving. I spotted these little ants yesterday and they haven't moved. Dspdrew said that they were still pupae, the queens just decided to remove them from their cocoon.They are pure white with their legs still held against their body.


Anyway here are some pics.

[jimbodw07]

November 2nd, 2013

 

Finally, patience has paid off and now I have been rewarded with the arrival of the first callow workers in the (drum roll please) dirt setups!
I was checking the queens this evening when I noticed about 5 callow workers running about inside the chamber. The second queen in the other dirt setup had about 3 callow workers in her nest. So in other words, both queens now have callow workers! 2 down, 4 more queens to go!

The queens in the test tubes still have pupae and are progressing nicely. I should expect workers from them in about 3 weeks.

I don't want to speak to soon, but it seems like these queens do remarkably well in dirt setups compared to raising them in the test tube setups. In the future, if I decide to collect more queens of this species, I may end up keeping about 80% of the queens in dirt setups and the 20% in test tubes.

I tried taking pictures of the dirt setups, but the image quality wasn't good so instead, I am going to videotape the action and post the video here.

 

[jimbodw07]

November 21st, 2013.

 

A couple of weeks ago I decided to trade two of my Myrmecocystus colonies with Dspdrew's Pogonomyrmex subnitidus colonies. Of course I was excited because I really wanted some Harvester ant colonies this year, but I wasn't successful. So when Drew offered me to trade I was more than willing to do so.

 

So now I have 2 Myrmecocystus colonies in dirt setups and two Pogonomyrmex's in test tube setups.

About two weeks ago, I checked my Fruit Roll Up box where I had stored all of my "failed" queens and I discovered 2 more queens with larvae. So now I have 4 honey pot ant colonies again. Back to square one huh? Haha.

 

The two colonies in the dirt setups are growing very quickly and they are starting to run out of room. I have decided to prepare their formicaria. Since I have two colonies of the same species, one will be stored in a small, temporary 1 gallon tank and the other one will be stored in a larger, permanent enclosure. The same will be done with the Pogonomyrmex's. I just need to see if all four colonies are going to survive. I am going to give it a few months and when I see that all of the colonies are doing well, I may just sell the extra colonies and just keep 1 Myrmecocystus colony and 1 Pogonomyrmex colony.

 

For now though, I need to further my research in regards to soil stability and soil sterilization. So far, I will be using a high clay mix with native compacted soil. No sand! The clay will have to be native as well. That means I'm gonna have to extract it myself from the desert soil. As for preventing the ants from completely hollowing out the bottom of their formicarium, I will have to do some more research on that topic. Sterilization seems to be a no brainer process. Looks like I'll have to use the oven more often lol.

Anyone have any ideas as to how to prevent the ants from hollowing out their enclosure?

[dspdrew]

Anyone have any ideas as to how to prevent the ants from hollowing out their enclosure?

You know, you could always set a few rocks on the bottom that they couldn't possibly move. This way the dirt would have more support and it would prevent the ants from digging out everything from the bottom.

[Crystals]

I look forward to see your videos of the dirt setups.  I have seen a few different variations, so I always like pictures or videos to see exactly what people did.

 

Like Drew said, several larger rocks will work.  I saw one person use those plastic "augers"/"tunnels" meant for kids playing with marbles.

[dspdrew]

Yeah, something like a pipe would be really good because it would serve the same function yet take up less space. What actually would probably be perfect is some of those little table like things they put in the center of pizzas sometimes to keep the box from touchnig it. It seems like those would be the perfect size.

[Michaelofvancouver]

These ants are so cool. They make me jealous that I don't have them in my area.

Edited by Michaelofvancouver, November 21 2013 - 7:14 PM.

[jimbodw07]

You know, you could always set a few rocks on the bottom that they couldn't possibly move. This way the dirt would have more support and it would prevent the ants from digging out everything from the bottom.

That's a really good idea. For awhile, I was thinking about placing large rocks on the bottom of the formicarium to give the soil some structure. Looks like I'll stick to that plan! Thanks!   

 

I look forward to see your videos of the dirt setups.  I have seen a few different variations, so I always like pictures or videos to see exactly what people did.

 

Like Drew said, several larger rocks will work.  I saw one person use those plastic "augers"/"tunnels" meant for kids playing with marbles.

I'll be sure to post a video on here of my new dirt setups!

[jimbodw07]

So today I was driving around in the desert to see if I can find some clay deposits. Man it has been raining all day and it made it easier to spot some of the clay deposits along the canyon walls. Now all I have to do is wait until the weather calms down a bit and then I'm going out there to collect some good ol' fashion clay. If I'm lucky enough, I might get some snow too! I love snow.

[dspdrew]

I wish I lived in a place that got snow every once and a while.

[jimbodw07]

Yeah snow is awesome, but once in awhile. After that, it usually becomes a PITA.

In fact this morning, I had the intention to go out and dig up some clay, but as soon as I went outside, it was snowing really bad.

[Crystals]

How long does your snow stay for?

 

I have 7 months of it.

Hey Drew, come up here.  We can have a snowball fight.  I will go make the snow fortresses right now.  Of course mine will have much thicker walls than yours. 

[jimbodw07]

Hey Crystals. At my elevation it usually sticks around for just a few weeks. In higher elevations like 7,000 ft and above, it stays for about 6 months. Yikes 7 months? Wow!

I've always wanted to visit Canada. Looks like a really nice place to just explore.

[jimbodw07]

Update: Myrmecocystus mexicanus.
 

April 4th, 2014:

 

Winter has come to an end here in the high desert and after a chilly winter like it usually is every winter, the Honey pot ants have become active again. I've gained a few more workers to the small colony and it looks like more is on the way. Now keep in mind, this colony is still in the water bottle dirt setup. This is practically my only thriving colony of honey pot ants. I've got two more honey pot ant queens in two separate test tubes, but those two queens are struggling to get even one worker. The only thing that I can do is wait to see if any progress can be made during this season. As for the thriving colony in the water bottle dirt setup, I am pretty confident that this colony will be my permanent colony.

 

In the upcoming weeks, I am going to prepare my honey pot ant formicarium and transfer my honey pot ants into their new home. 

I'll keep this journal updated.

Edited by jimbodw07, April 4 2014 - 9:31 PM.

[jimbodw07]

Update: Myrmecocystus mexicanus.

 

Date: April 27th, 2014

 

So a few days ago, I decided to set up my honey pot formicarium using a ten gallon fish tank. I wanted to provide a more naturalistic environment for these ants.

 

I started by placing large rocks on the bottom of the aquarium to help with soil structure. I then went out on my bike to a nearby trail to collect some pure clay. After that, I started crushing the clay with a digging bar because the got damn clay was as hard as a piece of concrete. After I sifted out the dry clay, I mixed it in with the native soil. I used about 40% clay with 60% native soil. I didn't want to add more than 40% clay because then I would have a block of concrete in my fish tank and my family members would think I smoked too much crack.

I added water and waited until the soil soaked everything in which took a couple of days.

 

So fast foward to today, I added the ants and they now have a small chamber. The queen finally went into the newly dug chamber and the ants as of now are still digging.

Here are some photos. I'll try to get a video soon.

 

[dspdrew]

Their little mounds are so awesome. I take it you aren't planning on observing them inside their nest though right?