Last summer I tried to tag a Pogonomyrmex and it didn't go well. I tried it again this summer after reading more about how beekeepers do it. I took the opportunity when I found an escaped carpenter ant from my pennsylvanicus colony. Gave her a white dot on her gaster about 3 weeks ago.
It's always so neat when I spot her! She hasn't managed to clean it off and seems as lively and active in colony activities as ever. As the type of ant brave enough to escape, she is probably older and she did spend about 3 days hiding around the apartment and managing to not get eaten by the cat. She's a small worker, but very busy.
To tag her I used a POSCA paint marker and a tiny paintbrush. I caught her and chilled her in the fridge. Gave her the paint marking then let her dry for about 40 min before sending her home. (This was the step I missed with the Pogonomyrmex. They managed to remove all the paint in about two days since it was not totally dry and didn't like the smell of the paint... but that's another story. )
Tagging a few ants in a large colony lets to better understand the life of individual ants. Anyone else try this?
As soon as I have enough footage of her I'll put up a video ... but so far I've noted she always sleeps in the same chamber in the nest from about 1am to 9am... then she goes outside and hides under the log.
When food is put out she will join in if it's small, but not if it's big, then she goes back under the log.
She never interacts with the queen or brood, but as an older at this is normal.
Sometimes she carries bug parts out of the nest to the trash.
She never visits the water feeder or sugar feeder, but gets fed by some of the big fat majors from time to time.
And that's her life!
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