22 replies to this topic

[evanmancini2011]

This is the start of my ant keeping journal. I live in Colorado and love ants. I currently keep 1 Tetramorium ant queen, 4 Tetramorium ant colonies with 10-20 workers, 10 solenopsis queens, a pogonomyrmex occidentalis colony with one worker and a Crematogaster ant colony with 100-110 workers. I will plan to post every day about ants in this journal! Don't worry I don't plan to post this many pictures every time on this journal I just want you guys to meet all of my ants! Here are the pictures of the ants!

This is my Crematogaster ant colony in one test tube!

This is the basic setup for my Crematogaster colony!

 The Crematogaster ant colony is bl]ue because I recently gave them sugar water dyed blue!

And finally here are all the queens and brood!

Here are the pavement ant colony's 

Here is Pavement ant colony number 1 in a test tube setup!

Here is Pavement Ant Colony number 2 in a AntsCanada test tube portal!

Here is Pavement Ant Colony number 3 in a test tube!

And here is Pavement Ant Colony number 4 in a test tube setup!

This is the Pogonomyrmex Occidentalis queen and one worker.

And here one of my 10 solenopsis queens!

 

 

I hope you enjoy this journal!

[rptraut]

Hello evanmancini2011;

 

Thanks for the introduction to your colonies.   I look forward to hearing about their development in the future.    Does one of your Crematogaster colonies have multiple queens?    Please keep us updated.

Good Luck

RPT

[evanmancini2011]

Yes rptraut, the Crematogaster colony has five queens!

Thank You for asking!

[evanmancini2011]

9/20 Today was a sad and fun day. The happy part was I got to feed my pogonomyrmex occidentalis ants seeds today and I went on a ant hike but sadly did not find anything but it was still very fun! The sad part is my cramatogahster ant colony with 100-110 workers have red and white mites. The Mites only attach themselves to each of the six ant queens. I have no idea where the mites came from. But I am think of buying predatory mites to try to get rid of them! If anyone has any tips on this problem please say so! I hope I get rid of these Mites because this is the longest ant colony I have ever had. 

Thank you for reading this Journal!

Here are is a picture of the mites I saw!

[ANTdrew]

Time to focus on solutions and stop bringing up the problem. No need to dig up bad mojo, so to speak. Mites are truly the worst thing that can happen to an ant keeper.

[evanmancini2011]

9/21 Today was feeding day! I feed all my pavement ant colony's and my crematogaster colony a mealworm witch they absolutely loved. Sadly the crematogaster colony still have mites.

Here is a picture of the crematogaster eating the meal worm!

[ANTdrew]

Why such huge font?

[evanmancini2011]

Yea sorry I will start using a less big font!

[evanmancini2011]

9/22 Nothing much today but I went on a walk near my house to look for some big pogonomyrmex occidentalis ant hills and noticed that my pogonomyrmex occidentalis has a pupae so we should get another worker soon!

Here is a picture of one of the big ant hills!

[RushmoreAnts]

I wish we had these around where I live. They only live in the western half of South Dakota, whose climate is similar to Colorado; I live in the far southeastern part of the state, with a wetter climate similar to Minnesota.

[evanmancini2011]

I wish we had these around where I live. They only live in the western half of South Dakota, whose climate is similar to Colorado; I live in the far southeastern part of the state, with a wetter climate similar to Minnesota.

Yea that sucks pogonomyrmex occidentalis is such a cool ant species! But what ants are you currently keeping and what ants live near you?

Thank You 

Evan

[RushmoreAnts]

 

I wish we had these around where I live. They only live in the western half of South Dakota, whose climate is similar to Colorado; I live in the far southeastern part of the state, with a wetter climate similar to Minnesota.

Yea that sucks pogonomyrmex occidentalis is such a cool ant species! But what ants are you currently keeping and what ants live near you?

Thank You 

Evan

I'm keeping Formica pallidefulva, Formica incerta, Formica cf. argentea, Formica aserva, another Formica aserva group sp., Tetramorium immigrans, Myrmica sp., Lasius neoniger, and Lasius brevicornis.

 

In East River (the eastern half of the state, east of the Missouri River) there's a lot of Formica, Lasius, Solenopsis molesta, Aphaenogaser rudis, Aphaenogaster tennesseensis, Myrmica, Camponotus pennsylvanicus, Camponotus nearcticus, Camponotus americanus, Brachymyrmex depilis, Ponera pennsylvanica, and of course Tetramorium immigrans.

While less common, I've also seen Aphaenogaster picea, Camponotus novaeboracensis, Camponotus castaneus, Crematogaster cerasi, Dorymyrmex insanus, Forelius pruinosus, Leptothorax canadensis, Stigmatomma pallipes, Strumigynes sp., Tapinoma sessile, Temnothorax ambiguus, and Temnothorax curvispinosus. 

It's generally consistent with the rest of the Midwest and Northeast.

 

West River (Where Mt. Rushmore, the Black Hills, and Badlands Nat. Park are) has a diversity very similar to Colorado. That's where our sources of Camponotus modoc and Camponotus vicinus are, as well as any other western/Rockies species. While we can locate colonies of Pogonomyrmex occidentalis, we never nailed down their flight times and found it inconvenient to drive 5-6 hours both ways on the chance of catching a flight. I've kept the species before, but I've always bought from vendors.

Edited by RushmoreAnts, September 22 2024 - 6:49 PM.

[evanmancini2011]

9/23: Really nothing much today!

[evanmancini2011]

9/24 today I noticed that my pogonomyrmex occidentalis colony has 1 mature pupae and 2 larvae witch I can't wait to get more workers!

Thank You 

Evan

[evanmancini2011]

9/25 Today was a great day! I caught this queen ant in Colorado this afternoon! Here is a picture does anyone have any idea what species this is?

[1tsm3jack]

9/25 Today was a great day! I caught this queen ant in Colorado this afternoon! Here is a picture does anyone have any idea what species this is?

IMG_1274.jpg

IMG_1273.jpg

IMG_1269.jpg

A picture from the top as well as some details of the size and area collected would be helpful for ID

[ANTdrew]

I think it could be Crematogaster. Follow the id template for better ID.

[1tsm3jack]

I think it could be Crematogaster. Follow the id template for better ID.

that's kinda what I was thinking as well wanted a picture from the top though to be sure

[RushmoreAnts]

I second Crematogaster as well as following the ID template to be certain.

[evanmancini2011]

9/26 Today I fed my crematogaster ants red dyed sugar water witch they loved, the new crematogaster queen still has not laid eggs but she is very healthy! 

Here is a picture of the crematogaster colony drinking the sugar water!

Here is 1 min after the sugar water gets placed!

Here is 5 min after the sugar water gets placed!