Harvester queen ants

[ismart]

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.

 

[yen_saw]

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:

 

[yen_saw]

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.

 

[Survivor7]

How do you go about feeding them crickets?

 

[yen_saw]

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.

 

[Malti]

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

 

[Hypoponera]

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.

 

[yen_saw]

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

 

[yen_saw]

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

 

[Hypoponera]

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.

 

[PeterF]

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?

 

[Hypoponera]

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!

 

[Survivor7]

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

 

[ismart]

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

 

[Hypoponera]

Sweet Ismart!

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

 

[Hypoponera]

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.

 

[ismart]

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.

 

[Survivor7]

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

 

[yen_saw]

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.

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!

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.

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.

 

[ismart]

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!