South African Ant Queen(s) - Need help identifying

Help with identifying the species your ants

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Salkio

South African Ant Queen(s) - Need help identifying

Post: # 22678Post Salkio
Sat Jun 10, 2017 7:52 am

Hey all!

I found what i believe are either red ants or fire ants or RIFA (Red imported fire ants) or something different. I found these queens under a cement slab this month. There were multiple queens. They has tiny ants, then some mid sized ones with big jaws and then finally the queens which some had wings and some didnt. I have 10 queens in a test tube (big tube) and by the next day they already had tons of eggs, and i added a cricket leg inside the test tube and they eat the insides of it leaving the shell at the other side of the test tube.

I would like to know what type of ants these are, since i red that fire ants only have 1 queen. I decided to put my hand on the colony to see if they would bite which they did but was nothing painful or nearly as bad as i thought fire ants would be.

Here are some pics i hope they help, **i did remove the cricket after a day**. Didnt want it to mold.

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AntOblivion

Re: South African Ant Queen(s) - Need help identifying

Post: # 22679Post AntOblivion
Sat Jun 10, 2017 8:47 am

I believe the queens you have caught are Pheidole

Salkio

Re: South African Ant Queen(s) - Need help identifying

Post: # 22680Post Salkio
Sat Jun 10, 2017 8:49 am

AntOblivion wrote:
Sat Jun 10, 2017 8:47 am
I believe the queens you have caught are Pheidole
YES thats what the workers look like! Thank you!!!!

Do you know if these ants are fun to keep?

AntsSA
Posts: 218
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2017 12:08 am
Location: South africa
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Re: South African Ant Queen(s) - Need help identifying

Post: # 22681Post AntsSA
Sat Jun 10, 2017 8:49 am

Yup Pheidole queens
Great to see another south African antkeeper
Very fun I have 2colonies
Keeping.
lepisiota capensis colony
Cardiocondyla sp.
Founding
Messor. Sp. X 4
Myrmicine Sp. X 2
atopomyrmex Sp. X 2
Ants SA
:lol: :lol:
YouTube :
https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC404jNiUH33dFnxqSZajoPg

AntOblivion

Re: South African Ant Queen(s) - Need help identifying

Post: # 22682Post AntOblivion
Sat Jun 10, 2017 8:52 am

Salkio wrote:
Sat Jun 10, 2017 8:49 am
AntOblivion wrote:
Sat Jun 10, 2017 8:47 am
I believe the queens you have caught are Pheidole
YES thats what the workers look like! Thank you!!!!

Do you know if these ants are fun to keep?
Sadly, i don't know much about these ants but I have heard that they are fun to keep. They're referred to as Big Headed Ants :) Just a quick bit of research of these guys and you should be good to go! Good luck with her!

Salkio

Re: South African Ant Queen(s) - Need help identifying

Post: # 22683Post Salkio
Sat Jun 10, 2017 9:04 am

AntOblivion wrote:
Sat Jun 10, 2017 8:52 am
Salkio wrote:
Sat Jun 10, 2017 8:49 am
AntOblivion wrote:
Sat Jun 10, 2017 8:47 am
I believe the queens you have caught are Pheidole
YES thats what the workers look like! Thank you!!!!

Do you know if these ants are fun to keep?
Sadly, i don't know much about these ants but I have heard that they are fun to keep. They're referred to as Big Headed Ants :) Just a quick bit of research of these guys and you should be good to go! Good luck with her!
Thats awesome! Thank you so much, i have legit been looking for around a month now trying to see what type of ant this is.

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Phoenix
Posts: 642
Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2017 11:17 pm
Location: Malaysia

Re: ID Request

Post: # 22705Post Phoenix
Sat Jun 10, 2017 1:08 pm

Concurring With Pheidole Sp. As Well.
'Have Fun.' - Gabe Newell

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Batspiderfish
Posts: 3315
Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2016 3:47 pm
Location: Maine

Re: South African Ant Queen(s) - Need help identifying

Post: # 22739Post Batspiderfish
Sat Jun 10, 2017 4:34 pm

If you catch queens from an established colony (which should be avoided), you need the workers too! Also, it's likely that a number of the queens you captured were un-mated and will only produce lazy males.
If you enjoy my expertise and identifications, please do not put wild populations at risk of disease by releasing pet colonies. We are responsible to give our pets the best care we can manage for the rest of their lives.

AntsAreAwesome

Re: South African Ant Queen(s) - Need help identifying

Post: # 22776Post AntsAreAwesome
Sat Jun 10, 2017 11:06 pm

Definitely Pheidole. I recently caught a wild colony, but I caught around 11 queens (2 were injured, so 9 left) and that was just some of them. It was perfect because they were under a wooden slab so all I had to do was pick up the slab and then sweep them in. I did this once like 4 days ago, and a lot were injured so I decided to take the risk to get more ants and be more gentle with the brush. I introduced them today to the ones caught days ago and apparently they haven't changed scent yet so they just all went together. But batspiderfish is right, if you have no workers, you most likely will not be able to start a colony. I got quite a few of workers, like around 300. So if you can, try going back to where you got the queens and get some workers and brood if possible. Just make sure you do it fast before they decide to change their scent. Beautiful ants, hope you are successful!

Salkio

Re: South African Ant Queen(s) - Need help identifying

Post: # 22783Post Salkio
Sun Jun 11, 2017 3:59 am

Batspiderfish wrote:
Sat Jun 10, 2017 4:34 pm
If you catch queens from an established colony (which should be avoided), you need the workers too! Also, it's likely that a number of the queens you captured were un-mated and will only produce lazy males.
Oh dam... Yeah the colony was under this slab and had many queens so i took 10, leaving the colony with plenty in-order for them to rebuild. I read online that if the queen ants look after their eggs it means they are fertile? So far they are looking after it and i have been feeding them cricket legs which they have been eating. Do you think they will really only produce lazy workers? So far the eggs they have been laying are small.

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