The AntsCanada Ant Forum's

So I caught a queen today. I was moving lots of dead wood into a pile on a friends property (40 acres!). I picked up this one piece and it fell apart but where it broke there was a queen! I quickly and safely caught her in a bottle and shortly after put her in a proper test tube setup. I went back and searched for workers but there were none. Carefully broke the wood apart a bit more looking for brood and found none as well. I remembered it had rained for a little bit not to long ago and it had got quite a bit humid that day. What are the chances that the colony she came from already had a nuptial flight? Also advice for keeping camponotus queens is also appreciated!

Breaking old logs and rotting wood is an easy way to find queen ants and other creatures. Since she has no brood she might have had her nuptial flight earlier that day. Good luck!

SYUTEO wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 26, 2022 9:09 pm

Breaking old logs and rotting wood is an easy way to find queen ants and other creatures. Since she has no brood she might have had her nuptial flight earlier that day. Good luck!

Thank you!

LaniLyne0106 wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 26, 2022 9:26 pm

SYUTEO wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 26, 2022 9:09 pm

Breaking old logs and rotting wood is an easy way to find queen ants and other creatures. Since she has no brood she might have had her nuptial flight earlier that day. Good luck!

Thank you!

Nice find, congratulations and good luck!

Thank you, I did fail to mention that the rain had happened around the week prior to me finding her, although I’m sure that’s not a significant difference. How long does it take camponotus queens to lay their first eggs?

LaniLyne0106 wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 27, 2022 10:01 am

Thank you, I did fail to mention that the rain had happened around the week prior to me finding her, although I’m sure that’s not a significant difference. How long does it take camponotus queens to lay their first eggs?

It can happen almost immidiately or it can take a few days.

SYUTEO wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 27, 2022 9:25 pm

LaniLyne0106 wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 27, 2022 10:01 am

Thank you, I did fail to mention that the rain had happened around the week prior to me finding her, although I’m sure that’s not a significant difference. How long does it take camponotus queens to lay their first eggs?

It can happen almost immidiately or it can take a few days.

If their gaster swells it is mated and beginning to lay eggs btw.

SolenopsisKeeper wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 28, 2022 7:44 pm

SYUTEO wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 27, 2022 9:25 pm

LaniLyne0106 wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 27, 2022 10:01 am

Thank you, I did fail to mention that the rain had happened around the week prior to me finding her, although I’m sure that’s not a significant difference. How long does it take camponotus queens to lay their first eggs?

It can happen almost immidiately or it can take a few days.

If their gaster swells it is mated and beginning to lay eggs btw.

It isn't always true, from what I know, last year's Camponotus season had many parasites. The truth is, there's no way to tell for sure that she has mated until her workers arrive.

Good point, I found three more queens today! All of the same species. I found each of them under rocks not too far from an older camponotus colony I’ve been watching for awhile I was unaware they had alates though. None had any sort of brood which was my my main concern with the first as I thought I might have left her brood behind.

Oh, and they don’t seem to have swelling gasters. One of them has a bigger gaster than the others but that’s it. Are their gasters supposed to be swelling at this point? The day I’m assuming they had their nuptial flight was 3/21/22 as that was the only day in the past weeks that had a little bit of rain and had a humidity of 60-80%