Polyergus ants
- Thread starter Swipht
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I have seen a couple raiding parties over the years. Alas, I can find no record of the genus in Texas. Odd to say the least. But, if you don't mind travelling, there are two species found in New Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas. So while I can not find records of them in TX, I wouldn't be surprised to hear that they do exist in North and West Tx.
The bad news is that you will have to go collect you own ants! Not only are these ants rare, but there are federal laws against shipping ants. It is legal to send ONLY workers. You mat not ship queens or brood. And the workers behaviour is "abnormal" without the queens and brood present.
The bad news is that you will have to go collect you own ants! Not only are these ants rare, but there are federal laws against shipping ants. It is legal to send ONLY workers. You mat not ship queens or brood. And the workers behaviour is "abnormal" without the queens and brood present.
robo mantis
Well-known member
I have been keep ants for a very long time and you WILL NOT find someone selling a slave maker ant colony. I guarantee it! The only way you could get one is to catch one that's around your house (probably will end up being a different species but same effect.) I would recommend doing a lot of research before keeping ants. It's a lot more complex than everybody thinks it is.
Hey Robo,
How long have you been keeping ants? I started seriously in 2001. My best results were with the many Pogonomyrmex sp found here. The only colony I have at the moment is Forelius pruinosus. I've had it going since Nov 2002. I found an entire colony under a patio block.
The only ants I remember from Northern Indiana were Camponotus sp and Prenolepis imparis. Have you ever tried P. imparis? That is a species I have been hunting for. It exists here, but is quite rare. And since it doesn't seem to like warm weather, it is only seen in very early spring and early winter here.
How long have you been keeping ants? I started seriously in 2001. My best results were with the many Pogonomyrmex sp found here. The only colony I have at the moment is Forelius pruinosus. I've had it going since Nov 2002. I found an entire colony under a patio block.
The only ants I remember from Northern Indiana were Camponotus sp and Prenolepis imparis. Have you ever tried P. imparis? That is a species I have been hunting for. It exists here, but is quite rare. And since it doesn't seem to like warm weather, it is only seen in very early spring and early winter here.
robo mantis
Well-known member
I have been keeping ants for about 2-3 years. I have such a biodiversity of ants up here!!! It's unbelieveable!!!! P. imparis is my favorite species!!! I have i think 8 colonies. Waiting for this years flight. I'm currently keeping formica (like 5 different types), a slavemaker ant colony that i boosted from wild pupa; and they just came out of hybernation and i fed her my protein food so i hope she lays, she is a slavemaker of formica, lasius neoniger, lasius flavus, componotus penn, some smaller camponotus, lasius alienous, acorn ants, pheidole, trying to start a myrmica queen, tetremorium, and brachomerex. I think there is more but can't remember! haha! The only species i can never catch is aphenogaster!!! Last year i saw one on my schools roof from the library!! Then another landed on our car as we were driving! Oh i also am starting a citronella ant colony (i think lasius claviger).
Very cool list of ants you've got there!! That is one thing I like about ants over mantids, you can have several colonies and still use less space, (and money!!).
Looks like you have the same Polyergus species in IN as we have down here in NM. You have either P. breviceps or P. lucidus. Very cool no matter which. How do you provide brood for them. Do you simply provide brood from some of your other colonies or do you need to find wild brood? And what is the "protein food" you mentioned? That could prove very useful for my next Pogo colony.
If your Tetramorium queen is fertile, she should be easy to get going. Chances are that you have T. caespitum and it is a tough species to kill. I've tried! So a colony should be easy to get started and equally easy to maintain.
A "citronella ant" colony would be cool. Is it Lasius or maybe a species of Acanthomyops? There are species in both genera that produce that wonderful smell. I've tried a couple queens of Acanthomyops and failed. Later I discovered that the ones in my yard are a social parasite of Lasius sp. Since I don't have a colony of Lasius, I have no chance with the Acanthomyops. But one day ....
Where in IN are you? My mother lives in a Kouts. Its a small farm town just South of Valparaiso. By chance are you anywhere near there? If so, I'd be most interested in buying one of your smaller P. imparis colonies!!
Looks like you have the same Polyergus species in IN as we have down here in NM. You have either P. breviceps or P. lucidus. Very cool no matter which. How do you provide brood for them. Do you simply provide brood from some of your other colonies or do you need to find wild brood? And what is the "protein food" you mentioned? That could prove very useful for my next Pogo colony.
If your Tetramorium queen is fertile, she should be easy to get going. Chances are that you have T. caespitum and it is a tough species to kill. I've tried! So a colony should be easy to get started and equally easy to maintain.
A "citronella ant" colony would be cool. Is it Lasius or maybe a species of Acanthomyops? There are species in both genera that produce that wonderful smell. I've tried a couple queens of Acanthomyops and failed. Later I discovered that the ones in my yard are a social parasite of Lasius sp. Since I don't have a colony of Lasius, I have no chance with the Acanthomyops. But one day ....
Where in IN are you? My mother lives in a Kouts. Its a small farm town just South of Valparaiso. By chance are you anywhere near there? If so, I'd be most interested in buying one of your smaller P. imparis colonies!!
robo mantis
Well-known member
At the point of time i tried to start the slavemaker colony i had no formica :huh: So i thought up a plan!! I put a rock on the formica hills by me and behold!! They nested under it, and they even brought all the pupa up!!! So i snagged about 20. and gave them to the parasite queen and she went nuts!!! She piled them up and was constantly cleaning them!! It was pretty cute. Then she started getting fat (very good sign!!) but no eggs so i hybernated them in hopes of getting eggs. I just took them out about 2 days ago but i'm going to give them a few weeks. I figured out the ingenious food from a british blog about a year or 2 ago. I made a youtube video on how to make it.
. I have on separate queen tetremorium and one with a tiny colony but can't get them to move to a new tube <_< . Lasius in general a hard to ID so its difficult to tell what the parasite is. I know it produces a citronella odor because i purposly scared her haha! I am about an hour or 2 north of valpo i think. So i'm not that far! I'm going to something called The Bug Bowl in Purdue Layfayette. Thats not to far. I could probably mail it in their local area and it will get there even faster haha! Whatever works!
. I have on separate queen tetremorium and one with a tiny colony but can't get them to move to a new tube <_< . Lasius in general a hard to ID so its difficult to tell what the parasite is. I know it produces a citronella odor because i purposly scared her haha! I am about an hour or 2 north of valpo i think. So i'm not that far! I'm going to something called The Bug Bowl in Purdue Layfayette. Thats not to far. I could probably mail it in their local area and it will get there even faster haha! Whatever works!
Thanks for the link! Very useful video. I will try it out on the colony I currently have. But I will cut down the water some :lol: . I looked at a few of your other vids. Are those Lasius in your winter/war vid? How cold was it?
Best of luck with your slave-maker queen! Let me know how it works out. Have the pupa hatched out yet? If any do, it will probably prompt the queen to start laying. It really doesn't take many workers to get a queen going.
Most of my family on my mother side live in Valpo. Not too many people I've met have even heard of Valpo. Let me get a hold of my mother. She is planning a trip down to visit in May. Maybe I can get her to swing over and pick up a colony of you P. imparis on her way. How much do you want for one? PM me with the details!! Would love to get one. With as cold as my bug room is, they might even stay active all year long.
Best of luck with your slave-maker queen! Let me know how it works out. Have the pupa hatched out yet? If any do, it will probably prompt the queen to start laying. It really doesn't take many workers to get a queen going.
Most of my family on my mother side live in Valpo. Not too many people I've met have even heard of Valpo. Let me get a hold of my mother. She is planning a trip down to visit in May. Maybe I can get her to swing over and pick up a colony of you P. imparis on her way. How much do you want for one? PM me with the details!! Would love to get one. With as cold as my bug room is, they might even stay active all year long.
robo mantis
Well-known member
Your Welcome!! Yeah i did add too much water 
haha the food works really good!! Winter ant/false honeypot = P. imparis those are just the common names!!! So those were two winter ant colonies fighting over a blob of honey i put on the ground :-D It was in the fall and i would say somewhere between 35-45 they were stocking up for winter. They are the most active in the cold but when the ground freezes and snow piles up they can't forage. They hybernate in the summer haha it's the weirdest hybernation i've ever heard of but it's definatly true!!!! I didn't hybernate them but they decided they wanted to lay!!! That's hard to get in a captive winter ant colony aka P. imparis!! My winter ants stay active at room temp and they are going good!
All the workers are out of the cocoons and i fed them and put them in hybernation a couple of months ago. I just took them out! :-D I'm going to give them a couple of weeks to get their act together!
Does your mother live around Bass Lake? My mom knows people that live there and we were going to go on vacation there a long time ago.
haha the food works really good!! Winter ant/false honeypot = P. imparis those are just the common names!!! So those were two winter ant colonies fighting over a blob of honey i put on the ground :-D It was in the fall and i would say somewhere between 35-45 they were stocking up for winter. They are the most active in the cold but when the ground freezes and snow piles up they can't forage. They hybernate in the summer haha it's the weirdest hybernation i've ever heard of but it's definatly true!!!! I didn't hybernate them but they decided they wanted to lay!!! That's hard to get in a captive winter ant colony aka P. imparis!! My winter ants stay active at room temp and they are going good!All the workers are out of the cocoons and i fed them and put them in hybernation a couple of months ago. I just took them out! :-D I'm going to give them a couple of weeks to get their act together!
Does your mother live around Bass Lake? My mom knows people that live there and we were going to go on vacation there a long time ago.
Good to hear that they stay active at room temp. My bug room stays at 68-70 degrees year round. I normally have to provide heat pads to my native ant colonies, even in summer! The mantids get several heat lamps as well.
Are the worker slaves out and about yet? Can you tell how many survived the winter sleep? Can you see the queen? Is she still plump? Has she laid any eggs yet?
Are the worker slaves out and about yet? Can you tell how many survived the winter sleep? Can you see the queen? Is she still plump? Has she laid any eggs yet?
robo mantis
Well-known member
She hasn't layed eggs as of yesterday. So no slave maker workers yet. Most survived i think maybe 2 or 3 died out of 20. I'm waiting on the first batch of eggs.
You may need to add additional brood to give the workers something to play with :lol:
robo mantis
Well-known member
Yeah thats probably what i'm going to do when they colonies bring their brood up.
I thought my thread had died. Glad to see there are a couple people interested in ants. What kind of slavemakers do you have? So far the only ants I've seen around my house are these tiny little black ones. Pretty common looking, bet they're harvester ants.
robo mantis
Well-known member
Slace makers are so hard to ID i tried looking it up but i don't think it has been studied. Your ants are probably tetramorium.
Hey Swipht,
Any chance you can post a clear photo of your ants? If not, can you get a good, close up view and describe the workers? Does it have one or two nodes? Small, black, and common-looking describes about 25 different species of common ants here in New Mexico. I wouldn't be surprised to find it describes even more in Texas.
Any chance you can post a clear photo of your ants? If not, can you get a good, close up view and describe the workers? Does it have one or two nodes? Small, black, and common-looking describes about 25 different species of common ants here in New Mexico. I wouldn't be surprised to find it describes even more in Texas.
Sadly I don't have a way to take a picture of the ants that infest my bathroom. Since they're rather boring looking, and tiny I don't have much of an interest to keep them.
Perhaps you'd be interested in selling me some ants, Robo.
Perhaps you'd be interested in selling me some ants, Robo.
robo mantis
Well-known member
I don't sell ants. You definatly have a good amount of ants around you. You should try catching them.
That's to bad. I went out side and looked around a bit, and I found some tiny red ones with black butts. Even smaller then the black ones running around in my bathroom. The workers are the size of pin heads. I gave them some sugar water to try to draw them out. Dug a little bit with a plastic spoon, and didn't really see a queen running around.
