The AntsCanada Ant Forum's

Hey I was just wondering would someone know the active hours for Lasius Niger? See next month flight season starts and as it is my first time I thought it may be a good idea to have a little scout around my area. This only came to mind after I realised I have not noticed any ant activity since I became more interested over the coming weeks. For a fact there is some going ons in my front but if I go around walking now would worker ants even be wondering about at this hour? (21:45) Or are these guys also active like other colonies?

In the EU the nuptial flights of niger take place in the afternoon and early evening from early July to mid-September.
So the best time to scoop one up would be around when the sun starts to set, you want to give her enough time to mate 1st.

That I understand. I am asking about workers time frames for going about looking for food or disposing of some waste. Are they busy day and night or just during the day? I unfortunately do not get that much free time so I figured I would have a stroll to see what the activity was like in my area. The more ants wondering around with a good distance from each other leave a higher possibility of more and more colonies in the area right? But I did only think of this an hour ago and do not know of they are out and about in the evening?

Thank for the reply

I live in Denmark and Lasius niger are abounded here i have 3 collenies right out side my door, when i leave at 7am for work the ants aktivety is low normally only a couple of ants crawling around i a lazy pace. But at between 9-10am when the sun hits them and the aktivety explode. and they keep bussy all day until late evening when it start to cool normally at around 8-9pm on a sunny day. rainy days aktivety is always low.

Ah so the temperature effects them continuously. I was not sure but this makes a lot more sense. Unfortunately it is raining here in Ireland this morning so scouting is not much of an option. But thank you so much. Biiiig help

yes it seams so, I am also trying to catch a Lasius Niger queen, yesterday it was warm and sunny and i can see winged ants just inside the ant mount both queens and drones at i described in my post "Updates from a Danish noob"
http://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=6414

I guess they are just about to fly but waiting for the right weather or somthing

Yeah it can be a long wait it seems haha it could also do with the time of year? I know niger alates will start flying real soon because we are finally into July. We have had the heat but if we get a nice rainy day followed by more heat soon I hope to catch a few queens here