2467 replies to this topic

[dspdrew]

It looks like the chance of rain has weakened quite a bit, but has also moved up slightly. It might be possible to get out there Sunday if any good storms hit Saturday.

[nurbs]

Has anyone been up the 2 to Mt. Wilson (nurbs?)? I'm thinking of some not-so-far areas to explore until the deserts get some rain. Otherwise I'm looking at heading up 39 to Crystal Springs.

 

Hey Foogoo - it has been pretty dry up there til now. I will hit that area up this week after it stops raining!

[Foogoo]

Let me know where you guys end up going on Monday and I'll try to meet up. I'm probably going to head up to the high desert to try my luck.

[Thomas_Nguyen2456]

Man there was a huge storm in San Diego, flooded half the zoo there, and a small where I live

[PTAntFan]

Bunch of rain last night all around here and it's blazing one thousand degrees today.  I wouldn't miss my kid's sporting events, but it's might tempting to run up into the hills today to see what's flying about. 

[dspdrew]

I'm going to the Pinyon Pines/Palm Desert area. Then to the Joshua Tree area (if I can get there now that the 10 freeway collapsed). Then I'm going into the mountains and through Angelus Oaks, and finally to the Palmdale area. I hope I don't have any trouble on the 247 going through Landers after all this rain.

[dspdrew]

Looks like I may have ended up finding nine different Myrmecocystus species. I know for sure there are at least six.

[BugFinder]

How did you do in Palmdale Drew?  Find anything out there?

[Foogoo]

The M. placodops didn't make it through the night. I got a few M. navajo from Wamdar Friday, had them in my former lunchbox, enveloped in foam and bubble wrap with a single, small ice pack in a separate compartment. Two were dead when I got home and one died the day after. Myrmecocystus seems really sensitive to something, maybe temperature changes or change of setting.

[Gregory2455]

The M. placodops didn't make it through the night. I got a few M. navajo from Wamdar Friday, had them in my former lunchbox, enveloped in foam and bubble wrap with a single, small ice pack in a separate compartment. Two were dead when I got home and one died the day after. Myrmecocystus seems really sensitive to something, maybe temperature changes or change of setting.

If you have any left, then I suggest put them in a regular test tube setup, cook some sand, let the sand cool, then put a thin layer that is as thick as about 1/3 of the size of the test tube. All of mine are in these setups and I have only had a single death out of 18 queens, and the single death was due to something else.

[Foogoo]

 

The M. placodops didn't make it through the night. I got a few M. navajo from Wamdar Friday, had them in my former lunchbox, enveloped in foam and bubble wrap with a single, small ice pack in a separate compartment. Two were dead when I got home and one died the day after. Myrmecocystus seems really sensitive to something, maybe temperature changes or change of setting.

If you have any left, then I suggest put them in a regular test tube setup, cook some sand, let the sand cool, then put a thin layer that is as thick as about 1/3 of the size of the test tube. All of mine are in these setups and I have only had a single death out of 18 queens, and the single death was due to something else.

 

I've been doing exactly that with my Myrmecocystus as well as P. californicus and P. rugosus, varying between a layer of sand, full of sand, as well as bare tubes and THA nests. It still seems completely random, I've had deaths and successes in each of those setups. But good to know it's working for yours, maybe that's the way to go with Myrmecocystus.

[Gregory2455]

It still seems completely random

 It really should not be random. It must not be the setups, but instead something else. Do you keep them in a cold room?

[dspdrew]

This last mission was so good, I haven't even had time to post about it. I have so many queens I'm overwhelmed.

[Foogoo]

 It really should not be random. It must not be the setups, but instead something else. Do you keep them in a cold room?

 

Nope, they're in my dining room, shades drawn and AC rarely on so it's usually a good 75-80 degrees in the summer. I assume some weren't going to make it anyway and will die in any setup. But in the case of P. californicus, of the two I have doing the best with nanitics, one is in a bare test tube and the other is in a dirt filled test tube. The duds did nothing in bare tubes and tubes with a layer of sand for a good month so I moved them to hydrostone nests. One now has eggs, the other two are still   .

 

The Myrmecocystus I got from kellak are all calm with eggs in bare tubes while the ones from Wamdar have mostly been digging or hanging out. Nearly all the P. rugosus are going nuts, except for one in a Talus and Mini-Hearth. Their behavior in different setups honestly seems random.

 

Could also be going from founding chamber > container > first owner > me messed with their heads a bit. Maybe they'd do better going straight into tubes from the desert and to their final destination (my home, not like the movie).

[Foogoo]

Possible flash flood warnings for next weekends (why do they always fall on weekends??). Should Acromyrmex be flying about now as well? Are there any species that fly late summer that might not have flown yet?

[Subverted]

If what I encountered was any indication Camponotus semitestaceus still has a flight worth of alates left in their nests and so did the Pheidole (both colonies I accidentally dug into).

 

Hopefully Acromyrmex will fly next storm! Those are high on my want list.

[nurbs]

I'm gonna go there and grab all the Acromyrmex sub. Every single one.

[Subverted]

:scare3:

[Foogoo]

If what I encountered was any indication Camponotus semitestaceus still has a flight worth of alates left in their nests and so did the Pheidole (both colonies I accidentally dug into).

Did I miss your post somewhere? Where did you find Camoponotus alates?

[Gregory2455]

Well, I went up to the mountains today and flipped rocks. One had a Formica moki colony under it with alates still so I guess they haven't flown.

Edited by Gregory2455, July 26 2015 - 7:43 PM.