Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Went for a short hike this evening and found the Rugosus out for the first time this season. Temps were up close to 80 today here in AZ. Anyone else seeing any ant activity?
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Great timing Mark! I was just about to boast about how happy I was to finally see p.californicus surfacing yesterday. A little east of where I live, riverside county to be exact, but it gives me hope of them resurfacing here in Berdoo county soon. Boy, my wallet sure could use a break from www.antsalive.com!!
Temps were in the mid 70's yesterday and high 70's to low 80's today. I'll be headed north to the victorville area saturday to do some herping and with the warm temps maybe I might be lucky enough to see some early DHL's....
Hope all is well with everyboby!
-Ryan

Cool Ryan. That's good to hear. I plan on making a trip out there the end of April to poke around.
Have you ever tried my method for capturing ants?
It really makes it easy, but works best for P. rugosus.

Ant Movie
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Mark, I haven't tried your method but I will this year. Looks like you have a cup buried in the dirt but what is drawing the ants to the cup? Do you have some type of food in there?
Where do you plan on going while you're here? Maybe I can tag along with you?
-Ryan

Take a look at the ant page where I talk a little bit about how to do it. Basically, rugosus make a trail to their foraging area. You just have to intercept them near where the trail meets the nest. You can't mess up their trail with dirt from digging the hole. As they come back to the nest they fall in the pit trap. I use some small plastic vials that I order online, but you could use a perscription bottle or something similar. I've even used a butter dish with the lid on and a hole cut in the center, but this is really too big in most cases, especially where the ground is hard.

I don't have any hard and fast plans yet for my trip, but it would be cool to meet up with you and Phil up near victorville if you like. I know there are cornutum and platyrhinos both in that area.
Drop me an email and we can work out the details.
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Our large red ants are all out, I have already scoped a few piles, I use a giant potatoe spoon and just scoop them up, I can get a couple hundred in ashort time. This works for me.....
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signature file edited. [phw 11/14/04]

Hey Mark,

It'll be fun to go herping when you come out. Hopefully its not the week of the 16th......From then until the 22nd I believe I'll be somewhere in Texas on tour with the band. Anyway let me know ASAP so I can reserve a day or so.

As to your ant question, I was seeing limited rugosus and californicus activity in my mom's yard in late February.....They were up the same day my little male awoke.....Is this somehow related? It would be interesting to find out. Those ants went down for a couple weeks I might add when the weather began to freeze again. If I am correct they are starting to return to active status now.....

-Phil

Hey Phil,
I will be there that week, but perhaps we can get together the weekend you get back? Let's work it out with Ryan via email. I am thinking Victorville area or perhaps Anza Borego?
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