Newbie in ant keeping

Questions from those who are just starting or considering getting into the ant keeping hobby. If you’re intimidated or confused by the in-depth posts of the other sections of this forum, feel free to post here, and we'll start from square one!

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firestorm11

Newbie in ant keeping

Post: # 21807Post firestorm11
Fri May 26, 2017 5:39 pm

hello everyone, I am just getting into ant keeping and have watched almost every video out there on ants. I have lots of the stuff you need for ant keeping to (Formicarium, out world, test tubes, Ext.) Now all I need is a queen and I have dedicated a lot of my time to trying to find a queen ant. Every morning and afternoon I walk along the sidewalks trying to find a queen. I look for about an hour a day but have never found a queen.( it is mating season in my area) I live on the west coast of California near San Diego and look mainly for Tetramorium. Does anyone have any methods or any advice? What other places should I look?

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Barfdog
Posts: 145
Joined: Wed Sep 21, 2016 6:32 pm
Location: Phoenix Arizona

Re: Newbie in ant keeping

Post: # 21808Post Barfdog
Fri May 26, 2017 6:03 pm

firestorm11 wrote:
Fri May 26, 2017 5:39 pm
hello everyone, I am just getting into ant keeping and have watched almost every video out there on ants. I have lots of the stuff you need for ant keeping to (Formicarium, out world, test tubes, Ext.) Now all I need is a queen and I have dedicated a lot of my time to trying to find a queen ant. Every morning and afternoon I walk along the sidewalks trying to find a queen. I look for about an hour a day but have never found a queen.( it is mating season in my area) I live on the west coast of California near San Diego and look mainly for Tetramorium. Does anyone have any methods or any advice? What other places should I look?
I find nearly all of my queen ants at night. Mostly near light sources. The best thing I think to do is to look where lights turn on automatically at sundown. Then, scan the area and anything that looks like it could be a queen, poke it very gently with your finger and if they don't directly fly away and they run from you chances are it's a queen. If you think you caught a queen but it resembles a Male just quickly take a look at it's antennae it will be elbowed if it's a queen and the male will be straight.
Keeper of:

One M1ABRAMS TANK AKA Camponotus Laevigatus Queen

firestorm11

Re: Newbie in ant keeping

Post: # 21813Post firestorm11
Fri May 26, 2017 8:53 pm

Are tetramorium the tini black ants you see everywhere

Desperado

Re: Newbie in ant keeping

Post: # 22007Post Desperado
Mon May 29, 2017 4:16 pm

Yes, they are.

Question: I caught a queen (wings torn off, middle leg missing) and I also caught a male (appears to be the same species as the queen (Tetramorium)). Is it ever a possibility to put them together to ensure that the queen is mated???

firestorm11

Re: Newbie in ant keeping

Post: # 22040Post firestorm11
Mon May 29, 2017 11:01 pm

usually queens tear off their wing as a sign that they have mated. I would wait a couple weeks and if you don't have any eggs by then i would mix the two to see what happens. (if the male is still alive). Most likely the queen is mated. If you caught her late in the day she has a even bigger chance of already mating.

Theantguy13

Re: Newbie in ant keeping

Post: # 22043Post Theantguy13
Tue May 30, 2017 12:42 am

I have a few tips.
1. Check under piles of leaves, pine needles, etc. I have found many queens this way.
2. I have not tried the aforementioned method of catching them at night, although I am curious now because I haven't seen many queens near me since I moved. I can't personally recommend this method, but it seems logical enough to work. (Also please PM me your results if you do try it)
3. If you have a big back yard or even a small one (it works better with larger areas, but works on small ones nonetheless) grab a backlight and place it on the cement at dusk and check near it after it is fully dark, blacklights attract MANY insects, including dangerous ones, so be careful, but if you get lucky (like I did 1 night) you might get 7 queens in one night *cough* solenopsis xyloni *cough*
4. Don't go insane if you don't find a queen on one of your searches, because honestly, I catch most of my queens when I am not expecting to. And also, there is always next year! :)
5. Also always bring tubes EVERYWHERE, you can never know when a queen will turn up, so it is best to be prepared.
6. Also just a suggestion, do not try to keep a species that you care too much about as your first colony, because chances are, no matter how prepared you think you are, you can and most likely will make a rookie mistake which may result in the death of said colony.

firestorm11

Re: Newbie in ant keeping

Post: # 22080Post firestorm11
Tue May 30, 2017 5:56 pm

I just found what I thought was a queen yesterday but turned out being male alaite :evil: :evil: :evil:

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