New to ant keeping in Rhode Island!

Where and when are you finding queen ants? A section to share nuptial flight schedules by ant species and locality

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DianasaurusRex
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Mar 23, 2019 11:09 am
Location: Rhode Island, USA

New to ant keeping in Rhode Island!

Post: # 56747Post DianasaurusRex
Sat Mar 23, 2019 11:43 am

🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜

Hey everyone!!! :mrgreen:

I’m so happy how one extra boring day at work allowed me to stumble across the AntsCanada YouTube channel... I’ve been obsessed ever since! I’ve always been an animal lover... but always more so on the fluffy, cute, four legged genre. I’m actually quite grateful that my watching this channel has opened doors to learning about species of all kinds; and just how amazing and fascinating they are!

So now I’m here... against the advice (and not to mention all the weird looks and comments) from my wife (who is terrified of all insects) I’m ready to start an ant farm of my very own! I’ve binge watched almost all of AntsCanadas videos and plan to get the E guide too. From my understanding, for novice ant keepers, some recommend buying a queen in a test tube set up. But that’s no fun, is it? I feel it may be more rewarding to catch my own queen. But I’m torn.

What do you guys recommend? Buy or catch?

If you agree that catching is more rewarding, anyone in RI recommend any good, easier spots to start? I live close to the Norman bird santucary in Middletown, RI and was thinking there but maybe some of you have better suggestions? Also, what are the best times to look? I don’t really care what species, they are all fascinating to me.

If you think it’s crazy for a first time ant keeper to try and catch a queen, do you recommend anyone in particular in RI that I could buy a queen from?

Thanks in advance for your help!
#antloveforever 🐜

Diana

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MadVampy
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Re: New to ant keeping in Rhode Island!

Post: # 56750Post MadVampy
Sat Mar 23, 2019 1:18 pm

Welcome to The AntsCanada Ants Forums and the world of Ant Keeping! You will find lots of very useful info ehre and other users that will share their knowledge of ants and ant keeping!

Again Welcome and Glad you found AntsCanada!
MadVampy

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Name is also Mike but please don't confuse me with Mikey Bustos, two different people. :lol:
Keeper of Solenopsis Ants. :twisted:

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mallonje
Posts: 30
Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2018 4:55 pm
Location: Massachusetts

Re: New to ant keeping in Rhode Island!

Post: # 56813Post mallonje
Thu Mar 28, 2019 12:43 am

Hello and welcome from a neighbor to your north(MA)!

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antnest8
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Joined: Tue Jan 02, 2018 2:11 pm
Location: Detroit, MI

Re: New to ant keeping in Rhode Island!

Post: # 56830Post antnest8
Thu Mar 28, 2019 6:47 pm

Hello and welcome I would recommend tetremorium, they are fast growing and easy to find in the late to midsummer months. by the time hibernation comes along you should have 15-45 minuets.

If you don't want to wait that long (like most people) you can look in late april to late june for camponotus. they are so easy to find and identify because they are HUGE! their size also makes them some of peoples favorite ants because you can see them so clearly that each individual ant seems to have a big personality, they are a little slower to grow but if you like to be laid back or just love watching the ants camponotus is for you.

Some other notable mentions are
temnothorax (found in acorns hence their name acorn ants) really cute and they don't grow forever so you don't have to worry about size.
lasius (one of the most common ant hence the common name common garden ant) fun normal growing and almost normal everything and very diverse.
Some of My Informative Sheets
https://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=19099
Includes :
  • Ant Care Sheets
    Queen Hunting
    How To Identify Ants
Goal is to become #2 poster on the forum

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