The AntsCanada Ant Forum's

I found two large black ants in my back yard in North Carolina and I want to identify with my little identification chart I got from Bug-Fest last year, but they wont sit still! but I don't want to kill them, so I want to try to make them sleep by putting them in the freezer for 2.5 hours. This may work because scientists who work on flies need them to calm down without them dying so they put them in the freezer to slow their metabolism. Tell me your opinions and ideas!

Oh god 2.5 hours will kill them straight out.

I put my ants in the freezer for maybe 2 minutes maximum. And it changes depending on the size of the ant. Camponotus (medium sized ants) will go into hibernation in maybe 1 minute and a half but smaller ants will freeze in maybe 30 seconds.

Just put them in the freezer and check every 30 seconds. As soon as she has crumpled and is still, just take her out and do your observing.

ack! I wouldn't recommend the freezer. Fridge is better. It will take longer for them to slow down, but you wont risk killing them

Oh yeah, that would probably be a better way. I guess I’m just a bit impatient

OK great ideas guys, maby we can all experiment and figure out our times for certian species and post the species and the time and ill make a chart and post it to the public!!!!

oh, and I think they are Asian needle ants.

AntNoob1 wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 23, 2018 3:53 pm

OK great ideas guys, maby we can all experiment and figure out our times for certian species and post the species and the time and ill make a chart and post it to the public!!!!

I think that would be great!

I’ll make a post now

Here it is.

http://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=5548