120 replies to this topic

[Martialis]

I knew there was something seedy about that ant farm, and now I know I was right!

[NanceUSMC]

Looks like you need to mow!

[StopSpazzing]

haha love these comments.

[Leo]

update?

[dspdrew]

Update 12-14-2017
 
I'm now moving a colony of Pogonomyrmex maricopa into the giant ant farm. I'm pretty sure the P. tenuispinus queen that was in there is dead. I still have a couple queens alive in a few of the small Dirt Boxes, but I don't see any brood though.

[dspdrew]

Update 2-16-2018
 
The last of the remaining queens finally died.

[dspdrew]

Update 6-10-2018
 
I was given another colony of these in another giant ant farm by Retroman. I've had it for about two weeks now sitting with a heating pad under the side where they were all nesting because he insists that that is what makes them produce really well.
 

 
 
It's kind of hard to see through the glass of this one, so I was looking very closely last night and I couldn't spot any ants or any movement at all, so I'm not sure what's happening. I guess I'll just give it some time and maybe they will pop up somewhere.

[sgheaton]

Hooray! My favorite set up!! I'm most excited to watch this one develop

[Solenoqueen]

Oh boy. Here it goes. Good luck this time.

[YsTheAnt]

Update?

[dspdrew]

Update 6-9-2019
 
Well the colony in the big ant farm finally emerged to forage, and have been quite a bit ever since.
 

 
 
I have taken Ken's advise and kept a heating pad under the right side of the setup, and as shown in this picture, they have produced quite a bit of brood right where it is.
 

 
 
It's interesting how this species does not make it obvious where their nest entrance is. They carry everything as far away from the entrance as they can when they dig. This seems to be true in captivity and in the wild. There is never a mound of dirt around their nest entrance.
 

 
 
As you can see from the pictures, it's very difficult to see in this thing because the glass is in pretty bad condition, so I really have no idea how large the colony is. All I know is I can definitely count about 100 workers, but I know there is probably far more.

[dspdrew]

Update 8-4-2021
 
The remaining colony I had in one of the giant ant farms, just seemed to get smaller and smaller, until I rarely saw an ant anywhere. It's pretty safe to say they're all gone now.

 

My friend did catch a few new queens this season and he will be giving me some.

[dspdrew]

Update 12-14-2021
 
I never ended up picking any of these queens up this year. Right at the time they flew I had too many car problems to deal with.

[dspdrew]

[dspdrew]

Update 7-24-2022
 
My friend Retroman gave me a mature colony of these he had been keeping in a big hexagon-shaped tank. This happened to be the same tank he used to successfully breed them in for many years.
 
The tank was filled with dirt and extremely heavy, so while moving it out of his house, we hit a few bumps that partially collapsed some of the dirt. When I got home, I had to dump the entire thing out in a huge plastic bin and retrieve the whole colony. Luckily the queen was safe and uninjured.
 

I put the colony of about 200 or so workers in test tubes laying in a plastic tub until their new setup is finished.

 

 

 

I decided to modify the tank slightly, using the same concept of my Dirt Box formicariums. Aside form the obvious hydration advantages, it will also keep this thing from weighing 200 pounds, and hopefully keep the ants tunneling closer to the glass. You can see the pictures of the build process on my Dirt Box formicarium thread here (https://www.formicul...-2023/?p=234106).
 
Here's the setup once it was finished.





 

[100lols]

Edit: your updates answered my question!

& That flexing queen looks hilarious lol!!!

Edited by 100lols, November 12 2023 - 10:59 PM.

[dspdrew]

Update 9-11-2022
 
I managed to collect a large amount of these queens on 9-11-2022. I was pretty sure they were going to fly that day and I turned out to be right. I got there early enough to grab them while they were still digging.

 

 

 

After the sun goes down, they are pretty much finished digging, so if you want to collect them after that, you will be digging rocks, and that is not fun at all.

 

This is the terrain.

 

 

[dspdrew]

Update 11-1-2022
 
As always, these queens just don't want to settle down, and it is very hard to get them to produce much. I boosted some with P. rugosus pupae which usually helps. I also put some of them in the few Dirt Box setups I have left.

 

On 11-1-2022 one of the queens finally got it's first worker.

[dspdrew]

Update 1-20-2023
 

After the colony Retroman gave me moved into their new setup, and I could see them in a few spots, but not much. Over time, I was able to see less and less of them, until eventually I couldn't see them at all. Even the foraging continued to decrease until I would only see a worker or two every once and a while outside the nest.

 

At the time of this update, I was no longer seeing anything at all and was starting to think that the colony may have died. I just left it alone and made sure it remained hydrated and figured I would just continue waiting to see if any of them ever come out again.

 

As for the new colonies, most of them either died or were sold, and i only had a few left with a couple workers each.

[dspdrew]

Update 8-13-2023
 

For the last six months, not a single worker from the mature colony was seen, and I was almost sure they were dead until the day of this update when I found the nest opened up and one of them foraging around. I couldn't believe it. I quickly dropped a pile of seeds in there and waited for the worker to find them. I came back a little later and to my surprise, there were about 40 of them out collecting seeds! Apparently the colony was still alive and well.

 

 

 

 

As for the new colonies, at the time of this update, they were all gone except one. That colony got all the way down to only one worker, and had only that one worker for a few months before it gained a few more again.