Aspiring Ant-Keeper

[Kherafox]

Hello, my first post to the forums, but I've been watching the YouTube AC series for a while. I've been pondering starting with an easy species but it's hard to pick something that's easy, local AND hopefully something I can catch myself.

I decided to make a post tonight, because I've been looking outside off and on around our apartment for a queen or two. Supposedly they pesticide spray at least once a month, but I'm doubting that very much now! I've been looking during the day and have seen a few ants here and there, I think fire ants but I'm not sure. I've spotted a few small mounds, nothing huge... or so I thought!

I have been waiting for it to rain, at least a little (in Texas, in July... HA!), in hopes of spurring on a mating flight, but no luck yet. I went out about 1:30 am just in front of our door to look in on the small ant mounds and around to see if maybe night time is better to see what we have outside, and OH BOY! Ant trails everywhere along the edges of the pavement! Lots of smallish black (or very dark red/black) ants, and I got excited when I saw one that was three times the size of the others! I caught it and nope, not a queen - but it does tell me that this species is polymorphic!! Probably majors, how exciting!

So I follow along all the trails going five different ways, to see what is going on, and HOLY COW! I spotted a couple of Super Majors! Big blocky heads and abdomens.. I caught one just to take a closer look, as this is my first time seeing a polymorphic species in person... not that I paid much attention to ants outside before, but now that I know a bit more from watching AC, it was very exciting to look that closely at some Super Majors. I did let it go, of course.

I'm hoping that since there is obviously a large-ish colony nearby that when it does rain they might have a flight! I'm -thinking- that they are Carpenter ants, as it's Texas and they are common polymorphics here, but being a newbie in this, I am not sure. The Super Majors were dark red/black on head and abdomen, with the orange/red everywhere else, the Majors were light orange/light red all over the place, and a little long legged, and the workers were either black or black and dark red. (I'm not good with sizes that small, I wish I could add in that info).

Another thing that tells me that they could be Carpenters is that one of the trails went up a smooth-barked tree - too far up for me to see where they went. Maybe that's why pest control hasn't wiped them out, they maybe be nesting in the tree?

One thing I am worried about with possibly having Carpenters as a starting species is, if I have any (or .. eek.. all) escapees, I don't want them getting into the wood in the apartment. Especially since we are renting. I've looked around in the GAN system for Texas people, but either the locations are too far for me to drive, or not a species I'm interested in (I think), or too expensive for my current budget - or a combination. Any help with ideas on that, would be amazing. I'd love to catch my own queen but I'm excited about it and a little impatient and every no-queen search is a little disappointing.

Sorry my post is so long, my fiancee is supportive but gets all twitchy when I talk too much about bugs, ha! Also I'm just too excited about tonight's revelation and really wanting to find a great starting species. As well as saying hi. *waves hi, blushing a little*

[Hawkeye]

Hello, my first post to the forums, but I've been watching the YouTube AC series for a while. I've been pondering starting with an easy species but it's hard to pick something that's easy, local AND hopefully something I can catch myself.

Well, welcome to the club! Those videos are really intoxicating aren't they?

I'm hoping that since there is obviously a large-ish colony nearby that when it does rain they might have a flight! I'm -thinking- that they are Carpenter ants, as it's Texas and they are common polymorphics here, but being a newbie in this, I am not sure.

Aren't all carpenter ants polymorphic? And maybe you can turn on your sprinklers to provide them with an environmental queue?

The Super Majors were dark red/black on head and abdomen, with the orange/red everywhere else, the Majors were light orange/light red all over the place, and a little long legged, and the workers were either black or black and dark red. (I'm not good with sizes that small, I wish I could add in that info).

Could this be the species?

Camponotus vicinus
If not you can always check http://antwiki.org/wiki/United_States for a list of Camponotus species in your country.

Another thing that tells me that they could be Carpenters is that one of the trails went up a smooth-barked tree - too far up for me to see where they went. Maybe that's why pest control hasn't wiped them out, they maybe be nesting in the tree?

I think it is more likely they found some sort of food up there, maybe some aphids, a birds nest, a beehive, or something like that.

One thing I am worried about with possibly having Carpenters as a starting species is, if I have any (or .. eek.. all) escapees, I don't want them getting into the wood in the apartment. Especially since we are renting. I've looked around in the GAN system for Texas people, but either the locations are too far for me to drive, or not a species I'm interested in (I think), or too expensive for my current budget - or a combination. Any help with ideas on that, would be amazing. I'd love to catch my own queen but I'm excited about it and a little impatient and every no-queen search is a little disappointing.

Well seeing as the carpenter ants are a large species, any escapees would be hard to miss. Other than that, they prefer to burrow into rotting / damp / untreated wood. So unless your furniture is in a sorry state, I wouldn't worry about that. The carpenter is a slowly developing species, it might take up to 10-12 weeks for an egg to develop into an ant (depending on species, temperature, humidity, the abundance of food etc.) The colony won't really start off growing in large numbers until about 2 years.

Sorry my post is so long, my fiancee is supportive but gets all twitchy when I talk too much about bugs, ha! Also I'm just too excited about tonight's revelation and really wanting to find a great starting species. As well as saying hi. *waves hi, blushing a little*

Hey we feel yah! I hope you catch yourself that queen! Happy hunting! Meanwhile, check out the Camponotus crew that we have established...

[Kherafox]

Thank you for the welcome! I've seen your name around here, the few threads I've looked through.

And maybe you can turn on your sprinklers to provide them with an environmental queue?

Unfortunately I live in an apartment complex, I don't control the sprinklers. The neighbors might look at me really weirdly if I watered what little lawn we share.

Aren't all carpenter ants polymorphic?

Well, yes, but again I'm not -sure- they're Carpenters, or all Carpenters. I'll find picture examples for this post to show what I mean.

Could this be the species?

Yes, that looks exactly like one of the SuperMajors! I did a bunch of image searching, this is what I found to represent the three sizes of ant I saw, closest to what they looked like in the dark/flashlight/colored-clear container:


Yes, it says this is Camponotus vicinus as well. Aside from the picture you posted, it was the most accurate one I found. The size in your picture seems right for the SMs I saw too. Here are pictures (closest to the look of) of the Majors and the workers, or in my head, minors.


This seems most accurate for the Majors I saw... I think these are at least some sort of Camponotus. All I remember (from 1-2am ) is they were very lean and very pretty to look at compared to the other two, almost like ballet dancers compared to other humans.


I -think- this is the closest I can find for the minors.. I didn't get down on the ground as they were everywhere almost, and I didn't catch one to look up close, but they were small, and kinda stubby looking.

Thanks for the info! I'll check out the link, and look more into that species if it indeed seems right, which at this point it does. I was thinking at first last night if they might be two types of ant following the same trails, the minors and Majors seem so different, but then I thought they would probably fight. Hmm.

Time to do some research more into Camponotus vicinus!

Thanks again!

[Kherafox]

I'll move this over to the Camponotus Crew thread, for continuing discussion!