26 replies to this topic

[Kalidas]

Okay MASSIVE update time. I got there at about 6:30 am. I met Stopspazzing and Drew there. We all took naps untill my son woke me up and we went for a walk.

So I noticed the first ants. Saw an acromyrmex queen on a stick... Then a few more flying. The other guys woke up and I showed them what I saw and Bam they were everywhere, so many acromyrmex ants, one neat had like 30 elates just walking around the nest. I caught an acromyrmex queen I saw on the ground as she was starting to dig her founding chamber(got lucky there). We watched them for a bit and decided to leave some place else, none of us really wanted across, Drew had too many, spazzing didn't want any he wants Honey Pots, and I also kinda wanted honey Pots since Acromyrmex are such a pain to care for.

Drove around to a different spot, found out my SUV can TOTALLY off-road, muddy hills, what muddy hills?

Kept just find more acromyrmex. I decided to head back to the first spot and just collect the ones we saw in the morning try my luck at leaf cutters.

This is where my luck runs out. They were all gone. I caught two more Queens that's it. According to Spazzing just a mile up from where I left there was a bunch of them mating.

Despite the set back I had so much fun. My son and I searched for ants, played games, hiked around the desert. I told him about desert plants(I took a field science class in highschool, so I have some knowledge of desert plants species), all in all a great day. Honestly I set my expectation real low for this time out on purpose, I didn't expect to get anything and got 3! So not amazing but better then I thought.

So now I'm home and the good news is all three Queens survived the trip home. One was even beginning to nest. I put them in three small snap cap containers I got at Michael's with some watery mud as upposed to cotton. I think that helped a lot.

All in all good day

[DaveJay]

Excellent! It sounds like you all had a good day out! It's a pity that you didn't find more variety but at least you got your feet wet so to speak.

[Kalidas]

Yeah exactly. I mean I won't lie leaf cutters are kinda my like "dream colony" I just know they are nigh impossible to keep. But if I can I would love to try.

I actually have an idea about nesting for them that maybe could work. It's something I haven't seen anyone on here try and I kinda got the idea from the San Diego zoo and from reading about how leaf cutters naturally make their nests

[AntsCalifornia]

If you want to keep leaf cutters, just get some from drew, they probably won't survive if you try on your own.

[Kalidas]

Yeah you're probably right, but I caught them so gonna try and see how they do. Who knows maybe it will surprise me

[DaveJay]

Yeah you're probably right, but I caught them so gonna try and see how they do. Who knows maybe it will surprise me

It would be a good chance to try three methods of keeping them, you might come across a more successful way of keeping them.

[Kalidas]

That's an interesting idea. Maybe, we will see if any of them make it first