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[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

I was unable to find a satisfying answer to the question in my reading so came to ask here. I found reports of 12+ month and 6+ month averages. Kind of a big gap there.

 

Monitoring my colony's health i watch for deaths. But i can't find solid info on what a healthy colony would look like.

I expect their death rate meets the eclose rate at some point, for a steady egg lay rate queen.
But without a solid life expectancy to calculate form i don't know what would be a normal healthy die off rate and what would indicate something unhealthy going on.

 

I estimate about 8-15 workers eclose each week on average. Say a 10 weekly average for the last month or so now. Colony is getting close to 300+ i think.
I imagine about as many will die off as wake up a week at some point, but not sure when this will be the norm to see. Right now when more than one ant dies in close succession i get nervous, but i know this should be normal eventually.

 

So anyone think they got the reliable info on life expectancy of Pogonomyrmex Occidentalis worker in captivity? Or could you estimate from experience what their 300+ sized colony die off rate looked like?

 

Thanks for any time and attention to my question,

FFY.

Edited by Full_Frontal_Yeti, December 24 2023 - 11:25 AM.

[JesseTheAntKid]

When did the first worker die? When did you get the queen? When did the first worker eclose?
I just recommend seeing how long from an egg-laying spurt to those eggs becoming the next generation to that generation dying. You could get average scores and calculate those.