Harvester Ants
I felt like today would be a good time to commemorate Pogonomyrmex barbatus. Last year, on September 1, I collected approximately 50 specimens in an ant habitat. They’re supposed to live for about 90 days, but almost all of them outlived that mark by a wide margin. The last one died this past week, just one week short of the 180-day mark.
I waited for over an an hour to get this shot. The ants were tunneling a new shaft up from below and just before breaking through to the surface, they decided to stop and widen the tunnel. It was maddening to watch them dig through two centimeters of gel in half an hour, and then take another thirty minutes to tunnel through that last millimeter. In this photo you can see the antenna of the ant on the bottom poking up through the first rip in the gel.
The ant on the top had been standing guard over a nearby shaft opening, and as you can see she responded instantly to the motion near her. Upon identifying the moving thing as part of a fellow ant, she set to digging with a will from above, and was soon joined by three other ants. In a matter of only a minute or two the hole had been widened into a shaft entrance, and the ants dispersed, resuming their patrols or looking for other tunnels to dig.
Then there was the day I tried to fish something out of the habitat with a toothpick. I made the mistake of getting too near an ant with it, and she seized the toothpick in her jaws and began a defensive action I can only describe as “stinging the hell out of it”. I literally had to put the toothpick down in a petri dish and wait for the ant to tire of attacking it before I could perform extrication.
They say ant habitats are great learning toys. I heartily agree. Those fine ladies certainly taught me a lot about emergent behavior, tunnel digging, and colony sociology. I learned about scent trails, patrolling and guarding. I learned that ants can tell dead ants apart from live ones, and will carry their dead out of the burrow. And I learned the proper technique for stinging the hell out of a toothpick.
Thank you, ladies. Maybe I’ll do this again with some of your nieces next year.
Spent the evening hunting bugs with Steve Jackson in Austin, TX. We had a rockin good time, and got about a dozen postable pix between us.
Eleanor said,
February 25, 2008 @ 11:10 am
That is an amazing photo! Wow. Definitely worth the wait for such a good action shot. That’s easy for me to say, when I didn’t do the waiting.
You really make me want to get an ant habitat too. Unfortunately where I’m living right now the only pets allowed are fish; and insects don’t qualify as fish. (Go figure) Maybe someday. Some people dream of getting a dog when they get their own home… I dream of ants.
JFargo said,
February 25, 2008 @ 11:24 am
That is an absolutely awesome shot! Makes me want to run out and get my own ant farm, but I don’t think Maria would approve. Too much of a chance for the dogs to destroy it completely, which would cause many problems.
M said,
February 26, 2008 @ 12:30 am
My cat would probably love an ant farm…probably love destroying it, too.
Too bad that ant drones can’t become queens if they’re separated from the colony…would have been cool if you’d gotten a colony of your own out of the deal!
tceisele said,
February 26, 2008 @ 6:57 am
Hey, maybe this year you can catch the mating season for the ants, and find a young queen to establish a permanent colony. By the way, how long does that gel last? Does it eventually dry out, or is it pretty much permanent until the ants eat it?
For that matter, it occurs to me that the gel might be mostly sugars, and short on proteins. I know adult honey bees can live a full life on pretty much nothing but sugar water, but they can’t raise brood without a protein source. Does the ant gel say whether it has enough protein to raise ant grubs on? If not, you might have to supplement it.
Scott said,
February 28, 2008 @ 2:21 pm
That is neat. Ant colonies have come a long way since you had to use sand (or just leave a lot of sugar on the counter).
Best fun fact: “I learned that ants can tell dead ants apart from live ones, and will carry their dead out of the burrow.”
pokemonlover99 said,
April 23, 2008 @ 1:38 pm
sir are harvester ants poisonis my grandma got stung by one
David Brady said,
April 23, 2008 @ 3:36 pm
pokemonlover99: They are not dangerous to humans at all. They do inject a tiny bit of venom, and if you were a mouse you might be in trouble, but to humans it’s just a chemical that stings really bad. It’s like getting stung by hot sauce!
Don’t worry, your grandma will be fine. Let her know she can put any ointment or itch cream on the sting to reduce the stinging. Some people say a cold compress feels nice, too. It may sting for a couple of days.
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