9 replies to this topic

[KBant]

So I decided to start making journals of the colonies I have, this shall be my first.


I got two pogonomyrmex rugosus queens with a couple larvae each from forum member Miwu on August 18, 2017. Not sure where he collected them but he mentioned in the desert somewhere.

On 09-04-17, I got my first worker, and my first nanitic to ever eclose for me as the other colonies I've purchased came with nanitics/workers. I have yet to go anting but will do so hopefully in 2018. The other ant didn't have a nanitic but had tons of eggs.





For some reason, one ant did exceptionally well, currently at 7 workers, and the other only at 3 workers. For purposes of simplicity and ease, ill only be posting pictures of the larger colony.

On 11-09-17, I moved them into a new formicarium so that they could grow into it. Their test tube was getting crowded. I made this formicarium with grout and the smaller clear stackable box from the container store. https://www.containe...e&sortOrder=A Ialso made a water tower for them. I used loctite super glue to stick the stainless steel mesh to the water tower. i made some holes, plugged up in the picture, for future expansions. I then added fluon. I let everything dry for 2 days before throwing them in. i think the fluon was not needed, they suck at climbing smooth surfaces. I noticed that even now, a couple weeks after the youngest workers have eclosed, these guys have different shades of red, yellow and orange. Not sure if that's normal but i like it.





Here they are today, on 11-13-17, running from the camera. 3 of the 7 workers with the eggs on the steel mesh of the water tower. they have 5-7 eggs.

Edited by KBant, April 17 2018 - 9:11 PM.

[Pleming]

Looks great!

[KBant]

Over the past 4 days, i lost one worker a day. one just curled up and died, one after the other. My thriving little colony needed help.

 

today as i took out the latest worker, i saw another on the verge of death. I wondered what the cause was. They have seeds, they have heat, they have a water tower, what else could they need. I looked into the nest and thought perhaps it was too dry and that the water tower didn't humidify the ants as needed, or perhaps what I once believed, i.e. ants don't necessarily need to drink water so long as the air has humidity they'll do well theory was wrong. So i grabbed a syringe of water and dropped the tiniest amount with a very tiny gauge needle onto the next potential victim of my ant keeping learning curve. miraculously the ant came back to life with such vigor! 

 

i dropped water drops here and there so that the ants could drink. the queen loved it but i realized they needed a better water source, something similar to a test tube but smaller since there was noooo way a test tube would fit in the tiny formicarium. I tinkered with some ideas and finally i came up with a tiny test tube like watering source. Basically i cut an inch of the vinyl tubing i use. put some glue from a glue gun and on the circumference of one of the ends and to that i added a tiny piece of stainless steel mesh. i cut the excess steel mesh around the tube so that it covered one end of the tube entirely. Initially i was going to use this as a water tower for the ants and i could add water to it from outside the formicarium, and they could drink from the mesh just like a hamster drinks water from an upside down water bottle. anyways this proved too tricky and dangerous as it could potentially flood the ants. so instead i just added glue to the mesh i had added to one side of the tube, pressing in the glue and warming it with tip of glue gun to ensure the glue adheres as i went along. eventually it resembled a tiny long cylindrical vase to which i added water and plugged with cotton. 

 

I'm hoping I saved these ants from what appeared to be sure demise. only time will tell. stay tuned.

[KBant]

my larger colony of once 7, went to 2. and a bunch of eggs, 20+.

 

my other colony was neglected and lost a worker and its queen.

 

i took one worker at a time from the queen-less, 2 worker colony, put them in a clean test tube set up for a few hours and then dropped them into the other colony with the queen, 2 workers and eggs.  now they are a happy family of 4 workers and a queen and eggs. 

[Pleming]

This species seem to really adapt well when you introduce new queens to workers. Did it a few times this season and all were a success. 

[KBant]

sadly down to 0 workers these past couple months, queen is still alive and does nothing. 

[Jadeninja9]

sadly down to 0 workers these past couple months, queen is still alive and does nothing.

Hopefully she makes a comeback. This species is really cool.

[Apex]

check ur messages!

[KBant]

RIP.

[KBant]

My homie Pleming was kind enough to give me one of his rugosus colonies.

It came with the queen, two workers and a couple eggs.

Since then the queen has laid more eggs, about 7-8 right now.

I’m going to feed mostly crickets this time and see how they do.