Update: I CAUGHT IT!

[rebeccmeister]

My office neighbor agreed that Office Mouse 2 was extremely cute, and gave it some sesame almonds and a little dish of water. Then I released it in the marsh near our building - hopefully far away enough that it won't find its way back to my office!

In the meantime, it's time to erect more robust defenses around the Jade Stump.

I *really* do not want to do any more work today.

BUT - my research students finished counting allll the ants! Holy mackerel. 17,368 of them, in 26 colonies.

Comments

[twoeleven]

Holy mackerel. 17,368 of them, in 26 colonies.
That's a big mackerel! :)

That's like 660ish ants per colony.* Is that a normal number for whatever flavor of ants they are?

*: Roughly. 18 is 2/3rds of 27, so it should be 650-670 ± some random amount.

[rebeccmeister]

I mean, that is kind of the question. Half of the colonies got a high-fiber diet, the other half didn't, so we're curious about whether the fiber impacted colony growth rates. Contrary to expectations, it seems to not have mattered much at all! But that's science for ya.

[scrottie]

Suddenly remembering the youtube videos of someone making little maze/obstacle courses for their hamster (gerbil? some small fuzzy rodent), filming the hamster in them, and playing Mission Impossible theme music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vacB1dMiJk is one in that series.

The sheepies out here have electrical fences. Oh, and I saw them being herded down the street by multiple border collies! So kind of spitballing here but maybe border collies and an electric fence for the mice?

[rebeccmeister]

Those mazes were pretty darned cute.

If I built a maze for Office mouse, do you think it would stop peeing and pooping on my bookshelves??

[moodyduck]

Do you read Bird and Moon comics? If not, you should check out today's.

[rebeccmeister]

Oh my goodness, that is a thing of beauty. I tend to see them haphazardly. Love her comics!! (of course)

[larryhammer]

I realize that I'm being Captain Obvious here, but that's a lot of ants.

What's a typical colony size in the wild? (I'm assuming mature colonies have a more or less stable size?)

[rebeccmeister]

Most of the estimates I've seen, which I think are actually fairly accurate, put mature leafcutter colonies of this species at ~10,000 ants. These are lab colonies, and just one year old, so they're still fairly small! I will admit that I just don't have the space or time to rear colonies to full adulthood; it just isn't practical.

[larryhammer]

Given the wide distribution of exits for the colony under our front yard, ~10k does not seem out of line. How long does maturity usually take?

[rebeccmeister]

We think it takes somewhere between 10-20 years, probably closer to 10. Have you ever gotten to see winged queens and/or males flying out from your yard colony in the morning after a big monsoon rain? It is so magical.

[larryhammer]

Only once. Closer to the wash, we’ve seen it more often — including, a couple times, noticing the flight because of the circling dragonflies, diving down through the buffet.