12 replies to this topic

[Vendayn]

So its probably good I just make a new thread for 2021 anyway. Kinda wish kept the old info but oh well. Also, until I get my dad's phone, no pictures. And my dad doesn't want me to use his phone. His phone is able to take pictures of tiny ants, it takes better pictures than the old (but high end) cameras used to. Its a super good camera on his phone, mine is more a junk camera that can barely take pictures of Pogonomyrmex. Anyway, no pictures...

 

So, to summarize it up. The Pheidole megacephala have been here for 5 years I believe (this being their 5th year). So, in the grand scheme of things a very new addition to an area that have been dominated by Argentine ants for decades and decades. Either the apartments imported them here when they did mass landscaping (which is when they showed up) due to the new apartment expansion they built. Or someone brought them here on plants, though with how widespread they were initially its almost certainly the former.

 

So, you'd think the most dominant ant for decades would win right? Well, despite the Pheidole megacephala being the new "kid" on block, their expansion has been rapid and fast. They have outplaced many areas that had been dominated by Argentine ants, and only losing their expansions into the nature area outside the apartment complex. And that is only due to the sheer volume of Argentine ants.

 

Despite their two years of losses to colonize the nature area, every year they do better and better. Toward the end of 2020, they had taken over a good portion of one of the pool areas (which had been very dominated by Argentine ants), which directly borders the nature area. They also expanded heavily toward the tiny playground (which is next to the pool area), though didn't quite reach. They also expanded on the other side of a large building, which connects to the other side of the pool area. So to summarize it, they now pretty much border the entire nature area. This year when they do their mass expansions, they'll have a vastly easier time than they did in 2020 (which they almost did win, but did ultimately lose). Even if they lose this year, every year they get more and more ants, more and more territory, that in 2022 and from there on out that the Argentine ants will be outnumbered and the Pheidole should be able to leave the apartment boundaries at that point. They already have a good chance of that this year.

 

With that said. Its middle of winter, and we are in the cold months. For the first time that I have seen, the Pheidole megacephala are actually expanding in one area. This area I talked a lot about in my old journal, but its the area that connects both to the "wall" (the opposite side of the wall is the pond on one side, and then the wall goes alongside just outside the complex, which goes along the freeway). They aren't actually expanding toward the pond (though its kind of close), but they have been using large cracks in the road between the plant area (middle of two one car roads) and the nature area, to colonize a concrete drainage ditch. The ditch goes past some garages and has a bunch of cracks in it for them to nest in. They have almost reached the dirt area too, which then a few feet from there is the wall. This is important to note though, because like I said, its the first time they expanded at this time of year. They have slowly solidified their hold on the concrete drainage ditch, and have two nests now in the cracks between the ditch and the road. They are also building up a third nest, which gives them direct access to actual nesting grounds where the dirt is. 

 

Its also interesting, because the Argentine ants aren't really putting up any fight or defense. If this was in the Summer, the Argentine ants would actually just swarm them and this wouldn't even be a thing I barely talk about. However, in the Winter, its almost like the Argentine ants are just letting the Pheidole build up a force and nests. The Argentine ants are not really being aggressive or defensive or much of anything. They are just letting themselves be killed as far as I know. Granted, I almost never see Argentine ants do any wars in the Winter to begin with. Where as, the Pheidole are being far more the aggressors. Very interesting observation here.

Edited by Vendayn, January 19 2021 - 3:00 PM.

[Vendayn]

Also yes, for 3 years, once a year, I reported them. The third year I did get a response. They know they are here. Never done anything about it. And with covid, I doubt anything will happen for a long time anyway. I don't think many countries to begin with are controlling invasive ants (or if they are, its barely at all). Either way, I stopped reporting them (since finally did get a response back) and also because they didn't need to be spammed with reports when they already got the info.

[Kaelwizard]

As far as I know, the only invasive ant species where any real effort has been made to prevent their spread was S. invicta.

[Vendayn]

As far as I know, the only invasive ant species where any real effort has been made to prevent their spread was S. invicta.

In the US, yeah, at least for California. Worldwide though, Australia was/is the nation I know of that took invasives EXTREMELY seriously. Even a hint of it was a huge campaign to get rid of the invasive ants. Though, I don't think anything is happening now (or very little like I said) with their entire nation pretty much locked down. So, I bet a lot of invasives are getting through now.

 

Though back to the Solenopsis invicta. California gave up that fight, they've become too widespread and expensive to get rid of. They are still a quarantine species, but are no longer actively controlled. Argentine ants used to be a quarantine species, but at some point they just became part of California. Solenopsis invicta will probably end up the same.

[Vendayn]

So, I put some bait between the Argentine ants and Pheidole megacephala along the drainage ditch. I put it in three spots, with the main one where the majority of Argentine ants are. I just used some crashed dry cat kibble mostly, and a tiny bit of crushed pecan. Turns out, this explains why the Argentine ants haven't done much...

 

There is a LOT of Pheidole megacephala that have colonized the drainage ditch. There is a huge amount getting the bait. Actually, there is way more than I thought because usually I don't see that much around. I am going to take a guess and some alates flew over and colonized some of the ditch. I did notice workers roaming around the ditch 2-3 months ago, but didn't think too much on it. But, also on top of that with the many cracks opening up in the road, its made it very easy for them to just cross over. That or maybe they have tunnels going under the road. Since its such a narrow road, wouldn't be hard to just tunnel under it. In any case, a very surprising amount came out to get the food. Also yeah, the Argentine ants can't get the food which means the Pheidole are right now dominating. Very surprising for Winter.

 

Tomorrow, I'll be putting wet cat food out in the same three spots, maybe add one or two new areas. I'll actually take pictures of the piles of dirt in some of the cracks, and I'll take a picture of the drainage ditch and stuff (just won't be enough to identify the area or anything). Don't expect to actually see ants though.

Edited by Vendayn, January 5 2021 - 6:50 PM.

[Vendayn]

Some pictures of the area. If you are on a PC, you might be able to make out the ants (the first picture you can see a soldier that is in the crack there) when you make the image fullscreen. They have actually settled in that crack, so pretty much direct access to the dirt/wall. I didn't take a picture that direction because I don't want to take a picture of someones car. When no one is parked there, I'll take a picture showing how short a distance it is for the Pheidole to go from where they are at. Otherwise, despite barely making out the ants, its mostly to show the area. Plus how small the road is, the main area across the way and their nesting sites. After doing ant baits today (used crushed pecan), I'm still surprised how big the colony is that managed to survive along the concrete drainage ditch. Its actually a really substantial amount of ants.

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Vendayn, January 7 2021 - 1:59 PM.

[Vendayn]

Well...I am flabbergasted.

 

The Pheidole megacephala, I took a glance at them tonight. I'll take pictures tomorrow since its too dark.

 

They took over three huge Argentine ant nests. Made it to the wall and all but effectively have made it to the nature area.

 

If anyone asked me my predictions of this earlier in the year. I'd say "I don't bother to look in winter, nothing ever happens this time of year with Pheidole megacephala." and even if I thought they'd do stuff, I'd go "well the argentine ants will kill them and they won't make it even close to the nature area"

 

I never once predicted this. In fact, my last prediction (that is sadly gone from my other thread Stupid me but anyway...)...I actually thought they wouldn't really make it to the nature area to begin with, and if they did it be a hard fought battle. I did think they had a good chance for this spring/summer, but be very hard fighting. I actually more thought they'd make it in 2022 more than anything else.

 

Never did I think they'd expand, conquer and pretty much all but make it to the nature area in the middle of winter. Even last summer, they couldn't succeed at doing that.

 

I am just so surprised, that I'll just leave it there and post again tomorrow with pictures.

Edited by Vendayn, January 11 2021 - 8:16 PM.

[antsandmore]

ok... so these ants are taking over argentines... is this a good thing or a bad thing?

[Vendayn]

ok... so these ants are taking over argentines... is this a good thing or a bad thing?

Bad actually. But so are Argentine ants...I mean they are both bad invasives. They both nest in dirt and wood (the wood has to be rotten and pretty wet). And both really hurt the environment. Both are to me not as bad as Solenopsis invicta though, those are the worst of the three "big" invasives. You won't see Argentine ants and probably not Pheidole megacephala just outright attacking and eating farm animals alive and what not like Solenopsis invicta do, or at least I never heard of it.

 

Either way, its not a good thing. Nor is it a good thing Argentine ants are everywhere and not good that Solenopsis invicta are on the way of being everywhere too.

 

To sum it up, its never good when invasive ants take over. Sadly its that way, at least for California. I was reading something somewhere that California has all but given up fighting both the Argentine ants and the Solenopsis invicta.

 

I did however report the Pheidole megacephala to the proper people and they know they are here. Actually reported the Solenopsis invicta too (since its the invasive multiple queen variety, but that was before found out they stopped fighting the Solenopsis invicta). But, they haven't done anything. And with covid, I doubt much is going on to begin with. 

Edited by Vendayn, January 12 2021 - 10:00 AM.

[Vendayn]

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

They made it to the wall there the other day, though what I see them sometimes do is do this raiding thing then go back to their nests. I don't think that was the case this time around, but they had just taken the wall. Usually it takes over a month really for them to get a solid hold on an area, and even then its mostly a full year where the Pheidole become to secure and too many numbers, that the Argentine ants are never able to reclaim the area again. At least, this is my observation of other parts of the supercolony. As for the wall, I didn't actually see any sign a battle happened, but I must have missed one. The Argentine must have done pretty well at one point since the last update.

 

The war from then to today however definitely has changed a lot, since the Pheidole just outnumber them so much. Its like the Pheidole went into superdrive mode with a huge amount of new ants. From the day I started the journal to today, I have seen a very large expansion in not just them colonizing the area, but the amount of ants too.

 

Also, as a bonus, can actually see workers (and soldiers) this time around. They also had a massive battle (though rather one sided advantage) against the Argentine ants today. Since the Argentine ants were able to take back some of their colonies they had probably won at some point. Though they lost them again, but by even more massive numbers of Pheidole. Not only that, but the Pheidole megacephala outnumber the Argentine ants so much, that the battle only lasted a couple hours and the Pheidole are now swarming the area, vastly more numbers than even when I saw them against the wall. In fact, the amount of ants the Pheidole have, is the same amount they generally have in the Summer, where as Argentine ants have a lot less like every Winter. So if they number this many ants already, all expectations will be so far pass what I expected in terms of Spring/Summer for this invasion. Like I said above though, its never good for any invasive ant to be around. Though I guess at least it isn't Solenopsis invicta, those are the worst (to me) of the three around here by far.

 

Though, I did miss the fact this whole time... that picture of the wall I took, it has two openings in it (I only took a picture of one of the openings). The corner slab isn't actually connected to the other longer slabs of the wall. That actually means once the Pheidole officially get to the wall (again), and also hold onto it that they actually have direct access to the nature area. I thought they had to go around the wall to the left. This also means despite the Argentine ants having a legion of ants on the other side of the wall (as they too can easily reinforce through both openings between the wall slab), they are still outnumbered.

 

And lastly. I didn't take a picture of it, but the Pheidole are pretty much colonizing the entire concrete drainage ditch. There are a lot of new nests along the edges of the ditch, and every few days a new nest site opens up.

Edited by Vendayn, January 14 2021 - 6:38 PM.

[Vendayn]

Well, I was going to wait to update. So this will be a kinda quick thing. 

But, this is pretty much the biggest sign how outnumbered the Argentine ants are now, by the Pheidole megacephala. The Argentine ants kicked it up a notch in this heat wave, and sent a huge swarm of ants to surround and occupy. Its their favorite (and only) strategy they use. They swarm an area, and occupy it with overwhelming numbers. This however doesn't really work on Pheidole megacephala, and it definitely doesn't work on any opponent with equal or more numbers. So...the Argentine ant swarm got repelled and they gave up sending swarms of ants. 

 

The Pheidole megacephala are also very quickly expanding through the concrete drainage ditch, in any area they can make a nest in. They've almost made it to a dominant Argentine ant area, so we'll see how that goes. I'll have to take a picture at some point, when it looks like they've either reached it or are just really close.

Edited by Vendayn, January 15 2021 - 5:43 PM.

[Vendayn]

Well, I have an interesting observation.

 

It seems during this current heat wave (supposed to end on Tuesday) gave a huge advantage to the Argentine ants. They started swarming the front lines of the Pheidole megacephala in three different areas, briefly winning all three. One is the side of the garages (where fighting is still going and the longest lasting battle front), one is more in the middle section where its more open (the most recent), the last is along the end of the parking spaces. The last being easily won by the Pheidole megacephala as they've pushed the Argentine ants back. The middle section started today, and the Pheidole megacephala have also pushed forward, easily winning here. Along the garages, after three days of fighting (it actually started on the 14th, I forgot to include that in my last quick update) the Pheidole megacephala have finally started pushing forward again.

 

My observation is that during cold periods, but with warm (not hot) days, seems to give the Pheidole megacephala a bigger advantage over the Argentine ants. When days are in the 60s, nights in the low 50s to high 40s, the Pheidole megacephala are able to expand easily and take over Argentine ant nests easier. The Argentine ants locally don't seem to do well in the cold at all (and low 50s/high 40s isn't even THAT cold, considering where Argentine ants are found around the world). This is curious to me for that reason, that usually Argentine ants do better in the cold...and well...Pheidole megacephala don't tend to like the cold, doing better in warm climates (being tropical species of ant). During cold periods, the Argentine ants go passive here and even fight amongst themselves. During the last heat wave, they ended up swarming in huge numbers and being very aggressive. I actually thought the Pheidole megacephala were going to lose honestly, considering the huge amount of Argentine ants attacking on multiple fronts. But, since nights have returned to mostly normal, tide of battle has once again changed.

 

Still, its a curious observation about the temperature advantage of both species. I wouldn't have thought Argentine ants would lose their whole advantage when its barely cold, and opposite for the Pheidole megacephala who are tropical.

Edited by Vendayn, January 17 2021 - 9:52 PM.

[Vendayn]

Well, interestingly there is another area that the Pheidole megacephala have been expanding this Winter. That is, the opposite side of the garages I focused on entirely in the last journal. Its the area at the end of the wall which then leads directly to the pond. Last Summer, this area was the main battleground with massive battles (that the Pheidole lost in the end). I actually haven't paid any attention to this area since they lost. Though have noticed the occasional worker by the dumpsters, that I thought were random ants crossing over from the middle section. Turns out, they have been expanding out in this area without me knowing.

 

So, if both colonies combine (which they are close to, the big one is making good progress behind the garages), it all but solidifies their hold on the area. The Argentine ants will be unable to retake the area or push them back (which despite constant swarms of Argentine ants, they still get pushed back to begin with). Its too windy today for me to observe more or take pictures sadly, but they could very well have crossed from the apartment complex to the nature area without me knowing till today.

Edited by Vendayn, January 19 2021 - 3:03 PM.