245 replies to this topic

[Here for the honeypots]

Also, would you happen to know if I can find these in Northern Nevada? If so, any strategies for finding queens? Thanks a ton!

[Chall]

Is that a hand made nest?

[Zeiss]

My Mexicanus was plump for a while, but then she got pretty thinned out in her gaster.  No idea why it happened.  She was just thin on her next check up (which happens every few days).

[dspdrew]

This is awesome! I have a few questions if you don't mind answering. 1: what is your location? I would really like a honeypot colony for my agriculture class and would pay you money for one. Name your price. I would greatly appreciate it. Please respond. Thanks!

 

I'm in Southern California, and only sell in that location.

 

 

Is that a hand made nest?

 

If you are talking about the box of dirt, yes, that would be hand made.

[Gregory2455]

Also, would you happen to know if I can find these in Northern Nevada? If so, any strategies for finding queens? Thanks a ton!

If you read around on this forum you could figure it out. I will compress this into two links to avoid cluttering up Drew's journal, but here.
Finding your own queen ants: https://www.formicul...y-mated-queens/
Myrmecocystus mexicanus range (note two specimens just outside of Reno, Nevada): https://antmaps.org/...ystus.mexicanus
As for buying ants from anybody outside of Nevada, I would strongly advise you not to, as it is a danger for the ants and the local ecosystem and it is illegal.

[dspdrew]

Update 9-2-2015
 
The queens from the Phelan area have started to get workers now.
 
I lost another queen in one of the dirt boxes. I cleaned out the five vacant boxes and set them up again. This time I left a barbeque skewer in the corner where the plug is when putting the dirt in, so I ended up with a small hole all the way down to the bottom. I then took an applicator bottle and flushed out some dirt making a small chamber on the bottom. This allowed me to put the queens, workers, and brood directly into a chamber through the plug hole. It's sometimes a problem letting the workers dig a new nest, because they don't dig it large enough for the queen to fit, and so I end up having to make the entrance larger myself.
 

 
 
Putting the colony in the nest was pretty easy using this Fluon-coated stainless steel funnel. I just poured them in, and they slid right down the funnel, eggs and all.
 

 
 
Right away they started customizing the nest and organizing their brood.
 

[Crystals]

Nice.  They look right at home there.

[dspdrew]

Update 9-10-2015
 
Five more dead queens. One left behind lots of brood, which I gave to one of my best colonies except two of the pupae that went to an M. navajo queen marked with a green sticker. Another left behind lots of brood and workers, so I plan on trying to introduce a queen to them that isn't producing a whole lot.

[dermy]

What do you mean marked with a green sticker? Is that Drew's Seal of Approval? Is it on the queen, or just on a Formicarium?

[dspdrew]

I only put the stickers on containers.

[dspdrew]

Update 9-27-2015
 
I haven't had very many more deaths since the last update. I just moved another six or so into dirt boxes. Right now I have about 20 in dirt boxes, and they're all doing quite well. I have another six still in little test tube containers, and most of those are doing really well too. My largest colony is probably around 25 workers.
 

 

 

 
 
This queen really likes hummingbird nectar.
 

 

[specimen24-6]

They remind me of a stereotypical gray alien. With a thin body and and big black eyes. Only difference is there color of the body.

[dspdrew]

[drtrmiller]

No idea what I'm looking at.

[dspdrew]

It's a picture of my ants.

[dspdrew]

Update 10-19-2015
 
I've only had one death since the last update, and that was a dud queen anyway. I still have 20 of these in small dirt boxes. One of them I just moved into a large dirt box as you can see below.
 
A lot of these colonies are producing like crazy. I counted around 70 small larvae in some. The largest colony is up to about 30 workers--two of them repletes, 13 pupae, and about 50 larvae. Only about four colonies have repletes.
 

[dermy]

Sounds like your doing alright

 

Glad to see your finally having some success

[Here for the honeypots]

How are these guys doing?? Anything new? All dead? All Well?

[dspdrew]

I was going to update this journal probably tonight. When I do, I'll just edit this post and bump it up.

[dspdrew]

Update 2-2-2016
 
I had a little disaster and lost about six of these colonies. The humidity got so low here, that the nests dried out much faster than I anticipated, leading to a few entire colonies dehydrated and dead. One of them lost everything but the queen, so I put that queen in with one that still had quite a few workers left. They immediately got along perfectly with no signs of aggression. Unfortunately, a few days later, I found that queen dead. I was about to just get rid of those workers, when I realized I still had a "colony" of a queen and one worker in a test tube, so I put them together with that queen-less colony. This time the workers nipped at the queen a tiny bit, but then one started feeding her, and within five minutes they were all getting along fine.
 
I now have a total of eleven colonies left, with most of them consisting of more than 50 workers. I am definitely going to need to make some larger setups for these very soon.