The AntsCanada Ant Forum's

I’m in North Royalton new to myrmecoloy! Can’t wait to discover my first queen!

Lasius caught yesterday in central IL! Whoop!

Is it too late to expect camponotus queens in nothern Illinois?

here in Michigan it is so warm at about low 40's through high 20's You can see the prenolepis imparis out everyday.

In TN, when is the time to look for a Queen for me? I’ve been keeping ants that are in my office lol, no queen though....I still love watching them. I have a lot of medical issues that cause pain, so I figured keeping ants was something I could do with my daughter. Any tips on finding one and when would be greatly appreciated! Thanks

So In Tennessee you could probably start looking in march or the first time it warms up to seventy degree's. At this time Prenolepis imparis or the winter ant come out and fly. They are harder to find mostly because, at least when I looked for them last year, they don't like pavement so if you are OK with searching longer and more in the weeds for them then this is a great species which is slow growing and polygenous (they have more than one queen).

The next ants that you could look for is one of the genus camponotus, they are very large so they have a harder time escaping and they are slow growing. Camponotus is a great beginning species, one which is forgiving of mistakes and easy to take care of. They can fly as early as march to august though their larger flights are in April to June. When they fly they are super easy to see and capture because there are so many of them and since the queens size you can see them a mile away.

You can also find tetremorium immgrans in late to mid summer and lasius Niger(or whatever the North American name is) in late summer to late fall.(Note You might be able to find RIFA but considering how far north you are they are most likely not present.)

You also asked how to find queens,

Time is the answer, if you have time try to spend at least 5 minuets outside looking for queens everyday and checking colonies for signs of flight usually more when is is warmer and after a storm.

When A flight is going on walk up and down sidewalks, this is the easiest way to find queens, I have heard that species that have lots of queens at nuptial flights sometimes land in pools (Especially of the sub family Myricinea) Try looking under rocks and in bird baths also since they sometimes have queens.

Hello all,
I am brand new here and completely new to the hobby. I work as a Naturalist for a nature center and will be attempting to collect some Prenolepis imparis queens in the near future. Would it be worth my time to look on these warm days we have coming up (low to mid 60's F) or should I just plan to start looking in Late Feb/March?
Thanks

yes it would be worth your while. my best suggestion would be to find a colony and watch it for signs of nuptial flight. Finding a colony should be pretty easy since they should be the only ants out of hibernation (with a couple exceptions maybe).

Been on the look out for Prenolepis imparis found 2 colonies 2 days ago hope didnt miss the nuptial flight they been out foraging , temp only been 20-40 f got rain coming Thursday and sunny Friday and Saturday spose to be in the 50-60 range. Also found some queens under leaf litter ill be posting in id, Northwestern Ohio