pogonomyrmex occidentalis colony growth

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Neuromancer
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Joined: Thu Oct 15, 2020 4:35 pm
Location: San Jose, Ca

pogonomyrmex occidentalis colony growth

Post: # 74255Post Neuromancer
Thu Oct 15, 2020 4:56 pm

Hello,

I'm a newcomer to these forums and this is my first post!

I've had a pogonomyrmex occidentalis colony since April. The queen came with 15 workers and I lost 4 of them in the first month. Since then the colony has to somewhere around 60. In total I've lost around 8 workers.

While the colony seems to be healthy overall... Is this level of growth slow? I thought we'd have more over the course of ~6 months. I have a heating cable situated on one side of the formicarium, and the temperatures seem in the right range.

I've very recently decided to try upping their food intake somewhat to see if this helps. Mainly sugar water and dandelion seeds, but also a small increase in insects (and though I never gave them a whole a lot of insects to begin with as it seems this species doesn't need as many insects as others).

Thanks!

AntsLuxembourg
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Location: Luxembourg
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Re: pogonomyrmex occidentalis colony growth

Post: # 74314Post AntsLuxembourg
Wed Oct 21, 2020 1:10 am

Hey,

I never had this species but it seems that it could be similar to messor barbarus. You can check my threat for some ideas for feeding seeds. However I recommend reading the whole thing as I did correct myself from time to time and just so you have the whole thing. https://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=18552
Also you will see which seeds you absolutely should avoid and which you may try.

I am not sure how long a normal worker of your pogo. occi. colony will live but for messor barbarus I know that they can get to an age of 2 years at the very least. I'm still kind of testing this theory tho but 2 years is definetely possible for mine. I am not sure what their size or average lifespan is but depending on their size it can take longer. For example campanodus takes I think 4 weeks at least for each worker. I haven't paid attention to my ants but here I think it is something between 2-3 weeks.

Do you know how old the colony is? Are they less then 1 year old? If so it could be that this species starts to grow more once they have hibernated if they do hibernate.
Doing some proper research is the best way to start an antcolony.

Need help or want to help? https://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=18153#p70566

Currently not keeping any ants anymore.

Neuromancer
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Oct 15, 2020 4:35 pm
Location: San Jose, Ca

Re: pogonomyrmex occidentalis colony growth

Post: # 74325Post Neuromancer
Wed Oct 21, 2020 4:57 pm

My colony is definitely under a year. I got it in April, I don't think the queen is much older than that

While it's definitely too early to say conclusively, I think upping the food is helping. It seems in the first half of the day is when they generally like to move brood to be near the heating cable (and then it seems like later in the day they move back to the "water tower" with the queen. This morning, I saw their largest ever brood pile yet by the heating cable.

I'll starting reading through your thread as I'm sure at least some of it will apply to these.

Neuromancer
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Oct 15, 2020 4:35 pm
Location: San Jose, Ca

Re: pogonomyrmex occidentalis colony growth

Post: # 74327Post Neuromancer
Wed Oct 21, 2020 8:38 pm

Argh, I thought I attached a picture of the brood pile to my previous post but it seems I have insufficient quota (either attachments are disallowed this way generally or I haven't made enough posts to be allowed to attach photos yet).

AntsLuxembourg
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Joined: Sun Jun 24, 2018 7:17 am
Location: Luxembourg
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Re: pogonomyrmex occidentalis colony growth

Post: # 74346Post AntsLuxembourg
Fri Oct 23, 2020 7:04 am

You can upload the picture to imgur and share the link here. That also works very well. :)

Since they are under a year, it is totally fine to have this size. For the few dead workers, I guess they were just really weak or died due to inexplainable reasons. I also noticed that the ants do like to keep a big fat storage of seeds at all times. Even if it is just pilling up. It makes me feel and think that the ants will grow bigger the more food they have in store. However the hibernation season is approaching and since I don't know much about your species I would recommend you to look some of that information up.

For their habits with the brood they are basically doing what I would do in the wild I guess. During the day to bring them up, closer to the surface as they will have more heat there and speed up their growth and then during the night down into the nest to protect them from the cold. I guess it's just their instincts. But also good to know or think that they associate the heating cable with the day. :)
I really love ants for their way of thinking and for how they do their things best. ;)
Doing some proper research is the best way to start an antcolony.

Need help or want to help? https://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=18153#p70566

Currently not keeping any ants anymore.

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