Caught Camponotus queen. Not mated?

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

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Thescy
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Joined: Tue May 25, 2021 12:42 am
Location: North Dakota

Caught Camponotus queen. Not mated?

Post: # 77953Post Thescy
Tue May 25, 2021 12:52 am

Hey all. First year trying to catch queens during nuptial flight. Tonight I was looking over some rotten logs I cut down this spring. Lots of Camponotus ants present. I was marveling at the size of the majors when a winged queen crawled into view. I had a test tube with me and caught her (she is huge!), but what are the odds she is mated? Did I simply happen to catch her as she left her nest? I fear that will be the case. There was a drone present in the same spot as well that I saw about 30 seconds after catching her. Those were the only 2 winged ants I saw, and I hung around for about 15 to 20 minutes. Should I keep her and she if she lays, or release her to fly?

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AM1C39
Posts: 1012
Joined: Wed Jul 29, 2020 12:17 pm
Location: Canada, ON
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Re: Caught Camponotus queen. Not mated?

Post: # 77960Post AM1C39
Tue May 25, 2021 6:42 am

It is almost always a 50/50 chance of the queen being fertile or not. I would suggest releasing her and after 10 minutes if she has not flown away or had tried to then she is perhaps fertile.
My current colonies:
-Miniature Military(formica neogagates)
-Black Hearts(crematogaster cerasi)
In search of new camponotus colony
[Have a look at antmaps.org]

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