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Pogonomyrmex rugosus

Rough Harvester Ant

Pogonomyrmex rugosus
Advanced level
🛒 Shop colonies and kits

Photo: peterwchen, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY 4.0.

🐜 At a glance

  • Origin: South-western USA and northern Mexico; hot desert and dry grassland

  • Nest temperature: 26–30°C; advanced Heating System Small at 28°C, under a quarter of the nest

  • Outworld temperature: 18°C night, up to 28°C day; by day like the nest or a degree or two cooler

  • Humidity: Nest 50–60%; outworld about 50%, never watered

  • Winter: 2–3 month rest at 17–18°C; never below 15°C; no rest in a queen's first year

  • Move to a nest: 10+ workers; 15–20 is better, a lone queen too

  • Size: Queen 12–14 mm; workers 7–9.5 mm, reddish-brown to blackish-brown

  • Colony: One queen; up to about 8,000 workers

📖 About this species

A big, sturdy desert harvester named for the deep wrinkles on its head and thorax. A North American ant with a very painful sting, not sold by Best Ants UK and possibly illegal or impossible to import to the UK.

🍯 Feeding

  • Seeds: our harvester seed mix is the main food, on tin foil or a feeding dish, never on the substrate (sprouted seeds are harmful)

  • Proteins: Protein Jelly once a week, for example every Monday (keep it in the fridge)

  • Carbohydrates: organic Ant Honey or Ant Nectar once a week on another day, for example every Thursday; far better than sugar water

  • Feed in the outworld only and remove leftover jelly and honey after 2 days. Founding queen: a tiny drop of protein jelly on tin foil once a week

  • Buy food only from established ant-keeping suppliers: bird seed, dried mealworms and pet-shop live food often carry blood-sucking mites

💧 Watering the nest

  • Distilled or purified water only, never tap, rain or mineral water, even boiled

  • Pipette a drop at a time through the watering hole: no more than 1 drop should leak into the nest; water when the meter drops below 50%

  • Never open water (they can drown): a watering test tube in the outworld, never a water dispenser; never water the outworld

🏠 Setting up the ant farm

  • Angie or A7 Plus ant farm, both with a pre-installed digital meter

  • Daylight, never direct sunlight; away from windows, radiators, vibration, speakers and kitchens

  • Escape risk: PTFE Fluon band around the top inner edge of the outworld lid, reapplied about every 4 weeks (every 2 weeks for 300+ ants); keep the lid closed

💡 Good to know

  • Very painful sting that can cause allergic reactions: adults only, never handle, use long tweezers

  • On arrival: parcel unopened for 5 hours, then 4–5 days of complete rest in its packaging

  • Desert colonies are red and black; some eastern colonies are all black. New queens fly in July and August.

⭐ Golden rules | Never break these

  • 🚫 Never put ants in a fridge, shed or garage, and never expose them to abrupt temperature changes.

  • 🚫 Never use gel ant farms, Ytong or concrete nests, or DIY nests.

  • 🚫 Never use tap, rain or mineral water, even boiled.

  • 🚫 Never move a colony into a nest too early, and never tip or shake ants out of their tube.

  • 🚫 Never release ants into the wild. If you can no longer keep a colony, visit our ants adoption page and ask us whether we can adopt it.

🛒 Recommended for this species

📚 These care notes cover the essentials only. Please read the full ant farm setup guide and our Pogonomyrmex rugosus care guide from A to Z. Questions? Message us through our contact form and we will be happy to help. 💚

Written and reviewed by the Best Ants UK team, keeping ants since 1997.

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