# Harvester queen ants



## yen_saw (Jun 27, 2011)

Went out collecting queen ants for Pogonomyrmex barbatus, a species of harvester ant, since we had our first heavy rain in Summer. It was fun with some interesting observation.

Winged queen ants emerging from the nest







Mating ball






Queen ant digging up the hole






Queen ant trying to defend itself






Also found a grass mantis











Typical ant mount freshly dug up by harvester queen ant






Collected queens in test tubes






A short movie clip of the ant moving dirt out


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## Mr.Mantid (Jun 27, 2011)

I have always wanted to collect some queens but haven't the time or the knowledge to do it yet.


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## guapoalto049 (Jun 27, 2011)

Haha Yen you must have some incredible sight to find that grass mantid! Great photos as always


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## [email protected] (Jun 27, 2011)

Great phots! Where did you go to get the ants? If I had access to harvester ants I would keep Horny Toad lizards


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## yen_saw (Jun 27, 2011)

Mr.Mantid said:


> I have always wanted to collect some queens but haven't the time or the knowledge to do it yet.


Completely understood! Besides, it is very much depend on luck, and feasible collecting period usually only last for few hours, after that the queen ants have dug deep where retrieving it will be lot more challenging.


guapoalto049 said:


> Haha Yen you must have some incredible sight to find that grass mantid! Great photos as always


Thanks Chris. Knowing where to find the grass mantis helps but really it was luck and a pair of keen eyes that count the most.


Leeann said:


> Great phots! Where did you go to get the ants? If I had access to harvester ants I would keep Horny Toad lizards


Thanks Leeann. It is really not too far from the Hwy 6 Post Office, at Bear Creek Park next to the golf club. There are plenty of harvester ant nests around the park. But the ever annoyed fire ants are taking over their habitat. I saw many harvester queen ants being killed by fire ants during collecting, not a good sight.For anyone interested to read more. I have included some observations while collecting queen ants for this species.

http://usamantis.com/06-26-2011_Pbarbatus.html

http://usamantis.com/06-27-2011_Pbarbatus.html


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## ismart (Jun 28, 2011)

Very nice finds!  Good luck in starting some new colonies.


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## yen_saw (Jul 8, 2011)

ismart said:


> Very nice finds!  Good luck in starting some new colonies.


Thanks Paul. I left some queens in cooler spot (~26 C) whlie the other queens in my garage which is constantly above 30C. The one with high temp. already have good size larvae in as little as 2 weeks while the eggs from queens in cooler area haven't hatched yet.Queen from cooler room.











Queens from warmer garage
















I have also noted that queens will regurgitate to feed the larvae, pretty neat.


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## d17oug18 (Jul 8, 2011)

gross lol, looks like fly larva =P Seriously... thats pretty awesome what your doing =) I would love to see how one ant restarts its colony! Like watching a flower grow from a seed.


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## ismart (Jul 8, 2011)

They are looking great Yen!


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## yen_saw (Jul 8, 2011)

d17oug18 said:


> gross lol, looks like fly larva =P Seriously... thats pretty awesome what your doing =) I would love to see how one ant restarts its colony! Like watching a flower grow from a seed.


  , thanks. It does look like fly larvae! I just want to see how they grow into a colony, and do some studies with variety of conditions to see that affect their colony development, and release it when the colony gets too large for me to handle.


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## Survivor7 (Jul 30, 2011)

I would love to take one of those off your hands if only I were able


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## yen_saw (Aug 2, 2011)

The harvester ant queens have worker ants in only about a month time since nuptial flight. Now most colonies have 5-10 worker ants. Very low casualty rate for queens, less than 5%. Now I have close to 10 different ant species, it has been fun to keep both the cannibalistic mantis and highly social ant colony.


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## Malti (Aug 2, 2011)

what is that liquid in the test tube?


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## yen_saw (Aug 2, 2011)

Malti said:


> what is that liquid in the test tube?


Water - for humidity and water supply.


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## Malti (Aug 2, 2011)

thankyou  where do you transfer them after the colony grows bigger? thinking of keeping some myself


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## ismart (Aug 2, 2011)

Very nice!  My girls are close to having there first workers. I should have probably kept them warmer, but i'm in no rush!  Great photos btw!


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## [email protected] (Aug 2, 2011)

That is fascinating! What tpye of setup are you keeping them in? What do they eat?

If you get too many, I know somebody that would take them off of your hands, he has horned lizards


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## yen_saw (Aug 4, 2011)

Malti said:


> thankyou  where do you transfer them after the colony grows bigger? thinking of keeping some myself


I am thinking of building an ant farm when the colony get larger. But they usually do alright in the same container for the 1st year. This is what I took in the University of Houston biology lab. A one year olf colony of Pogonomyrmex barbatus.





and this is about 3-yr old













ismart said:


> Very nice!  My girls are close to having there first workers. I should have probably kept them warmer, but i'm in no rush!  Great photos btw!


Thanks Paul. It will take longer for the larvae to develop into ant in cooler temp, but that gives you more time to prepare too.


Leeann said:


> That is fascinating! What tpye of setup are you keeping them in? What do they eat?
> 
> If you get too many, I know somebody that would take them off of your hands, he has horned lizards


I keep them in the tupperware right now, feeding seeds and honey.


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## d17oug18 (Aug 4, 2011)

is that just a big a$$ ice cube in there lol, That is so interesting on how your taking care of them! I would not dare bring those to my house, its already INFESTED all year round with the small black ones. There like a virus, now a bigger spread? and probably get loose and eat my family =P I would love to sit at someones house and just watch them all day!


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## ismart (Aug 4, 2011)

Ya see Yen! Now you are making me want to heat them up! :lol: Thanks for posting those pics! I was getting nervous that these guys could grow way to big for me to take care of properly.


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## yen_saw (Aug 5, 2011)

ismart said:


> Ya see Yen! Now you are making me want to heat them up! :lol: Thanks for posting those pics! I was getting nervous that these guys could grow way to big for me to take care of properly.


haha sorry. This species does grow up quickly. It is difficult not to keep them hot when Texas is being broiled with extreme heat :sweatdrop:


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## yen_saw (Aug 24, 2011)

Growing quickly with more protein (crickets)!












Interesting watching them grow. It is crazy now my bugroom is filled with many ant queens of different species like Texas leaf cutter ant and honeypot ant too. An addictive and low maintenance insect.


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## Survivor7 (Aug 24, 2011)

How do you go about feeding them crickets?


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## yen_saw (Aug 24, 2011)

I cut the cricket into pieces and drop it in the cage. The harvester ants will tear it into smaller pieces and feed it to the larvae. Despite their nature collecting seeds in the wild, I have found them to love insects too. Queen also feed on cricket, i imagine the extra protein helps in producing more eggs. Worker go into frenzy tearing the cricket apart but not sure if they feed on it. I am a newbie in ants.


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## Malti (Aug 24, 2011)

you pamper them too much yen - I've seen ants 2-3 mm (rough guess) cutting up and eating a whole mouse, yours should go through a whole cricket easy


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## Hypoponera (Aug 24, 2011)

Very cool colonies Yen! Off to a very good start. Are you having as good results with P. rugosus and Pogo. orange? One of my "oranges" appears to have pupa already.


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## yen_saw (Aug 26, 2011)

Hypoponera said:


> Very cool colonies Yen! Off to a very good start. Are you having as good results with P. rugosus and Pogo. orange? One of my "oranges" appears to have pupa already.


Yes i have worker ant for P. rugosus already after keeping the larvae hot! and most queens with pupa ready to emerge as workers. I kept the orange Pogo cooler and only saw larvae so far. The good news is Dorymyrmex insanus (sp?) queens are surprisingly doing very well for me and there have been worker ants on couple of colonies  So as the Pheidole spp


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## yen_saw (Aug 26, 2011)

Malti said:


> you pamper them too much yen - I've seen ants 2-3 mm (rough guess) cutting up and eating a whole mouse, yours should go through a whole cricket easy


  ha can't help it


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## Hypoponera (Aug 26, 2011)

Your doing better then I have then. I never got workers with D. insanus. I have tried that species every year since 2004 and failed each time. Good to hear your's are doing so well.

I suspected the P. desertorum would do great for you. It is a tough species. My last colony of them came from a queen I rescued. She was fighting off several D. insanus workers when I found her. In a year she had a colony of about 100 workers with about 25 majors! So keep a watch on them! They may outgrow your space very quickly.


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## PeterF (Aug 28, 2011)

Yen (and others)

Is there a source you recommend for learning about keeping ants? Website or book about rearing?

Also, Yen, you mention feeding them seeds. Are these store bought, or do you have to wild collect/culture the right type of seeds?


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## Hypoponera (Aug 29, 2011)

The best web site for info on ant keeping is "The Ant Farm" at:

http://antfarm.yuku.com/

Simply enter the genus and species name of the ant of interest into the search engine. You will probably get pages and pages of posts to read. But be advised of 3 things regarding that site:

1) Don't use "common" names. Use only the correct genus/species name

2) Don't ask for someone to send you queens as shipping them is illegal

3) Use proper spelling and grammer at ALL times as the site owner is a harsh stickler and does not tolerate poor use of the English language

I do not know of ANY books on keeping ants for hobby/fun. Plenty of books regarding scientific work done though. If you have a specific interest, let me know. Their is probably a book or paper that covers it!


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## Survivor7 (Aug 30, 2011)

There is a book though it's pretty basic and kinda hard to find. It's called _Principals of Keeping Ants_ by Martin Sebesta


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## ismart (Aug 30, 2011)

Whoo who! All 5 of my _Pogonomyrmex barbatus_ have workers!  I wish i had a better camera to take pics with.


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## Hypoponera (Aug 30, 2011)

Sweet Ismart!

How are your orange pogos doing? 1 of my orange queens has her first worker!


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## Hypoponera (Aug 30, 2011)

Survivor7 said:


> There is a book though it's pretty basic and kinda hard to find. It's called _Principals of Keeping Ants_ by Martin Sebesta


Good catch there Survivor7. I had completely forgotten about that "book". But don't rush out to find it. Alas, it is so basic it is not worth the effort to find. It is printed by "AntStore" in Germany. The store will not ship ANYTHING to the US. I had an ant friend in Sweden order the book and then he forwarded it to me.

The primary information in the book covers making a formicaria. It does show and discuss several types. But the detail is rather sparse.

There is NO information on ants contained in the book. You will need to do your own research on ant species available to you before you make the formicaria.


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## ismart (Aug 30, 2011)

Hypoponera said:


> Sweet Ismart!
> 
> How are your orange pogos doing? 1 of my orange queens has her first worker!


3 of my orange pogos have large larve.


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## Survivor7 (Aug 30, 2011)

Hypoponera said:


> Good catch there Survivor7. I had completely forgotten about that "book". But don't rush out to find it. Alas, it is so basic it is not worth the effort to find. It is printed by "AntStore" in Germany. The store will not ship ANYTHING to the US. I had an ant friend in Sweden order the book and then he forwarded it to me.
> 
> The primary information in the book covers making a formicaria. It does show and discuss several types. But the detail is rather sparse.
> 
> There is NO information on ants contained in the book. You will need to do your own research on ant species available to you before you make the formicaria.


I stumbled upon a copy on ebay but you're right about it not having a whole lot of info on the actual ants. It does have some cool info on their enclosure but nothing you couldn't find from an internet search. Still figured it deserved a mention as no one seems to have any info on ant books


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## yen_saw (Aug 30, 2011)

Peter J F said:


> Yen (and others)
> 
> Is there a source you recommend for learning about keeping ants? Website or book about rearing?
> 
> Also, Yen, you mention feeding them seeds. Are these store bought, or do you have to wild collect/culture the right type of seeds?


Yes i think the Ant Farm recommended by Mike is a good site with lot of info. I brought different type of seeds from health store, not the processed type. I have been offering the harvester ant oat, wheat, sunflower, etc seeds.


Hypoponera said:


> The best web site for info on ant keeping is "The Ant Farm" at:
> 
> http://antfarm.yuku.com/
> 
> ...


What is the name of the book you gave Chris that has all the keys to different ant species? Yesterday i saw two workers from the orange Pogo, and most P. rugorus queens have workers now. Very fast developent from pupa to ant for all Pogos.


ismart said:


> Whoo who! All 5 of my _Pogonomyrmex barbatus_ have workers!  I wish i had a better camera to take pics with.


Nice Paul! Do you plan to build a fancy nest for them? I hope to build something like this http://antfarm.yuku.com/topic/9768 (link from Mike) but smaller.


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## ismart (Aug 30, 2011)

yen_saw said:


> Nice Paul! Do you plan to build a fancy nest for them? I hope to build something like this http://antfarm.yuku.com/topic/9768 (link from Mike) but smaller.


Ah, yes! I am planning on building a hydrostone nest. I just have to figure out exactly how?  I stink at building stuff!


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## Hypoponera (Aug 30, 2011)

ismart said:


> Ah, yes! I am planning on building a hydrostone nest. I just have to figure out exactly how?  I stink at building stuff!


Me too :lol: That's probably why none of my hydro-stone set-ups are as cool as the one in that link. Nowhere near as large either. But one day I hope to build a huge set-up. I get tired of having to let my Pogo colonies loose after only a couple years.


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## Hypoponera (Aug 30, 2011)

yen_saw said:


> What is the name of the book you gave Chris that has all the keys to different ant species? Yesterday i saw two workers from the orange Pogo, and most P. rugorus queens have workers now. Very fast developent from pupa to ant for all Pogos.


Are you thinking of "The Ants of New Mexico"? If so, I'll email you a copy. It's only about 400 pages  The book I gave him in Tucson was "The Ants" and you can get a copy here:

http://www.amazon.com/Ants-Bert-Holldobler/dp/0674040759/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1314734347&amp;sr=1-1

There is currently a used copy for $52! I managed to pick up Christians for only $25 but don't expect to see that price again! "The Ants" is THE ant book. But very technical.


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## Hypoponera (Aug 30, 2011)

Here is another good book. It is a "guide" book that covers all the genera of ants currently found in the US. Great color photos as well. But it does not give much info on many specific species. But it does list a lot of refferences you can look up for more detailed info.

http://www.amazon.com/Ants-North-America-Guide-Genera/dp/0520254228/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1314734432&amp;sr=1-1


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## Survivor7 (Aug 30, 2011)

I dream of some day having a farm type set up that takes up an entire wall in my house. What's hydrastone?


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## Hypoponera (Aug 30, 2011)

Survivor7 said:


> I dream of some day having a farm type set up that takes up an entire wall in my house. What's hydrastone?


Don't dream too long! Get started on that farm today. Obviously you will want to start a bit smaller then an entire wall. Where are you located? Unfortunately you probably missed the mating flights if you live in the US. But you can start researching available species in your area and find when they may fly next year. Then start planning on your first formicaria.

Hydro-stone is a type of "plaster of Paris". It usually comes in a 50lb bag. You mix it with water and pour it into a mold. Check out the link that Yen posted. It has good information about using the material. Hydro-Stone retains moisture and resists mold/mildew better then "regular" plaster of Paris or hydrocal.


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## yen_saw (Aug 31, 2011)

ismart said:


> Ah, yes! I am planning on building a hydrostone nest. I just have to figure out exactly how?  I stink at building stuff!


Here is a link for it, http://antfarm.yuku.com/topic/885 I will try to build a small one with hydrostone. It is going to be a trial and error thing for me.


Hypoponera said:


> Are you thinking of "The Ants of New Mexico"? If so, I'll email you a copy. It's only about 400 pages  The book I gave him in Tucson was "The Ants" and you can get a copy here:
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/Ants-Bert-Holldobler/dp/0674040759/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1314734347&amp;sr=1-1
> 
> There is currently a used copy for $52! I managed to pick up Christians for only $25 but don't expect to see that price again! "The Ants" is THE ant book. But very technical.


Thanks for the link!! Right now most of the ants look very similar to me, that book will certainly help.


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## Survivor7 (Aug 31, 2011)

Hypoponera said:


> Hydro-stone is a type of "plaster of Paris". It usually comes in a 50lb bag. You mix it with water and pour it into a mold. Check out the link that Yen posted. It has good information about using the material. Hydro-Stone retains moisture and resists mold/mildew better then "regular" plaster of Paris or hydrocal.


Ok, I have a little experience with plaster habitats. I like them a lot except for not being able to see the ants build their own tunnels


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## kamakiri (Aug 31, 2011)

...well I'm jealous of all the ant colony keepers! I haven't kept a colony since college  That last one was in a jar set in a deep dish of water used as a security moat and drinking water supply.

I'd like to see pics from everyone!


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