4 replies to this topic

[sirjordanncurtis]

I caught these queens in Antioch, CA at around October. At first, I kept them all in a cabinet but for around 1 month, but none of them laid any eggs. Afterwards, I put them on a heat mat, but even though they started laying eggs, none of them hatched. At this point, I pretty much thought they were all infertile. Then 1 larva from Colony 1 started growing and it pupated into a worker. I realized I was probably heating them wrong and decided to change their setup. I moved my queens into an incubator setup following YsTheAnt's example and the other brood started developing as well. The nanitic worker from colony 1 is much smaller than the ones from the other colonies for some reason. YsTheAnt also helped me ID them.

 

 

[sirjordanncurtis]

All colonies now have quite a few workers. I made the mistake of accidentally leaving a thermometer in the outworld of one of my colonies which prompted a worker to crawl out. Then I accidentally placed her into the wrong colony. Realizing my mistake, I made an ever bigger oof, and took out the wrong worker from that colony. Now one of them is dead; her head was attached to a queen from the colony for some time before getting detached. On the other hand, I can't figure out where the other worker is, since it was accepted into the colony. I actually didn't know Pogonomyrmex could do that, I always thought of them as being extremely aggressive towards each other.

The largest colony is at 10 workers now.

Images will be coming soon!

[Rstheant]

Wow, big mess up. Maybe that day, the ant gods cursed you!!! Dadum chhhhhhh! Ohhhh, ahhhhhhh.

[sirjordanncurtis]

Wow, big mess up. Maybe that day, the ant gods cursed you!!! Dadum chhhhhhh! Ohhhh, ahhhhhhh.

Well if they did, they're definitely feeling sorry about it. The largest colony has sooo much brood.

[Rstheant]