Bicolor Californian Harvester Ants (Pogonomyrmex californicus)

General: Pogonomyrmex californicus bicolor are medium, orange/black, grow quickly, enjoy heat, and harvest seeds as their main food source. Though these ants have a painful sting, they are lousy climbers and should generally be easy to avoid. All things considered, P. californicus are fair beginner ants!

Founding: The founding stage (the stage in which a queen ant is beginning her colony by herself) is different with these ants than others. This species is considered semi-claustral, but can effectively be given a large amount of seeds to get them through the entirety of founding. They do need to be very hot, at least 84-86 degrees. Ensure there are always fresh seeds available, and founding is just a matter of patience! It’s NOT recommended to feed protein during founding.

Diet: Bicolor Californian Harvester Ants are known to harvest seeds as their main food source, but greatly benefit from insects and need them at least every once in a while. It is recommended to offer two or more species of seeds! These ants might drink liquid sugars but it is not recommended to feed them that!

Seeds known to be eaten by P. californicus are:

• Kentucky Bluegrass
• Chia
• Dandelion
• Phacelia

Our current seed mix (available with the ants) contains Dandelion, Phacelia, Kentucky Bluegrass seeds, and many more.

Temperature: Though still possible to overheat these ants, it would be rather difficult. These ants thrive when parts of the nest are around 95 degrees, but ensure that there is a much cooler part of the nest as well. If your ants are in a test tube, heat the entrance of the tube (not near the water reservoir). Eggs (compared with pupae) do much better in the cooler, higher-humidity parts of the nest. It’s important to have both sides of the gradient.

Diapause: These ants typically don’t need diapause. If your ants seem to slow down during the fall or winter, simply take them off of the heat and let them be at room temperature or slightly below for about 4 weeks and then return them to normal. If they don’t show signs of faltering, just keep them growing! Ensure there’s seeds to eat, even in ‘diapause’.

Growth: Brood development takes around 4-6 weeks. Usually, it’ll take about 5 weeks if heated and fed properly. Colonies can easily hit 1000 within a year but typically will be in the hundreds at that point.

Queen size: 7-10mm

Worker size: 4-7mm

If ants arrive in bad condition, contact us for help. Live arrival is guaranteed..