Harvester ant care & handling

Storage of Harvester Ants

Harvester ants should be kept under refrigeration until ready for use. This will cause them to enter a semi-dormant state, making them easier to handle, and easier for the lizard to consume them.

While in dormancy the ants will require no food, but, they must be kept from excessively low temperatures (optimal 42-46F), humidity, and desiccation. Water condensation will suffocate dormant ants which cannot groom themselves. To prevent desiccation I place a small piece of damp paper towel or sponge into the container. If excessive humidity is an issue, a dry piece of paper towel is used.

If storage of ants longer than a few days is needed, I recommend removing the ants from the shipping vials and pacing them in a glass or plastic jaw, with a few small holes punched in the lid. Insert a piece of paper towel if humidity is expected or if condensation is observed.

Smaller refrigerators or less efficient refrigerators with auto defrost cycles that kick on frequently, tend to be less ideal for ant storage, as excessive humidity is usually observed.

The most common problem with prolonged ant storage is excessive humidity. Excessively low or high temperatures or excessively low humidity can be a factor in some cases. Observe and modify your methods accordingly.

Ants may also be maintained with a little more effort in a farm type environment, though they will have to be fed and watered, and they will be harder to remove when needed. A terrarium full of dampened dirt may be used and small pieces of fruit and vegetable offered. Covering the terrarium will increase survival rates, as in the wild these ants do not stay out exposed to open air all the time, or they would desiccate and die. They must be able to retreat underground to a more humid environment, or their environment must be maintained with reduced airflow and some humidity. Observe for and avoid excessive humidity that will lead to mold growth and which could contaminate the ants and sicken your horned lizard. Remove all uneaten food before it molds.

Offering Harvester Ants

Most adult horned lizard should eat 50 or more ants (Pogonomyrmex) per day. Some individuals may eat 100 or more. Adult P. solare often eat 200+ harvester ants per day. Juveniles/subadults may eat only 10-20 per day, depending on size. Hatchlings may only take 1-2 per day. Most hatchlings will not be large enough to take harvester ants until 2 or more months old, and should instead be offered pinhead crickets (1/16" or smaller) or flight-less fruit flies until large enough to tackle ants.

While offering harvester ants to your horned lizard, place only a few in the terrarium at a time. The

lizard may become stressed when confronted with more than a few ants in a confined space. Excessive numbers of ants will also increase the chances that they will become aggressive and attack the lizard. The number of ants a horned lizard can handle at once will vary with the size of the habitat, and the species of the horned lizard.

There are several methods to introduce harvester ants into the terrarium. If you have a lot of time on your hands, you may choose to drop ants into the terrarium individually, or up to 3 at a time, and watch the lizard eat them at a comfortable pace. Another method is to form a small depression in the substrate and place a small pile of cold ants (about a dozen) in this depression. The lizard will approach the awakening ants to feed on them at its leisure. The depression should preferably not be directly under the basking heat source, as this may kill the ants before they awaken, or make them highly active, which may deter the lizard from approaching them.

I often use a simple ant dispenser device, to which numbers of ants may be loaded, and the horned lizard may approach and take the ants from the dispenser with little danger of being attacked. By this method, nearly a full day’s supply of ants may be provided and left in the terrarium.

If not using a reliable dispenser device, offer your lizard a few ants at a time, many times a day. Every time you have the chance to walk by the lizard's home, drop a few in. Offer as many ants as it feels like eating throughout the day, using common sense based on its individual size and the size of the harvester ants being used.

● If the lizard begins to panic and climb the walls when ants are introduced, reduce the number of ants.

● Ants that have not been eaten in a timely fashion should be removed, unless ants are confined to a dispenser device.

● If the lizard is attacked and any ants have attached themselves, the safest way to remove the ant is to insert a toothpick in between its jaws. If that's not possible or safe, because it is near the lizard's eyes, then you may carefully pinch its head laterally (from the sides) with a pair of tweezers. This will normally open the jaws, but you will have to crush its head. Do not pull the ant off, because this may injure the lizard.