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3D Printed Ant Farm (1/8/2022)

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      In recent years, 3D printing technology has grown immensely in popularity, driven by its increasing affordability and accessibility. As an ant enthusiast, there is often a need for an accessory or part that would be difficult or impossible to purchase. For example, different sized, sturdy trays for providing ants liquid food (such as honey) are quite difficult to come across. 3D printing has solved this problem for many, as it enables people to print feeding trays designed to fit the dimensions of their formicaria. In addition, 3D printing has enabled creation of customized formicaria at the click of a button, a feature of the technology that has made custom formicarium creation easier than ever.     I have personally utilized 3D printing for a variety of ant-related projects as well, one of which is this ant farm style formicarium that lets the ants to dig in a predefined space, which forces them to make their chambers visible, but still lets them choose how they excavate their
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Desert Anting (7/1/2021)

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    In the last week of June, the deserts of Southern California received some much needed moisture from the annual Southwestern Monsoon, which brings moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf of California (more on this weather phenomenon here ) to the Southwestern United States. Many ants of the Southern California desert use this rain as as signal to begin their mating flights, and when these first monsoon rains hit I was able to visit some areas that received rain from this first storm, and find some wonderful ant species One of the Myrmecocystus placodops  Queens found during the trip     The first location I visited was, unfortunately, deprived of much life at all. Although the washes were somewhat lush with vegetation, the surrounding landscaped was bone-dry, with most plants dead or dying, due to the lackluster winter rains earlier this year. I did however see a desert tortoise here, a welcome sign of life.     I  stayed here into the night and met a few other ant enthusias
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East Bay Spring Anting (3/29/2021)

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     Yesterday afternoon, I took a trip to the East Bay area to look for Pogonomyrmex subdentatus  queens. This species has their mating flights once in the spring, and once in the fall. It had gotten quite warm in that part of the bay area, with temperatures around 80F. Usually, this is warm enough to trigger their flights, so I left home and arrived at my first location around 1PM.     Unfortunately, the first location I checked had plenty of colonies, but did not yield any queen ants. I noticed that it was very hot at this location, likely warmer than what was reported. This made me suspect that the temperature readings in the region were slightly off, and that they might have flown during the previous heatwave. In the future, I will be sure to account for the inaccuracy of the forecasts in this area.     Luckily, the second location I visited was in a more hilly area, where the temperatures were noticeably cooler. I suspect that it did not get warm enough for Pogonomyrmex  to fly h
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My brief experience with Macro Photography (2/16/2021)

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      Over the past few weeks, as my ant colonies have been coming out of diapause, I have been diving into the world of macro photography. There are many different ways to take stunning photos of ants and other small things, ranging from simple lens-extension tubes to professional-grade dedicated macro lenses.     For photographing my ants, I got both a screw-on macro lens, which was essentially a magnifying glass over the lens of my camera (Canon Rebel T6) and a set of extension tubes, which increase the distance between the lens and the camera's sensor, allowing a smaller minimum focus distance.     I quickly fell in love with the clarity and precision of the extension tubes. Although I could not adjust the aperture of the lens, I figured out a way to adjust it while the extension tubes were off, and managed to retain my aperture settings even after taking the lens off of the camera body. The screw-on macro lens worked nicely too, but because of the design it had something of a
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Pogonomyrmex subdentatus: Test Tube Founding (9/11/2020)

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     For the past few years, I have been experimenting with different methods of starting colonies of Pogonomyrmex subdentatus , a red harvester ant, and one of the few species that is found in the Bay Area. This spring, I put some of the queens I caught into a test tube setup with an out world. In the past, I have not had much success with test tubes for this species. However, I decided to try making the entrance to the tube-nest smaller by plugging it with cotton, and using a straw as an entrance tunnel.     In addition to this setup, I provided the queens in test tubes with abundant seeds and crushed freeze-dried meal worms, as food for their larvae. Like all my other Pogonomyrmex subdentatus  colonies, I kept them at 88-92F, which helped them grow and develop at a healthy pace.     Six months later, and I have a thriving colony in one of these setups. This colony is about 6 months old, and although growth was slow at first, it is now growing at a steady rate. Here is a video I took
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Harvester Ants of California

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     The state of California is one of the most diverse states in the country when it comes to ants. Some of the most iconic ants in California are harvester ants. Harvester ants are unique because one of their primary food sources is seeds. They gather seeds and bring them into their nests, which over time accumulate to create seed storages of impressive proportions. The ants then break down the seeds, and use this nutrition to feed both adult workers and developing larvae, as well as the queen.      In California, the two major seed-harvesting genera are Veromessor and Pogonomyrmex.  The two have a lot in common, as both are avid seed harvesters. However, there are a few notable differences. Veromessor within California are often polymorphic (multiple sizes of workers), as is seen in the common desert species Veromessor pergandei . Pogonomyrmex  within California are exclusively monomorphic (single worker size). Additionally, Pogonomyrmex  species have convex thoraxes, while Veromes
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Species Profile: Camponotus fragilis

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    California is one of the most diverse states in terms of ant species. One of the most unique species native to California is Camponotus fragilis . These ants are known for their distinctive yellow coloration, which is uncommon among the Camponotus  species in California. They are one of the fastest growing Camponotus species , and are a great species for beginner and expert antkeepers alike. Species Name: Camponotus fragilis Photos: Camponotus fragilis colony with their first major worker Difficulty:  Beginner California Distribution:      This species is found in abundance throughout the deserts of southern California. Species Description:       This species is one of the few yellow Camponotus  species present in California. These ants usually nest under rocks or debris in desert regions. They have colonies that get quite large, with some colonies in captivity having several thousand workers. This species is monogynous, which means there is only one queen in a colony.      In capt
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