52 replies to this topic

[Silq]

So are P. californicus fully claustral?

No, they are semi-claustral. They definitely like to eat.. a lot. Mine just eat and clean themselves. I have one colony of queens that has neatly moved all the seeds into a different area but my other colonies just hangs out in the test tube and eats grounded seeds rather than hanging out in the formicarium.

[Straywolf94]

I'm a bit late to this but your garage setup looks very clean and awesome.

Thanks! The garage works well since it is not air conditioned and gets pretty warm. I even have a heat lamp on during the day in summer. Temps get to 35 to 38C. These Pogonomyrmex love the heat.

[Kaelwizard]

So are P. californicus fully claustral?

No, they are semi-claustral. They definitely like to eat.. a lot. Mine just eat and clean themselves. I have one colony of queens that has neatly moved all the seeds into a different area but my other colonies just hangs out in the test tube and eats grounded seeds rather than hanging out in the formicarium.

Thanks. I thought some Pogonomyrmex are right?

[Silq]

 

I'm a bit late to this but your garage setup looks very clean and awesome.

Thanks! The garage works well since it is not air conditioned and gets pretty warm. I even have a heat lamp on during the day in summer. Temps get to 35 to 38C. These Pogonomyrmex love the heat.

 

oh wow, that is good to know. It is about 84F here (28C) and I thought that was warm enough but it makes sense since they are desert ants. 

[Straywolf94]

Interesting thing I noticed is that when I give them moist protein foods like cut up costco chicken or cooked shrimp, they take all of it into their nest, and then bring it out under the heat lamp to dry it up into jerkey, then store it under the rocks or in other dry hiding places.  Very clever

[Silq]

I caught 4 more of these queens this year and put them together into a test tube setup inside a boxbox formicarium. They laid a pile of eggs pretty quickly. One of the queens died a few days later, so 3 queens left.




I took the opportunity to snatch some sunbathing pupae from the larger colony and brood boosted the new colony. They eagerly accepted the new brood.

How do you actually grab the brood? Do you use cotton or some special tweezers?

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[Straywolf94]

I just scoop the brood up with a plastic spoon since they pile them in a nice stack on the surface under the heat lamp lol. They get pretty mad of course but soon forget about it.

[Silq]

I just scoop the brood up with a plastic spoon since they pile them in a nice stack on the surface under the heat lamp lol. They get pretty mad of course but soon forget about it.

That is good to know. I had to divide my 22 queens into 4 groups, a group of 8, 6, 5, 3. The 8 queen colony has tons of eggs and the 5 colony has a few but the other 2 colonies don't seem to have any so I may need to brood boost in the future  possibly. I just moved from SD a few months ago. I wasn't in the hobby back then though. What part of SD did you find these at?

[Straywolf94]

 

I just scoop the brood up with a plastic spoon since they pile them in a nice stack on the surface under the heat lamp lol. They get pretty mad of course but soon forget about it.

That is good to know. I had to divide my 22 queens into 4 groups, a group of 8, 6, 5, 3. The 8 queen colony has tons of eggs and the 5 colony has a few but the other 2 colonies don't seem to have any so I may need to brood boost in the future  possibly. I just moved from SD a few months ago. I wasn't in the hobby back then though. What part of SD did you find these at?

 

You can find them in many parts of San Diego.  There are some coastal varieties around Torrey Pines, but that is a protected reserve - I did find some queens at the Torrey Pines public beach this summer.  Otherwise, further inland there should be plenty of them ranging from Fallbrook to Bonita, all the way down to Mexico border.

 

I think Drew may be on to something when he indicated in the Facebook group that perhaps some of these queens are polygynous because they originated from the same colony, and so they don't behave agressively toward each other.  The populations in SD are very pocketed, so that may be the case, I dunno.

[Straywolf94]

Some brood pile footage

 

[YsTheAnt]

Woah! How many queens?

[Roy3]

I am loving this feed. Thanks for this. It will definitely help me with my Pogonomyrmex c. queens that are slow. Great ideas.

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[Silq]

that is an amazing brood pile. I can't believe they brought them out in the open but it makes sense if they want to bring them into direct heat.

[Straywolf94]

My 2019 3-queen colony doing well after 2 weeks.  Most of the boosted brood have eclosed and now there are about 15+ workers.  The first batch of eggs have hatched to larva and are feeding on dried cricket leg near the cotton.  I saw a new bigger batch of eggs laid in the middle of the tube.  This colony is off to a good start.

 

 

[Straywolf94]

8/24/19 Update:

 

I finally got around to removing the old nest and connecting bridge.  Also cleared out a pint of dirt and rocks that they've dug up over the last weeks.  I also took the chance to decorate the outworld a bit to make it look nicer.  They were obviously not very happy about it and came out in force.

 

 

 

 

 

Saw a bunch of callow female and male alates come to the surface to look around after the move was completed.

 

 

[Roy3]

Awesome

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[Straywolf94]

I was getting complacent and accidentally pushed a tub against the wall.  This gave the argentines the bridge they needed to get onto my ant table.  The camponotus and molesta are fine since they are closed boxes.  But the pogonomyrmex formicariums I left as open top.  They completely decimated the 2019 newly started colony, dragging out and taking all the eggs, larva, and even the 15+ workers.  Only 3 queens and 2 workers left in this colony, and one of the queens looks like she won't make it.  I moved them into a large test tube for some isolation and recovery.

 

The 2018 pogonomyrmex subninitidus colony was also attacked hard, but I don't know how much damage there was.  I know a few workers got dragged out of the box onto the table and saw a bunch of them including the queen fighting off the invaders in the foraging area top, so I think they may still be ok.

 

The 20 gallon tank was also attacked, but responded in force and was able to defend their nest effectively due to their numbers.

 

The argentines also found my mealworm bin and had a buffet there.  I just tossed the whole bin in trash.

 

I cleaned up the table and made sure to leave gaps to prevent access in the future.  Lesson learned.

[Roy3]

Wow bro. That sucks but glad it wasn't a total loss. I hope the 2019 small colony makes it again. Let us know.

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[Straywolf94]

The 2019 small colony didn't make it.  The queens died off one by one in the following week.  I guess will have to wait til next summer to start a new colony.

 

However, the 2018 colony in the 10 gallon tank is still going strong.  With winter coming around, their brood pile has shrunken a bit to only 1/3rd of what you see below.  They are still quite numerous and constantly trying to climb the glass.  I have been trying to limit their food to slow them down so they don't outgrow the tank too quickly, but its hard to know what food reserves they are keeping in the tunnels.

 

https://youtu.be/UIlgcFvHI3Y

Edited by Straywolf94, November 14 2019 - 3:41 PM.

[Roy3]

Well, long live that 2018 colony!!!! Still awesome to see.

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