Wild Collected Big Headed Ants (Pheidole)

I found a wild colony of Pheidole sp. and used a Manual Aspirator to secure them in the field. This video will talk about the capture, some of their biology, and show you them moving into a formicarium as well as some feeding.

[TheAnttarium]

It has occurred to me that some people may get the wrong idea here and believe that I indiscriminately destroy wild colonies of ants. Please read this comment. I collect entire wild colonies when I determine that the queens, brood, and majority of the population can be secured without harm. You have to be responsible about it. Otherwise I leave them be. This is typically only possible with very small ant species, ants living directly under a rock/log/etc, or inside a log such as Camponotus species. In this case, the entire colony was housed under a flower pot’s collection dish that had been left upside down and untouched for quite some time. Had I not removed the colony they would have been killed by the Advion WDG application I was using around a clients home to control a massive population of invasive Argentine ants.

[bradleysacsc]

What you have sir is knowledge and for people like myself who REALLY miss the old NOVA shows please keep the content coming. Thank you.

[NorthernAnts]

This was a really cool video! I love the look of the tarheel nests ❤️

[TheUrbanAntKeeper]

Great video man, love to see this type of content. Zero filler, just ants. Subbed!

[wildlifeisthewealthofnatur]

Pheidoles are the cutest ants. I like the majors with their oversized heads. I always touch the head of majors of pheidoles in my planting pot. They then runaway inside the colony.

[mathiaspimentel]

Pheidole are very interesting and cute ants! My house has a giant colony which i suspect to be Pheidole. They have huge majors. I already saw them moving their brood to another location, it's very funny.

[SeriMoSway]

This is great content. I've always enjoyed ants since I was a child and have always wanted an ant farm to keep. I'm in the Texas Hill Country, and I have a colony of Pogonomyrmex barbatus, I believe, in my backyard. I'm very protective of it and watch it daily. Over summer it was flooded and I thought it had disappeared, as I didn't see any activity from it for weeks. It was quite large and very active. Then, I noticed it coming back around late September. I was very happy to see that. I'm hoping there is still a queen in there, as I've missed them. I'm hoping next season I can find a queen to start my own little colony to watch. The thought does make me a bit nervous and skeptical as it will be new to me, but I hope to be successful. Winter will give me a chance to prepare, I hope, and I'm sure I will have plenty of questions and it will be nice to see more of yours. Thank you for sharing your colonies with us! I'll definitely be keeping up with your channel.

[antbaron]

i really hope everybody knows the meaning of wild collected ant colonies. International ant keeping is sometimes a really, really weird thing.

[zexky]

Sheesh!, Tropical fire Ants have Big headed Majors but the Pheidole one's are Larger!

[LethalV]

Found 6 queens on top lost 2 dropped them and have them In an empty cleaned garlic bottle it's a little small

[californiaantkeeper]

I did pest control for about 15 years as Termite control. Ironic we keep ants alive as a hobby.

[lzamek]

hello may i ask where did buy the aspirator

[olliefs]

Nice ill have to make a manual aspirator!!!

[australianpolyrhachis]

Lovely Video~! Always very informative and interesting to watch. Thank you for sharing this content with us <3.
I had to make a home made Aspirator just the other day because a table i wanted to bring inside had a mini ant colony in it. I didnt think i could save them so i had to flush the nest out with water. Amazingly i found the queen and saved her in time before she died. I was then wondering how to raise her as all her workers were just washed away. I started to watch youtube vids and saw this thing called an Aspirator, i was gonna buy one then thought ill make one quick to save the brood and workers still on the ground. I was able to get about 1/3 of the workers and brood with the queen. Not sure on what they are yet but they are half the size of normal pavement ants. I live in QLD Australia and love seeing ants from other countries and how you work with them.

[underdogjourney]

Do you ever collect Atta texana? I (like everyone else) have always wanted to keep a leaf cutter species, but it seems like it would be daunting to keep them happy and healthy. Great videos, BTW!

[mistermaster]

Hey! Where did you get that manual aspirator? I can’t find it anywhere. Thanks!

[AntsFlagstaff]

You have Okay you gotta do a video about them!!! I've been trying to catch my native one (cephalotes rohweri) but they are rare as hell here.

[UxNorway]

Hey Where did u buy the ant sucker thing?

[FizzleFX]

Fluon they dont like but can cross if they want to.
Talcum does trip em up though...

btw < 2mm ants may drown if fluon runs down and gathers into a drop. Guess how i found out.

[pixellyth]

DUDE, why have i not seen this tool before