17 replies to this topic

[Broncos]

Yesterday July 1st I caught 5 pogonomyrmex californicus queens when I was going fishing. This area has millions of Argentine ants and I didn’t expect any other species. I ended up finding the P. Californicus nest. I went at night and caught 3 more queens digging their founding chamber. This is at Huckleberry Fishing pond next to Santa Ana river lakes.
So 8 queens in total. 4 in test tubes, 3 in tubs and tubes, and 1 in dspdrew’s small starter formicarium.

Edited by Broncos, July 2 2020 - 7:14 AM.

[Broncos]

dspdrew’s small starter formicariums have yet to fail me. The one queen in there is the first to lay an egg!

[Broncos]

I just went to corriganville trail with another ant keeper and I got 9 more queens. These queens were out foraging. I will put 5 together and 4 together. And then I have the 8 at home already.

[Broncos]

I am left with 14 queens all of them have larva and bicolor workers from my large californicus bicolor colony. The polygonous colonies have large larva while the solo queens have smaller larva.

[Broncos]

1 of my 4 queen colonies (now two queens   ) has a bunch of pupae now!! The other batch of queens has some large larva and a batch of eggs. I am left with 2 solo queens, one will have pupae in a few days and I'm not sure about the other because she is in dirt but probably has larva or pupa.

[Broncos]

One of the batches of queens has ~10 workers! Their color is so pretty. I haven't checked on the other batch of queens in a few weeks but I assume they have a good amount of brood and maybe some workers. There are only 2 solo queens left, each with large larva.

[Broncos]

No more solo queens left. I guess there are 2 more left because the multiple queen colonies killed all but one queen. But both colonies have workers! One has around 40 workers and one has 3. 

I am "training" my 40 worker colony to catch live food. I am using flies with no wings and 1 week old crickets. Both colonies have a good amount of brood.

[Devi]

Nice!  I'm glad you have had success with this species. What type of climate did you find them in?  I tend to find them in dry arid places, usually fields.

[Broncos]

Nice! I'm glad you have had success with this species. What type of climate did you find them in? I tend to find them in dry arid places, usually fields.

I found these at a hiking trail called corriganville park. Very dry like you said.


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[Broncos]

I have 2 colonies left. Both with 1 queen each. They are in a mini hearths. One had a large dyout because the mesh on one of my water feeders got clogged and they ran out of water for a few days. They are back to good health and growing. I think both colonies have 7ish workers and a few larva. I plan to give them more food because there is always 1 foraging in both colonies.

[Broncos]

Its been a while. Both of these colonies are still in mini hearths and doing well. One has around 15-25 workers. I can't tell exactly because they've covered the entire front glass panel with sand grains. But at least they are comfortable now. The other colony has about 10 workers with a good amount of larva and 1 pupae that is about to eclose. 

[NoveltyAntsYT]

pictures??

[Broncos]

This is the larger colony with some sugar water coated walnuts


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[Broncos]

I caught 12 more queens on Wednesday in Fairview park. I took photos of 1.

[Broncos]

The smaller colony has about 25 workers. It had 30ish but I went on vacation and the nestmate/ water source leaked and they ran out of water. They are recovering now but it was definitely a shock to the colony. The other one has about 50 workers, probably a little more. Theyve just been growing super slow.

[Broncos]

Queen of the smaller colony died after hitting 30ish workers. The other colony took off so much that I had  to move them into a tarheelants Casita. They kept doing well until they started dropping like flies. They are now left with 15 workers and the Queen. I moved them back into their now clean mini hearth. I only did this because the queen kept falling over as if she was seconds from dying. I aspirated and put the rest of the colony into the mini hearth and now they all have energy and seem like they are getting back on their feet. Only brood is a decent pile of eggs. They are drinking sugar water and eating cut mealworms so I assume that's a good sign.

[Broncos]

This colony has been recovering nicely. I gave them way to much brood from my californicus bicolor, so they'll be back to 50 workers in no time lol. I've already seen adopted bicolor workers foraging and eclosing. as of now they have ~25 workers with a pheidole looking brood pile

[Broncos]

This colony had a huge population boost. Up to about 100 workers. I've expanded them from a mini hearth to a mini hearth + inception chamber.