Pogomyrmex Badius Journal - With great pleasure, from the LieutenAnt in Keeping Ants Forum

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Pogomyrmex Badius Journal - With great pleasure, from the LieutenAnt

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Lieutenant Redundant	Pogomyrmex Badius Journal - With great pleasure, from the LieutenAnt		Lead	[-]
Minor Worker Ant Posts: 101 06/15/2013 11:46 AM	I am keeping this journal for several reasons. They are as follows. 1. It is one of the few Pogonomyrmex Badius journals on this forum. The information in this journal may be beneficial to those who frequent here and for those that try to raise P. Badius in the future. 2. I will need the advice and the support of this forum as I have read that it is difficult to raise Pogonomyrmex AND I am not an experienced ant caretaker. I have been going out everyday since the 5th of June to look for P. Badius queens. It had rained heavily in Orlando the last few days and the forecast, for pretty much the whole month, was that it would be hot and humid (80s to 90s F), with rain just about everyday or every other day in short spurts. Perfect weather for P. Badius "mating balls." All colonies I have visited since the 5th have had both female and male alates running in and out or sunning themselves at the opening of the nest. Anyway, in short, I have currently found several fertile queens and put all of them in test tube setups. All were found in the mid afternoon (3 to 5 pm) and were all found digging their claustral chambers before capture. They are being kept at 76 to 80 F. Queen #1 (Fussy) Queen #1 (Fussy) - Caught Jun 11th. This one wouldn't calm down until I put her in darkness for a few days. I then slowly got her accustom to natural light, and then my dim room lamp. Sorry for the dim pictures. I am not comfortable turning on all my lights for her as I do not know how she will handle it. But as you can see, she has been comfortable so far as to lay a small clutch of eggs. Also, I put enough sand/dirt in her test tube for her to dig a few tunnels. The yellow circles are her entrances/exits. She has been pretty active. She has been calmly digging around her test tube inbetween the time she tends her eggs. She also got really fussy when I placed a heating pad under the shoebox her test tube was placed in. The temp rose to about 90 F. She started to run amok and bite at the cotton used to keep the water reservoir at bay. She was taking large, long bites out of the water filled cotton. I immediately disconnected the heating pad after that. Maybe she thought it was too hot and was trying to cool down. It makes me curious about what the temp is in P. Badius natural founding chambers. It has to be relatively cool as they are out of the sun and the sands around Orlando are all pretty much moist from all the recent rain. I decided to not use the heating pad until they have reached the point in which I can move them into a formicarium. I am currently keeping the temp at an average of 78 F with a range of 76 to 80 F. Queen #2 (Bitey) Queen #2 (Bitey) - Caught Jun 13th. Not much to say about this one. She did get into a fight with Queen #3 on the way back from capture, of which she was always the aggressor. She is calm in her test tube now, and has been pretty inactive. Although I think I spy a single egg in the dark corner of her test tube where she is standing guard. NOT the white blob to her left, but the little white blob to her right. I would take better pictures but I'm afraid to brighten the lights or disturb either of these queens at the moment. Queen #3 (Flatty - Deceased) - Caught June 13th. This ones gaster was slightly dented when I found her. It could be that I damaged her slightly when I dug her out of her founding chamber. She also got into a fight with Bitey on the way back home, as I only had one jar to put them both in. I was able to break of the fight most of the time on the way back, but sometimes Bitey just didn't let go. They were separated as soon as I got home. UPDATE - This little one did not make it through the night. Whether due to her injuries from me or from Bitey, or something else, she has passed on.
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dspdrew		#1	[url]	[-]
Loyal Worker Ant Posts: 557 06/15/2013 1:06 PM	Nice journal, I'll be checking out yours and pogoqueen's constantly. I guess we've all been lucky enough to get at least one queen laying eggs in the test tube so far. I thought I read that it's P. californicus specifically that is so much more difficult to raise than any other species of Pogos, so you may have more luck than pogoqueen and I; someone correct me if I'm wrong please. I see you found a way to keep your tubes from rolling around, haha, rolling tubes suck. I went through a few different ideas before finding something that works perfectly. If anyone has any of these foam packing supplies shown below, they work awesome. Southern California Ants Edited 1 time by dspdrew 06/15/2013 1:10 PM.
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Lucian		#2	[url]	[-]
Loyal Worker Ant Posts: 538 06/16/2013 4:59 AM Computerless Species	I belive you are correct drew. As to keep test tubes from rolling around I used unfolded paper clips and bent them around a copper pipe to get the right size and shape and slide it over the tubes and sanke the little part that was still sticking out into some fome and that held them in place. Then later I found a section of foam that had holes in it that my test tubes would just slide into. It worked well as it would keep it dark for them and keep them warm as well. The section I had could hold 48 tubes in about 1 1/2 foot by 6 inches thick. Live Food Breeding, How to
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Lieutenant Redundant		#3	[url]	[-]
Minor Worker Ant Posts: 101 06/16/2013 1:27 PM	Caught another queen today. This will make queen #4. She has been named "Longshot" since I almost lost her when I had to dig her out of her founding chamber. I had just about given up when I got her on the last couple of scoops. I also am going to invest in a spade of some sort as I had to dig her out with an old CD and I may have damaged her a bit. She is missing an antennae and her left mandible may not work properly. She is calm in her test tube right now. She even has done some digging since she's been put inside. Bitey has been more active today. Also, I'm positive that white blob in the corner near her wet cotton is a small clutch of eggs. She is contently protecting and "managing" that corner and that small white blob has grown a little bit. Fussy's egg pile has also grown. I cannot count exactly the number of eggs as it is a bit too dark to make them out. I did see her cleaning and moving her eggs around though. Fussy was also doing something interesting today. Again she was at the water reservoir, biting it and trying to push her head through. I am still not sure why she is doing this. Is she just trying to dig? Does she want more water or moisture? A few minutes later, I found that she had place dirt where she had been biting the wet cotton. It did start to rain outside and that raised the humidity from 56% to about 66%. But I have not clue as to if that was a factor. Later, all three of the queens were vigorously biting at the wet cotton. Even Fussy who had placed dirt on it. I ended up closing the shoebox and put them in darkness. I'm hoping that calms them down a bit. I will check on them again tomorrow.
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Lieutenant Redundant		#4	[url]	[-]
Minor Worker Ant Posts: 101 06/19/2013 5:18 PM	This will just be a quick update since I had to transfer two of my queens to new test tube setups. Also, I realize how boring these journal entries must be to people when I do not have good pictures. Unfortunately, I have a very dim lit room and a terrible camera. Not to mention I've been keeping my ants in the darkest corner of my room. I'm thinking about clearing an area in which I can take pictures. That would also mean I would have to invest in some brighter lights. We shall see. Queen #2 Bitey had to be moved because her tube was starting to flood. I don't know how long her tube had been slowly flooding. She was also really agitated, no doubt because of the flooding. I collected all 7 of her eggs and moved them into her dry tube on a small piece of tin foil. Unfortunately, the new tube and honey did not calm her down. She ran over her eggs without concern and spilled them everywhere. I've since placed her in darkness again. Also, because of the flooding, I have placed all my queens test tubes at a slight angle so that if it does flood again, it will not flood the whole tube. Queen #4 Longshot, surprisingly, had mold growing in her tube today. I was surprised because hers was the only sand that I had baked in the oven before putting it into her tube. I did, however, water her sand down a bit too much with water from my sink. I may just use natural, unbaked sand from now on. All 4 of her eggs were moved with her to her tube. She has settled into her new tube pretty well and even ate a bit of honey. Queen #1 For being named Fussy, Fuss has shown the most calm the last few days. Nothing was wrong with her tube, no flooding, mold, ect. And she hasn't freaked out for a few days, even in the light. She's also got a pretty BIG pile of eggs that she has been moving around the test tube. Most of the time she keeps it by the wet cotton. I'm excited to see her eggs develop into larvae. Once that happens I will feed her a seed or two. I will also take the liberty of ordering a formicarium for her as I will be sure that she is progressing towards a colony. Other notes Temp - 80 F for most of the day. It sometimes drops to 76 F during the night and early morning. Humidity - Ranges between 55 to 80% depending on if it is raining or not.
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pogoqueen		#5	[url]	[-]
Young Worker Ant Posts: 52 06/19/2013 8:07 PM	You most likely had mold growing in Longshot's test tube, not because of the sand, but because of the water. Water from the sink has all kinds of interesting microbes like fungus even though the city "cleans" it. They do not get rid of all the microbes, they just reduce them down to acceptable numbers. So even though it is safe for you to drink, put some of that water on growth medium (dirt/honey) and you can watch all kinds of cool things grow! I'd suggest boiling the water. :} Good luck!
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dspdrew		#6	[url]	[-]
Loyal Worker Ant Posts: 557 06/19/2013 8:54 PM	pogoqueen wrote: You most likely had mold growing in Longshot's test tube, not because of the sand, but because of the water. Water from the sink has all kinds of interesting microbes like fungus even though the city "cleans" it. They do not get rid of all the microbes, they just reduce them down to acceptable numbers. So even though it is safe for you to drink, put some of that water on growth medium (dirt/honey) and you can watch all kinds of cool things grow! I'd suggest boiling the water. :} Good luck! There's also chlorine in it. I always use bottled water for my ants. Southern California Ants
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Lieutenant Redundant		#7	[url]	[-]
Minor Worker Ant Posts: 101 06/19/2013 9:53 PM	dspdrew wrote: pogoqueen wrote: You most likely had mold growing in Longshot's test tube, not because of the sand, but because of the water. Water from the sink has all kinds of interesting microbes like fungus even though the city "cleans" it. They do not get rid of all the microbes, they just reduce them down to acceptable numbers. So even though it is safe for you to drink, put some of that water on growth medium (dirt/honey) and you can watch all kinds of cool things grow! I'd suggest boiling the water. :} Good luck! There's also chlorine in it. I always use bottled water for my ants. Ah! That would make sense. I plan to boil my water from now on!
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