I caught a camponotus sansabeanus queen!

[SYUTEO]

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%

If they don't have swollen gasters then that means they might have been starved before their nuptial flight or are not mated (this is only a possibility, it's impossible to know for sure). You can feed them a tiny drop of honey or sugar water if you like.

[SolenopsisKeeper]

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.

Or unless pupae(workers) or some sort… actually, now that I think of it, there are some ways to see. I have never tried, but it Camponotus Floridanus, workers will lay eggs UNLESS there is a queen fertility pheranome… so technically if you put wire mesh between a group of workers and a queen, you might be able to tell. I may try this some time…

Also, when they have parasites, I think the queen may start acting weird, or even, maybe even a larger gaster? I don’t think there is a 100% test for parasites until the ants actually die.

[MikeKelly]

I love this thread! Lanilynn, please keep us posted on the 4 queens and how you make out with them.

[LaniLyne0106]

Oh thanks for all the imput! I will be checking on them saturday because I wanted to give them at least a week before I disturb them again. I have learned my lesson on checking up on queens too frequently . also I'm starting to think the queens I have are actually camponotus vicinus! I have found out they are pretty difficult to tell the difference between so I will get some good pics of them on saturday and see what you all think.

[LaniLyne0106]

I love this thread! Lanilynn, please keep us posted on the 4 queens and how you make out with them.

Wow thx! I will be sure to keep everyone updated on my 4 queens. I am a newbie at this so I am taking lots of notes for study and will humbley accept any advice given

[LaniLyne0106]

So I decided to take the time to explain how ants behave in my general area. Almost all the ant genus in my area (eastern Arizona outside the town know as show low) nest under rocks the one exception I’ve found so far is a colony of pheidole ants that built a dome shaped mound. So far I have found pogos, crematogasters, and camponotus all nesting under rocks as there is an abundant amount of them in my area. Now back to the queens that I got, I had presumably missed their nuptial flight but because they choose to nest under rocks they don’t bury themselves under ground thus making it as easy as me flipping over rocks to find queens. Now my main concern was that the queens must have already laid their eggs. However every time I flipped up a rock and found a queen I searched very carefully for eggs and I know they are bright white, and that stands out very nicely on our dark reddish dirt, but after three finds (the first queen I found in wood) I could not find a single egg. Concluding that either all four queens I found are infertile (but can’t infertile queens still lay eggs but they are all males?) or they have yet to lay their eggs, after all it is still around 60-70°F outside in the afternoon not exactly the warmest temperature for them. I am interested in the comment SYUTEO made that they “might have been starved” before they left their colony.

[LaniLyne0106]

Okay, so I got a little impatient mostly cause I’m worried my queens are starving. when I got home today I checked on them (they are in a closet that I don’t usually open often) and I saw they were pulling the cotton on the opening of the test tubes!! I was pretty sure that confirmed they were indeed starving. I quickly whipped up some honey water for them placed it on wax paper and put it in in each of the queens tubes. Wow they were seriously hungry #4 especially! She had 3 drops of honey-water! Their gasters filled up with the honey-water, I’m so glad SYUTEO made that comment otherwise I wouldn’t have given them honey. Thanks SYUTEO! I will still get photos of them on saurday.

[SYUTEO]

Once they have been fed they should be able to found their colony and won't require any further feeding until she gets workers. Try not to stress them too much and good luck founding your queens!

[LaniLyne0106]

Once they have been fed they should be able to found their colony and won't require any further feeding until she gets workers. Try not to stress them too much and good luck founding your queens!

Yea I will only try to bother them once a week now, thanks again

[LaniLyne0106]

Hi again! Ive posted the pictures of my ant queens here-https://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=23892&p=89281#p89281 -that way it is in the correct listing so more people can find it . When I took them out the first thing I noticed is their gasters swelling went down and they were pulling more cotton from the front of their test tubes. I witnessed number four pulling cotton.