Pogonomyrmex maricopa (Maricopa Harvester Ant) Care Sheet

About the Queen

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Your average P. maricopa queen is a little over 9mm long and orange, sometimes with some black on the abdomen! They need high heat to grow their first batch of brood, and benefit from a few seeds during founding to help them raise those first workers. 

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This species is typically monogynous. This means that only one queen is found per colony. Queens can found a colony together, but once workers arrive, they will fight to the death. We only have single-queen founding groups, as we don't want queens fighting to the death!

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About Growth

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Pogonomyrmex maricopa can grow very fast! With high heat, which is what they prefer, they'll incubate their brood and grow into the hundreds within half a year, often. This is with high heat, lots of seeds, and maybe some added protein. 

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The colonies tend to reach into the thousands, but rarely reach up to or beyond 5,000 workers. By the 2nd or 3rd year, one could have thousands of workers in their colony!

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Egg-worker can be very quick, as low as 25 days in high-heat setups. 

 

Temperature & Setup

 

P. maricopa is a heat specialist. If you keep the nest in the low 80s, they'll often stagnate and go into diapause. I recommend having a large portion of the nest kept at 90F or a bit warmer, with some of the cooler, moist areas in the 70s. This can be accomplished with a heat cable, heat mat, or even an incubator. 

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It's strongly recommended to keep the colony in the test tube when it's young! Until they have more than 10-20 workers, the colony is somewhat sensitive to moves. For heating in the test tube (which is completely necessary), use an incubator or place the front half of the tube on a heat mat/heat cable. Do not heat anywhere close to or past the water blocker, but instead create a gradient by putting the heat closer to the cotton. This allows the queen/young colony to place themselves and their brood where the best spot is!

 

Once you've moved them into a setup, ensure there is a test tube setup attached at all times for moisture failsafe. Keep in mind that high heat means more evaporation, and therefore a drier setup.

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Practical nests for this species are horizontal nests. They can occupy vertical nests, but it's hard on them, as these ants aren't very good climbers! For this reason, I try to make it so that they don't have much climbing to do when navigating their home.

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Make sure to always remove trash and uneaten food from their outworld pretty quickly. Seed casings and bug exoskeletons can build up and mold if there's moisture!​

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One of the best ways to get a colony growing well is to incubate them. You can create a homemade incubator with a styrofoam box, a heat pad, and a temperature controller (which will cost you less than $100 if done correctly). Set the box to 90 degrees, ensuring the temperature probe is in the correct area (keep an eye on the box for the next few hours), and you have the perfect incubator for your ants. Alternatively, you can simply heat the room they're in, although this likely wouldn't be enough on its own for P. maricopa, who needs extra heat to develop nicely. 

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Avoid overdecorated, complicated setups for this species. Stick to something simple. They don't tend to do well in dirt nests in tanks, as they can't be heated effectively in many of them. Our Starter Cube is a good nest for the early stages of this species. 

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Feeding

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Pogonomyrmex maricopa are super easy to feed! They can live almost entirely off of seeds, which they tend to store in large quantities, especially if portions of their nest are drier than the rest. It's a good idea to feed them bits of protein every so often, though, to nourish the queen and brood. 

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Seeds like Kentucky Bluegrass, Dandelion, Sand Lovegrass, Chia, and Nyjer are all good for this species. Our seed mixes tend to include those and more seeds. Different seeds mean different nutrition, so it's a good idea to give them lots of different ones! ​Our seed mixes include dry protein flakes, which also help boost the ants growth and nourishment. 

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Always make sure your colony has access to fresh seeds! When they're growing at high-heat levels, they consume lots of food. It's your job to make sure they always have an excess.

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Hibernation

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This species does not need to hibernate (diapause for ants), but can do so if you desire. If you wish to diapause Pogonomyrmex maricopa, simply remove them from heat and place them at room temperature for a couple weeks, and then (ultimately) to about 45F. Don't diapause them for more than a month or two, and ensure in diapause that they have seeds available plus moisture within their nest, or the ants may desiccate. 

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Extreme Growth

The rest of this section assumes you want your ants to grow as fast as physically possible. Heat most of the nest to the low 90s and feed some extra protein daily or multiple times a week. Ensure that seeds are always present in the nest and that, of course.

 

Just make sure when you're feeding them all this food and keeping them heated, that you don't let their water supply run out. When heating my ants, I prefer to have a tube in their outworld or attached in case I make a mistake with hydration.

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To summarize: feed your Maricopa Harvester Ants seeds so they have a constant pile, and offer protein sometimes if you want faster growth!

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If you're interested in getting this species, they'll be here if they're in stock!

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