10 replies to this topic

[Ants853]

Dear all, I have been noticing that the trash pile for my P.Californicus colony sometimes is rather yellowish.

I removed some of its trash, separated all workers bodies, and tried to group them by coloration.

Some workers seem to be extremely young, based on their very light coloration. Is this normal ?

 

 

Any ideas, suggestions?

Thank you

[StopSpazzing]

Fascinating. I'm curious myself since I too have P. californicus.

 

What are you feeding them?

[Ants853]

Basically insects and water. No sugars (following Retroman's advice). They don't care about seeds at all and its starting to annoy me...

For Messor (another harvester ant), if you give too many insects they will have premature deaths due to extreme short lifespan... this has been studied and reported.

For Pogonomyrmex i really don't know.

 

Pogonomyrmex barbatus, rugosus and desertorum are all stocking seeds, although i haven't seen them actually eat any, but just the fact that they have a test tube fill with seeds is very comforting and was expected.

[ultraex2]

What temperature are they being kept at?  Have there been any changes in the humidity, environment, etc. since they started dying off?

[Spamdy]

How did you get Pogonomyrmex californicus in China? The only way to get them is shipping them from Mexico or South America to China.

[Ants853]

What temperature are they being kept at?  Have there been any changes in the humidity, environment, etc. since they started dying off?

Around 30C to 32C (86 to 90F). Humidity should be high around 70/80 has it is the normal air humidity. I also provide total for tubes, two with water reservoir and two dry ones. Them seem to keep all the brood in the moist one. 

Their brood amount is clearly increasing because I am also feeding them insects almost daily (lateralis and dubia roaches, crickets, fruit flies). They always have water available. no sugar at the moment, though I have tried sunburst and they always go for it. Regarding seeds, their outworld has many types available but they don't care for any except sesame, which they collect, but don't seem to eat at all (as far as i can tell).

 

I am wondering if I should re-introduce some sugars? or cut down insect intake? (for messors, high insect diet reduces their life span by a lot) force them to consider seeds only. 

 

Regarding the worker size, they all look more or less even, and I would risk to say that they have same size as barbatus/rugosus first colony workers. I was expecting for that size that they would be extremely interested in poppy/niger/bluegrass/amaranth seeds since they are the smallest i have but not at all.

 

On the other hand, rugosus and barbatus, will take anything no questions asked.

[Ants853]

How did you get Pogonomyrmex californicus in China? The only way to get them is shipping them from Mexico or South America to China.

 

You answered the question yourself 

[Spamdy]

 

How did you get Pogonomyrmex californicus in China? The only way to get them is shipping them from Mexico or South America to China.

 

You answered the question yourself 

 

Ah ok, it just sounded a bit unrealistic when I thought about it, ok.

I am having the same problem with my Camponotus colony. The crickets I fed to them turned black, then the new workers enclosing couldn't walk, and died later. I stopped feeding them the crickets and the problem was resolved. Maybe something similar going on with your colony.

[Ants853]

I think you just gave me a clue to what is happening... I tend to give oranges to my lateralis roaches and only oats to dubia.

 

They reacted crazy when i gave them dubia for the first time.... maybe the orange is killing them.

[Pleming]

 

 

How did you get Pogonomyrmex californicus in China? The only way to get them is shipping them from Mexico or South America to China.

 

You answered the question yourself 

 

Ah ok, it just sounded a bit unrealistic when I thought about it, ok.

I am having the same problem with my Camponotus colony. The crickets I fed to them turned black, then the new workers enclosing couldn't walk, and died later. I stopped feeding them the crickets and the problem was resolved. Maybe something similar going on with your colony.

 

 

This has happened to me before. I fed my colonies some crickets from the pet store. After I bought them a few died in the container and turned black.. Then I started getting random deaths in my colonies. I stopped feeding them those crickets and the deaths stopped. 

[ultraex2]

 

What temperature are they being kept at?  Have there been any changes in the humidity, environment, etc. since they started dying off?

Around 30C to 32C (86 to 90F). Humidity should be high around 70/80 has it is the normal air humidity. I also provide total for tubes, two with water reservoir and two dry ones. Them seem to keep all the brood in the moist one. 

Their brood amount is clearly increasing because I am also feeding them insects almost daily (lateralis and dubia roaches, crickets, fruit flies). They always have water available. no sugar at the moment, though I have tried sunburst and they always go for it. Regarding seeds, their outworld has many types available but they don't care for any except sesame, which they collect, but don't seem to eat at all (as far as i can tell).

 

I am wondering if I should re-introduce some sugars? or cut down insect intake? (for messors, high insect diet reduces their life span by a lot) force them to consider seeds only. 

 

Regarding the worker size, they all look more or less even, and I would risk to say that they have same size as barbatus/rugosus first colony workers. I was expecting for that size that they would be extremely interested in poppy/niger/bluegrass/amaranth seeds since they are the smallest i have but not at all.

 

On the other hand, rugosus and barbatus, will take anything no questions asked.

 

 

That doesn't seem like there were any "visible" changes as far as the environment - do you live by farms or anything?  Potentially they may have sprayed with planes or something and poisoned some of the food.

 

Not too sure what else would cause a big die - off like that.