The AntsCanada Ant Forum's

Great journal, ooper!
I love your set up and outworld.
What kind of sand and ratio do you have on your vertical nest?
Subscribed to your journal.

Mauritaniants wrote:Great journal, ooper!
I love your set up and outworld.
What kind of sand and ratio do you have on your vertical nest?
Subscribed to your journal.

Thanks! The white streak of sand is industrial quartz (silica sand). I added that in there so that I could tell when they had dug down that far by them bringing it to the surface. The dark layer on the top is garden soil. I didn't add any sand to that layer in an attempt to help the upper tunnels/chambers to not collapse. The lighter soil is a 50/50 mix of garden soil and "play sand" for sandboxes from Home Depot.

The exterior dimensions of the formicarium are 14" x 12" x 1". The interior digging width is 3/4". The outworld is 11" x 6" x 7".

After watching Dr Deborah Gordon's Google Tech Talk from this post:

http://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=210&p=1539&hilit=gordon#p1539

I noticed that the males in the photos were red, similar to the virgin queens. The Pogonomyrmex ants that I have were collected from nuptial flights with black males, so I began to question my barbatus species. I emailed Dr Gordon asking her and she referred me to Dr Jack Longino at University of Utah. I emailed him and he suggested they were most likely either occidentalis or rugosus. Based on the info he provided on those two species, I have determined that my Pogonomyrmex barbatus ants are actually Pogonomyrmex occidentalis!

Glad I got that all straightened out!

Congratulations I have a 2 year old Pogonomyrmex occidentalis colony and a 1 year old colony as well
Looking great

Anthony wrote:Congratulations I have a 2 year old Pogonomyrmex occidentalis colony and a 1 year old colony as well
Looking great

Do you have a journal for your colonies? I'd love to follow it.

September 2, 2015
I added more outworld with a spiral tunnel like the one I saw elsewhere on this forum. The colony continues to thrive, doing really well. Also built a little framework to hold everything rather than books stacked up. I haven't seen the queen in quite some time. She knows all the good hiding places I guess. Estimating well over 100 workers now.

Look good! Would love to do something along those lines for my solenopsis but they are extremely good escape artists so I can't have a open out world.

Hows that red film working for ya?

MadVampy wrote:Look good! Would love to do something along those lines for my solenopsis but they are extremely good escape artists so I can't have a open out world.

Hows that red film working for ya?

The red film is working great! I can observe the ants w/o having to remove cardboard covers or lids. I can even shine a dim flashlight on it and the ants don't seem to get alarmed. I was afraid they might begin to cover up the walls to prevent my watching them, but they have not, so I am guessing the red light is "darkness" to them.

That formicarium looks cool, reminds me of those observation beehives, can I ask what type of substrate your using in it?

PaydenB wrote:That formicarium looks cool, reminds me of those observation beehives, can I ask what type of substrate your using in it?

The substrate in the formicarium is layered. The dark layer on the top is garden soil. I didn't add any sand to that layer in an attempt to help the upper tunnels/chambers to not collapse. The lighter soil is a 50/50 mix of garden soil and "play sand" for sandboxes from Home Depot.