I'm trying to ID my trap-jaw queen. Thailand

[JaydenScheepers]

What country? Are they native? Quite honestly if it isn’t AU, CA, or the US, you wouldn’t be breaking any laws so… one should never release ants, even if they are native. It kills the gene pool.

Check every 4-6 days, and she should forage at night. Usually wild queens in my area forage around 1hr after dark.

So then I should either take them with me or kill them?

Why, where are you moving to(What country)? You could also sell them.

I'm not sure yet, because of my ants I might not leave this country. When I become independent I might go to Canada or Australia.

[SolenopsisKeeper]

So then I should either take them with me or kill them?

Why, where are you moving to(What country)? You could also sell them.

I'm not sure yet, because of my ants I might not leave this country. When I become independent I might go to Canada or Australia.

I wouldn’t base a life decision on ants. Both Aus and Canada have some really cool ants, and honestly, almost every country(Except Antartican countries) has some interesting ant.

[JaydenScheepers]

Why, where are you moving to(What country)? You could also sell them.

I'm not sure yet, because of my ants I might not leave this country. When I become independent I might go to Canada or Australia.

I wouldn’t base a life decision on ants. Both Aus and Canada have some really cool ants, and honestly, almost every country(Except Antartican countries) has some interesting ant.

Yeah, there are some pretty amazing ant species out there. Wish I could keep all of them.

What is the ant species that was the most difficult for you to raise?

[JaydenScheepers]

Also previously you said that releasing ants ruins the native gene pull, how so? Is it not the same as if we never caught the queen, and maybe that problem can be solved by releasing the colony a while away from where you caught the queen.

[SolenopsisKeeper]

Also previously you said that releasing ants ruins the native gene pull, how so? Is it not the same as if we never caught the queen, and maybe that problem can be solved by releasing the colony a while away from where you caught the queen.

Serafine, Formiculture member

“Let me give you this quote from an actual entomologist. He pinpointed the issues better than i ever could.


So the reason we don't re-release ants once they've been in captivity is several-fold.

First of all, let's deal with the big thing: if you buy ants from online, they're very unlikely to be local, even if they're the same species. I can buy a Lasius niger from online, which is about as abundant as you can get in the UK, but that doesn't mean I can introduce them locally. The reason for this is that local populations of a given animal have local genetics to that region. Despite being the same species, their traits can differ quite a bit between even local regions, and that, twinned with the fact that eusociality generally results in a low number of individuals within a given area (with colonies being individuals vs actual individual ants), you can seriously disrupt the local balance of genes in a given area, especially as you've released a set of ants post-founding eliminating natural selection for a large part of their life-cycle.

But let's say you caught your Lasius niger queen from your garden, why is it important that you don't re-release? The previous argument actually still holds (you've removed them into a more febrile environment for a part of their lifecycle), but more importantly you're changing the parasitic balance of your local ecosystem.

So what the heck does that mean? Basically, the conditions that you raise your ants in will be very different from the native environment of the ants. As a result, parasites (mites, fungi, bacteria) are way more likely to propagate. It's not a problem for your ants cause they have an abundance of food, clean water etc., but it allows populations of these diseases to propagate in a way they wouldn't have the ability to in the wild. When you re-release, you can seriously disrupt your local invertebrate ecosystem by introducing your biological-weapon ants on it.”

[JaydenScheepers]

Also previously you said that releasing ants ruins the native gene pull, how so? Is it not the same as if we never caught the queen, and maybe that problem can be solved by releasing the colony a while away from where you caught the queen.

Serafine, Formiculture member

“Let me give you this quote from an actual entomologist. He pinpointed the issues better than i ever could.


So the reason we don't re-release ants once they've been in captivity is several-fold.

First of all, let's deal with the big thing: if you buy ants from online, they're very unlikely to be local, even if they're the same species. I can buy a Lasius niger from online, which is about as abundant as you can get in the UK, but that doesn't mean I can introduce them locally. The reason for this is that local populations of a given animal have local genetics to that region. Despite being the same species, their traits can differ quite a bit between even local regions, and that, twinned with the fact that eusociality generally results in a low number of individuals within a given area (with colonies being individuals vs actual individual ants), you can seriously disrupt the local balance of genes in a given area, especially as you've released a set of ants post-founding eliminating natural selection for a large part of their life-cycle.

But let's say you caught your Lasius niger queen from your garden, why is it important that you don't re-release? The previous argument actually still holds (you've removed them into a more febrile environment for a part of their lifecycle), but more importantly you're changing the parasitic balance of your local ecosystem.

So what the heck does that mean? Basically, the conditions that you raise your ants in will be very different from the native environment of the ants. As a result, parasites (mites, fungi, bacteria) are way more likely to propagate. It's not a problem for your ants cause they have an abundance of food, clean water etc., but it allows populations of these diseases to propagate in a way they wouldn't have the ability to in the wild. When you re-release, you can seriously disrupt your local invertebrate ecosystem by introducing your biological-weapon ants on it.”

Alright, I see.

[JaydenScheepers]

https://imgur.com/gallery/BVusGXG

Alright Odontomachus update! This is the one I caught first, I decided to disconnect her test tube from her out world and mover her to a new test tube, because that old one was starting to get extremely dirty. I mean the drinking cotton was full of dirt and mold, and the water was straight up yellow.

After I moved her I decided to keep her test tube disconnected from the out world, then I fed her two mealworms. When I came back from the resort 2 days later I checked up on her and to my surprise I discovered a pupae, and this one is cool, you can see that the larvae used bits of substrate to help her spin her cacoon. However it makes it hard for you to see the pupae in the picture.

[JaydenScheepers]

https://imgur.com/gallery/fQ9ong1

Just a update on two of my Odontomachus queens, the first one I ever caught, had layed a special egg a while back. She loved and cared for that egg, later a larvae matched from that egg, she cared for hunter and fed this larvae. The larvae made it to maturity and she did not eat it which mad this particular larvae special. Eventually the larvae pupated and formed a wonderful cacoon with the help of debris, she never opened up the cacoon to eat the fragile pupae inside. The pupae enclosed and broke out of the cacoon, it was a true mother and daughter relationship.
Yes so we have our first nanitic, YAY! This is so exciting, and dam the queen absolutely dwarfs the worker, the queen looks a bit more than twice the size of her worker, an absolute titan to the workers. Nevertheless, the purpose of this worker is just to help her raise the brood, and possibly even to scavenge later on. The worker is a light transparent brown in color when I took the photo, she may darken as she gets older, however I do not know how long it takes Odontomachus to harden their exoskeletons, this photo was taken a few hours after I discovered her I think.

https://imgur.com/gallery/xX7slUc

Just a side note soon I will have names for all my queen ants, and I will be referring them to their names, however I'm not good at thinking out names so it might take me a while to think out good and meaningful names.

The second link goes to the Odontomachus queen I found very recently in my kitchen, she is the first ever Odontomachus alate I've seen (alate meaning with wings or not mated), and man does she look gorgeous with her wings. She has layed eggs, three infact, however their all scattered. Which concerns me, because all my other Odontomachus queens keep their eggs in a nice Bach together and all my queen ants for that matter, and I know one sign of a infertile queen is scattering the eggs. So, so far it doesn't look to great, but we'll see what happens.

[SolenopsisKeeper]

https://imgur.com/gallery/fQ9ong1

Just a update on two of my Odontomachus queens, the first one I ever caught, had layed a special egg a while back. She loved and cared for that egg, later a larvae matched from that egg, she cared for hunter and fed this larvae. The larvae made it to maturity and she did not eat it which mad this particular larvae special. Eventually the larvae pupated and formed a wonderful cacoon with the help of debris, she never opened up the cacoon to eat the fragile pupae inside. The pupae enclosed and broke out of the cacoon, it was a true mother and daughter relationship.
Yes so we have our first nanitic, YAY! This is so exciting, and dam the queen absolutely dwarfs the worker, the queen looks a bit more than twice the size of her worker, an absolute titan to the workers. Nevertheless, the purpose of this worker is just to help her raise the brood, and possibly even to scavenge later on. The worker is a light transparent brown in color when I took the photo, she may darken as she gets older, however I do not know how long it takes Odontomachus to harden their exoskeletons, this photo was taken a few hours after I discovered her I think.

https://imgur.com/gallery/xX7slUc

Just a side note soon I will have names for all my queen ants, and I will be referring them to their names, however I'm not good at thinking out names so it might take me a while to think out good and meaningful names.

The second link goes to the Odontomachus queen I found very recently in my kitchen, she is the first ever Odontomachus alate I've seen (alate meaning with wings or not mated), and man does she look gorgeous with her wings. She has layed eggs, three infact, however their all scattered. Which concerns me, because all my other Odontomachus queens keep their eggs in a nice Bach together and all my queen ants for that matter, and I know one sign of a infertile queen is scattering the eggs. So, so far it doesn't look to great, but we'll see what happens.

Just a tip, queen will sometimes forage after workers. I use to have a video of her with workers leaving to go pull a cricket to the nest

[JaydenScheepers]

https://imgur.com/gallery/fQ9ong1

Just a update on two of my Odontomachus queens, the first one I ever caught, had layed a special egg a while back. She loved and cared for that egg, later a larvae matched from that egg, she cared for hunter and fed this larvae. The larvae made it to maturity and she did not eat it which mad this particular larvae special. Eventually the larvae pupated and formed a wonderful cacoon with the help of debris, she never opened up the cacoon to eat the fragile pupae inside. The pupae enclosed and broke out of the cacoon, it was a true mother and daughter relationship.
Yes so we have our first nanitic, YAY! This is so exciting, and dam the queen absolutely dwarfs the worker, the queen looks a bit more than twice the size of her worker, an absolute titan to the workers. Nevertheless, the purpose of this worker is just to help her raise the brood, and possibly even to scavenge later on. The worker is a light transparent brown in color when I took the photo, she may darken as she gets older, however I do not know how long it takes Odontomachus to harden their exoskeletons, this photo was taken a few hours after I discovered her I think.

https://imgur.com/gallery/xX7slUc

Just a side note soon I will have names for all my queen ants, and I will be referring them to their names, however I'm not good at thinking out names so it might take me a while to think out good and meaningful names.

The second link goes to the Odontomachus queen I found very recently in my kitchen, she is the first ever Odontomachus alate I've seen (alate meaning with wings or not mated), and man does she look gorgeous with her wings. She has layed eggs, three infact, however their all scattered. Which concerns me, because all my other Odontomachus queens keep their eggs in a nice Bach together and all my queen ants for that matter, and I know one sign of a infertile queen is scattering the eggs. So, so far it doesn't look to great, but we'll see what happens.

Just a tip, queen will sometimes forage after workers. I use to have a video of her with workers leaving to go pull a cricket to the nest

Oh interesting, also I really can't find and feeder insects besides mealworms and superworms and my ants are really tired of this food. So would it be viable to boil wild insects in order to kill any mites? And of so what will the inside of the insect be like, will it essentially be cooked? And if so can ants eat cooked insect guts?