Post by Deleted on Dec 7, 2010 2:19:03 GMT 1
I was out looking for termites and the very last place I looked I saw a burnt piece of wooden fence post. I knew termites liked them, but also scorpions as well and beetles...I've found a variety of animals/insects under them. Well, I decided that it would be the last piece of wood I looked in/under since I had been out for several hours already. And what do you know! A Pheidole hyatti colony with "a" queen. Well she escaped somewhere, and I was upset... but I saw another queen! Sadly, I only had a bucket...so I had to do some improvising so they wouldn't escape. I kinda had to bury them so they didn't swarm out. I went to get termites, not ants, so I wasn't really prepared. None were harmed, don't worry. The colony was I guess smallish-medium size? I'm not sure what a full grown Pheidole hyatti colony looks like. But it had a couple hundred ants, maybe 300 or so. Largest I've found had many hundreds of ants (I want to say like a 1000? But they were all over, so it was hard to tell. It was a lot), with many hundreds of different stages of brood...haven't found a large one like that again.
Well, got home and sorted through the dirt. Not only was there two queens in this colony...but three! Three queens nesting all really close if not with each other. They were nesting in a few inches diameter under the wood. So the queens were an inch or two away from each other, if not right next to each other. I'm kind of surprised since I thought Pheidole queens didn't cooperate. Unless its different with Pheidole hyatti? Not a lot of brood in this colony, but I got some soldiers and lots of workers.
Pheidole hyatti are my favorite Pheidole ant, at least around here. And Pheidole are my favorite species. Workers are a little bit bigger than Argentine ants and the majors are pretty big. They are especially big compared to other Pheidole species around here. Really pretty too, a nice yellowish color. Plus, they are active all year, which is nice. I don't have to worry about hibernating them.
Pheidole and Pogonomyrmex are the only ants I've really had success with. I've had some success with Solenopsis xyloni/invicta, but they escape a bit too easy and my moms allergic to ants. One bite from a Solenopsis invicta (when she was in the army a long time ago)...she was sent to the emergency room.
I had a Pheidole hyatti colony before...lasted quite a while and did really well, forgot what happened...think my friend wanted them and I gave it to him.
But yes...I found a three queen Pheidole hyatti colony! And got two out of three queens. Well, there could have been more queens, I didn't think to look. But I do know there was three. The container they are in is sorta big too...so the queens shouldn't fight each other, I gave them plenty of nesting rocks. But the queens were living with each other, so I'm not too worried. Since P.hyatti seem to more nest under things than dig. I have seen them dig, but heh, they aren't really a digging species...more like, they find a hole or an object to nest under, and then they move under it or into the hole. Though my last colony did quite a bit of digging, I just haven't seen them do too much digging in the wild. At least from what I've seen.
I gave them honey as well...from my experiences, if I give honey to new colonies, they tend to start off a lot better. So hopefully things work out. I gave them some termites too, which tend to be very healthy for reptiles and other insects. Termites are probably healthiest thing you can feed reptiles...but thats another topic. But I imagine it would be the same for insects, like ants.
Will be interesting to see how big the colony gets with two queens. Though I've heard two queens tend to lay less eggs than one queen? Not sure if I remember right or if thats true or not.
Well, got home and sorted through the dirt. Not only was there two queens in this colony...but three! Three queens nesting all really close if not with each other. They were nesting in a few inches diameter under the wood. So the queens were an inch or two away from each other, if not right next to each other. I'm kind of surprised since I thought Pheidole queens didn't cooperate. Unless its different with Pheidole hyatti? Not a lot of brood in this colony, but I got some soldiers and lots of workers.
Pheidole hyatti are my favorite Pheidole ant, at least around here. And Pheidole are my favorite species. Workers are a little bit bigger than Argentine ants and the majors are pretty big. They are especially big compared to other Pheidole species around here. Really pretty too, a nice yellowish color. Plus, they are active all year, which is nice. I don't have to worry about hibernating them.
Pheidole and Pogonomyrmex are the only ants I've really had success with. I've had some success with Solenopsis xyloni/invicta, but they escape a bit too easy and my moms allergic to ants. One bite from a Solenopsis invicta (when she was in the army a long time ago)...she was sent to the emergency room.
I had a Pheidole hyatti colony before...lasted quite a while and did really well, forgot what happened...think my friend wanted them and I gave it to him.
But yes...I found a three queen Pheidole hyatti colony! And got two out of three queens. Well, there could have been more queens, I didn't think to look. But I do know there was three. The container they are in is sorta big too...so the queens shouldn't fight each other, I gave them plenty of nesting rocks. But the queens were living with each other, so I'm not too worried. Since P.hyatti seem to more nest under things than dig. I have seen them dig, but heh, they aren't really a digging species...more like, they find a hole or an object to nest under, and then they move under it or into the hole. Though my last colony did quite a bit of digging, I just haven't seen them do too much digging in the wild. At least from what I've seen.
I gave them honey as well...from my experiences, if I give honey to new colonies, they tend to start off a lot better. So hopefully things work out. I gave them some termites too, which tend to be very healthy for reptiles and other insects. Termites are probably healthiest thing you can feed reptiles...but thats another topic. But I imagine it would be the same for insects, like ants.
Will be interesting to see how big the colony gets with two queens. Though I've heard two queens tend to lay less eggs than one queen? Not sure if I remember right or if thats true or not.