85 replies to this topic

[dspdrew]

Update 4-7-2016

 

Unfortunately, both of the new queens I found have died.

[Alexant]

That's a shame. I'm sorry

[dspdrew]

Update 6-14-2016

 

One of my colonies lost its queen. I only have one colony left now, assuming the orange and black ones are a different species.

[Foogoo]

I noticed a lot of your videos this year (maybe I didn't notice before?) have a floating, National Geographic, effect. Is that a filming technique or post processing effect?

[dspdrew]

Oh that's the image stabilization processing in the video settings on Youtube. I love it and do it to all my videos on Youtube.

[XZero38]

Where did you get the dirt box you use?

[dspdrew]

I made them.
 
https://www.formicul...ated-2-25-2016/

[dspdrew]

Update 10-30-2016
 
Two weeks ago, I decided to move this colony into the vacant large "dirt box" I was keeping my Pogonomyrmex subnitidus in before the colony died.
 

 

 

 
 
Exactly two weeks later they finally decided to move in.
 

 

 

[Superant33]

I have found that M. mimicus is a very easy species to keep. My colonies have a very large percentage of repletes though. Probably because I error on the side of over feeding.

[dspdrew]

Update 11-16-2016
 
I made another giant vase dirt setup and started moving the orange and black colony into it. They're starting to outgrow the little "dirt box" they're in.
 

 

[dspdrew]

Update 11-26-2016
 
The orange and black colony started digging a nest within a couple days of putting them in the new setup. They dug down about an inch and made a little chamber, but haven't done anything since. Most of the time there isn't even one worker in the new nest; it's kind of weird. They've been carrying around a few dead workers too lately, so I hope they're not all starting to die. We'll see how it goes.
 

 

[FSTP]

Such a cool setup! 

 

 

Considering these guys have repletes,given a colony has a large supply of repletes how long can they go without feeding?

[dspdrew]

I don't know the answer to that.

[dspdrew]

Update 11-28-2016

 

I checked on the orange and black colony yesterday, and saw that they had completely moved into their new nest. There wasn't a single thing left behind in the old "dirt box" nest. They even moved all the repletes. I guess it wasn't too much of a problem since none of them were very large.

[Californian Anter]

You should leave a ton of sugar-based foods out so that they can fully fill the repletes. That way, you don't need to worry about starving them on accident or if you leave on a trip.

[dspdrew]

Update 12-10-2016
 
Bad news. The orange and black colony recently moved into the giant vase setup kept carrying dead workers out of the nest and piling them in the out world. I counted at least twenty dead workers yesterday, and found another two today. I sure hope that this was caused by some dehydration just before the move, and not something else, because at this rate, the colony won't be around much longer.
 

 
 
The other colony recently moved into the large "dirt box" looks to be doing well. I haven't seen any dead workers outside the nest, and it looks like they are producing quite a bit. Other than that, I can't see a whole lot.

[dspdrew]

Update 3-12-2017
 
Good news this time. The orange and black colony hasn't had hardly anymore worker deaths, and the colony is slowly growing. They seem to be happy with their new home.
 
The colony in the large "dirt box" is still doing well and growing in size.
 
Last but not least, I found another queen today. This one was found in Trabuco Canyon, CA. I knew they had been flying in the hills around there recently, so I figured I would go for a hike and see what I could find. I got really lucky and spotted one founding chamber, and what to my delight was inside? sure enough, it was another M. mimicus.
 
I marked this queen/colony with a #1.
 

 

 
 
I put it in one of my "dirt boxes", and it immediately started digging a new nest.

[dspdrew]

Update 7-9-2017
 
The queen I found in the last update is doing great, with about 40 workers now.

[dspdrew]

Update 7-23-2017
 
Well I came across a flight of these this summer up in Nipton, California on the morning of 7-18-2017. I collected quite a few of them this time.

[dspdrew]

Update 10-31-2017
 
The queen I got from Trabuco Canyon seems to be doing alright. The colony hasn't grown much since the last update. I decided to move them out of the small older-style Dirt Box and into one of my large new ones.