7 replies to this topic

[AlabamaAnt]

Happy New Year!  

 

Eager to share my new colony and my Uncle Milton Harvester Ant Experiment with the group!

 

Love looking at the awesome setups everyone has.  I had a failed attempt a few years ago but am back and so far so good!
 

My kids wanted an ant farm so I dusted off the formicarium and hastily ordered some Uncle Milton Harvester Ants and moved them into the Formicarium.  These ants have been living in this space for 2 months and are doing well.  They love seeds and water.

 

I then acquired a Queen Pogonomyrmex Occidentalis with a few workers.  They are doing great, their testtube was getting dirty so I acquired a neat formicarium off amazon and they are doing well.  I mainly leave that colony in my desk in darkness and they seem to be doing well.

 

I found a reptile heating pad and threw the UM Harvester ants on the heating pad and they have been entertaining to watch.  

 

 

So a few questions;

 

-How long will the Uncle Milton Harvester Ants live for?  It's sort of a good thing, giving my Pogonomyrmex colony time in a smaller enclosure and time to grow.

-Any benefit to putting my small Pogonomyrmex colony on the heating pad?

-My small Pogonomyrmex Colony has seeds all over their outworld, should i remove these?

 

 

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[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

I have read a report that suggests a queen could live for up to 20 years. I have read reports of workers living for 6+ months and also  12+ months. Not sure if those were wild vs. captive numbers or what, so can't say for sure what the typical worker life span is. Only that the early nanitics (smaller than normal) won't live as long.

 

 

These ants do like warmer temps in the 80-88 F. range. I note my about 1 year old colony spreads out a good deal over temperature ranges. Keeping late stage brood in warmer spots(83-85), and early stage brood in cooler spots(78-82).
Try to keep the heating source as far from their humidity source as possible. If the water is heated enough it evaporates fast enough to over saturate the nest in humidity and get condensation on everything. Likely some condensation happens no matter what, but applying heat directly to the glass (on/near the condensation) will remove it and prevent it.
As long as the temperature difference between the nest air and the glass is not too far off, it won't collect condensation.

 

These ants are generally fastidious. They will most likely form an offical trash pile somewhere eventually. Whatever they don't want will wind up there for you to clean out.
These ants also make seed larders, storing up seeds for harder time and taking in seeds they won't be able to open for a long time still. The seed stashes will be obviously different from their refuse pile of seed husks, once they get it going.

 

Hope yall have have fun,

 

 

P.S.

Could i ask you to post a picture of your whole setup? I like to see the "big picture" context of a whole setup, to understand how all the close ups fit togther.

 

 

Oh and one last thing. One of my favorite tools:

https://www.digiten....om-fermentation

 

Let me be real lazy while keeping their setup well temperature controlled for ideal "summer" conditions year round for them.

Edited by Full_Frontal_Yeti, January 3 2024 - 9:10 AM.

[AlabamaAnt]

Thanks FFY, I like the temp controller.  Below our photos of my setup.  The large formacurium is currently hosing the "uncle milton ants", bought those dudes ahead of my Pogonomyrmex Queen.  I have the queen in a small setup, got it from Amazon for like $8.
 
So for entertainments purpose, I have the uncle milton ants on the heat pad just to see what they do in a warmer environment.  I've put the outworld for the smaller setup on the edge of the mat (away from the water source).
 
I want to give the smaller setup the best chance for success, so happy to leave on the heating pad or leave in my desk drawer in the dark.  Whichever is best.

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[ISpeakForTheTrees]

Yeah, for Pogonomyrmex occidentalis, I've heard ~6-12 months for workers (may be shorter in the wild), while queens/colonies are estimated to be able to live ~44 years (I've heard guesses that they might be able to live to 50) in the wild under favorable conditions. The oldest confirmed one I know of was 42 years old. The queens/colonies of most species that I've found seem to be estimated as living between ~10-40 years, so P. occidentalis is one of the longer lived species. 

 

My sources for the queen/colony lifespans:

https://www.bio.fsu....es Soc 2017.pdf

https://digitalcommo...xt=bioscifacpub

[AlabamaAnt]

Thanks for the trees! I'm hoping the uncle milton ants pass away in the not so distant future so I can clean the big formicarium out and move the new colony in.

Should I keep my small colony in the dark? And w or w out heating of the outworld?

[ISpeakForTheTrees]

Thanks for the trees! I'm hoping the uncle milton ants pass away in the not so distant future so I can clean the big formicarium out and move the new colony in.

Should I keep my small colony in the dark? And w or w out heating of the outworld?

I'll defer to more experienced keepers if they have any input on these (my knowledge about these at this point is admittedly oriented toward keeping larger colonies in more naturalistic setups - I've got a lot to learn for keeping small colonies/setups). 

 

That said, my thoughts would be that if your formicarium is large enough to allow a good heat and humidity gradient (and you have a controller to keep the temperature from getting too high), then heating it would probably be wise. If the formicarium isn't big enough for that, then I'd keep doing what your doing (i.e. unheated in the dark). I'm not sure if I would heat just the outworld and not the formicarium (I'd imagine that could lead to some interesting nest arrangements by the ants). 

 

Also, with the seeds - my understanding is that unless the seeds start molding, it's fine to leave them. As was mentioned above, the ants should make their own trash pile eventually.

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

Thanks for the trees! I'm hoping the uncle milton ants pass away in the not so distant future so I can clean the big formicarium out and move the new colony in.

Should I keep my small colony in the dark? And w or w out heating of the outworld?

 I had mine in a open side THA mini hearth without darkening the glass around the the 20 mark. I moved them into a top down view nest at around 75. They are 200-300 now still in top down view with near by  overhead lighting on the outworlds and no special shading/red filter for their nests.

I notice mine get used to whatever light conditions fairly quickly. Dark and they will freak out when suddenly lit. Lit all the time and they seem to not care. When my daytime light timers goes on, the ones that overnighted in the outworlds just slow shuffle back to the nest, but no one freak outs.

 

I'd say a mat near by or under that nice little screen top outworld, but i'd not directly mat heat a test tube colony i think. Probably get a lot of condensation and they don't like exposed//open water too much. But i'd be trying to keep their general nest temp around the 80f zone

Mine like heat, but more importantly a heat gradient. The late stage larvae will be kept where it is hottest and early stage where it is cooler. And humidity is important for them. Careful not to place any heat sources too clsoe to any water/humidity sources. It will over saturate the air with humidity and condensation will form on everything. Even so if the humidity is high and the viewing glass cold enough, it will bring on condensation. Being able to keep a warmer ambient temp outside the glass, or applying heat directly to the glass will help prevent condensation from forming. But not if it is over saturated, then it just forms on everything in the nest no matter what.

 

My nest internal temp over the last year was averaging about 84f. thermostat on at 83 off at 85. With heat applied mainly just on one side A(and glass to keep off condensation) , with the internal temp probe near that point(not touching anything, taking air temps). So the nest is cooler as you move to the other side of it away from the heat source. Now I have two nests connected and two heat cables.  I run one at the 83-85 and the other at 78-80. I notice they really split up the brood pile when offered this much gradient and all of it is on top of water towers(highest humidity zone in the nest).

A heat cable would let you better control where and how much heat is applied. And of course thermostat control will let you be lazy about it.

Edited by Full_Frontal_Yeti, January 3 2024 - 6:53 PM.

[AlabamaAnt]

Thanks!  back to the dark they go.  I think i'll pop them out 1x a week or so for some heat and observation.

 

Thanks for the trees! I'm hoping the uncle milton ants pass away in the not so distant future so I can clean the big formicarium out and move the new colony in.

Should I keep my small colony in the dark? And w or w out heating of the outworld?

I'll defer to more experienced keepers if they have any input on these (my knowledge about these at this point is admittedly oriented toward keeping larger colonies in more naturalistic setups - I've got a lot to learn for keeping small colonies/setups). 

 

That said, my thoughts would be that if your formicarium is large enough to allow a good heat and humidity gradient (and you have a controller to keep the temperature from getting too high), then heating it would probably be wise. If the formicarium isn't big enough for that, then I'd keep doing what your doing (i.e. unheated in the dark). I'm not sure if I would heat just the outworld and not the formicarium (I'd imagine that could lead to some interesting nest arrangements by the ants). 

 

Also, with the seeds - my understanding is that unless the seeds start molding, it's fine to leave them. As was mentioned above, the ants should make their own trash pile eventually.

 

I've got some work to do in regards to my heating.  Appreciate the advice and will look into better/stable sources of heat.

 

Thanks for the trees! I'm hoping the uncle milton ants pass away in the not so distant future so I can clean the big formicarium out and move the new colony in.

Should I keep my small colony in the dark? And w or w out heating of the outworld?

 I had mine in a open side THA mini hearth without darkening the glass around the the 20 mark. I moved them into a top down view nest at around 75. They are 200-300 now still in top down view with near by  overhead lighting on the outworlds and no special shading/red filter for their nests.

I notice mine get used to whatever light conditions fairly quickly. Dark and they will freak out when suddenly lit. Lit all the time and they seem to not care. When my daytime light timers goes on, the ones that overnighted in the outworlds just slow shuffle back to the nest, but no one freak outs.

 

I'd say a mat near by or under that nice little screen top outworld, but i'd not directly mat heat a test tube colony i think. Probably get a lot of condensation and they don't like exposed//open water too much. But i'd be trying to keep their general nest temp around the 80f zone

Mine like heat, but more importantly a heat gradient. The late stage larvae will be kept where it is hottest and early stage where it is cooler. And humidity is important for them. Careful not to place any heat sources too clsoe to any water/humidity sources. It will over saturate the air with humidity and condensation will form on everything. Even so if the humidity is high and the viewing glass cold enough, it will bring on condensation. Being able to keep a warmer ambient temp outside the glass, or applying heat directly to the glass will help prevent condensation from forming. But not if it is over saturated, then it just forms on everything in the nest no matter what.

 

My nest internal temp over the last year was averaging about 84f. thermostat on at 83 off at 85. With heat applied mainly just on one side A(and glass to keep off condensation) , with the internal temp probe near that point(not touching anything, taking air temps). So the nest is cooler as you move to the other side of it away from the heat source. Now I have two nests connected and two heat cables.  I run one at the 83-85 and the other at 78-80. I notice they really split up the brood pile when offered this much gradient and all of it is on top of water towers(highest humidity zone in the nest).

A heat cable would let you better control where and how much heat is applied. And of course thermostat control will let you be lazy about it.