'Tis the season of Formica (North America) Nuptial Flights

[Acorns]

I seem to have great luck after dark at outdoor lit tennis courts hundreds of queens usually on nights after rain. This year my back yard was the best place. I am surrounded by a natural wetland area that is heavily wooded they fly to me for protection LOL!!!!!!!

[Sasqwash13]

This is embarrassing, it was a citronella queen ant not a pharaoh queen ant . It is still my dream queen though I just got the species mixed up.

[hyenadog]

I'm currently in Montana just north of Yellowstone National in Bozeman. I have been searching through the internet to get some info on the nuptial flights around here without any luck. I would have to guess it would be around June-July since its nice and warm out. From what research I have done it seems formica subpolita would be my best bet around Bozeman.

[ooper01]

I had some luck in the mountains here in Utah collecting a few different Formica species this past Spring. I went a few times in mid to late April and collected a few small colonies with the queen and a few solitary queens. Dug through some old rotting logs using a screwdriver and hammer. Had some test tubes, some soft tip tweezers, and a container prepped with fluon around the top in case I needed to collect a small colony.

[hyenadog]

That's some great information, thank you. My dad has a ranch nearby that has a few rotting stumps on it and tons of ant mounds. I'm bound to find something there. If you capture a queen who has already layed eggs and hached workers in the ground/rotten log would the sudden change of surroundings affect her? Would it be better for me to just capture a queen walking on the ground?

[ooper01]

I have collected three young colonies with queen and all three have survived the change. All three are Formica. Three is a pretty small sampling, so not sure if I have been lucky or if it is normal for established colonies to survive a change like that.

My gut feeling is that most established colonies which are collected do fine, as long as they are cared for well. All three of mine continued to grow, with new eggs being laid, etc.