ANTSTORE World of Ants

[Crimmy]

Well since i was a kid i always wanted to have my own lil clusterfudge of ants. Id take legos and build lil mazes for the carpenter ants id find in the house. Well now i want to try a whole colony. Since im in the US its become sorely obvious that the only way im going to get a queen is to dig it up or breed one. Does anyone have any links to forums that already explain this? Im in oregon. We have your general fire ants and sugar ants ive seen. My house is infested with ants actually lil tiny ones that dont discriminate on what theyll eat. Found em on my cat and my arms when i wake up and in our food but theyre numbers arent so bad right now during the winter. I dont want to try and catch these ones since theyre so agressive and already probably in the millions from how much trouble we had with them over the summer.

My concerns about catching one myself are being bitten obviously. What kind of things could i do to make sure i stay safe and unbitten while trying to find a queen. How would i find the queen as im digging? How should i go about searching for a hill? Or is there better signs of an ant colony that i should look for? Anyways id love any advice or suggestions you all could offer. Thank you for your time and consideration.

[tail__]

Do not dig up ant nests! You will destroy their home, kill a lot of ants and probably never find the queen, even if you do, she may die quickly, and her former colony will remain destroyed. You need to catch a new queen after mating flight. New queens lose their wings and search for a safe place to make new nests, and then they are easy to collect. And they will be happy if you give them a safe haven. Learn which species live in your region and when they fly (most do it in summer).

[ant dude]

indeed digging up ant nests is a bad idea all together, a very risky job....but if some ants are nesting under or rock or somthink, it would be ok as your just simpley lifting an looking wot speciecs they are/start collecting

but collecting a queens during the mating flights is good way 2

[SteveUK28]

<--agrees the tail on this one.. do a search for ants in your area there should be plenty.. especialy some nice camponotus.
As for the ants in ur house.. DUDE.. get an exterminator.. thats a seriously bad problem.

[JimmyVe]

Hello Crimmy and welcome,

It is in deed better to catch a queen after mating flight. There must be plenty nice species you could catch over there. It seems to me that you are pretty new to this. So read around a bit on this forum there is plenty of good information for you. About keeping ants and how the make nice farms.




Let is know who you are,
here.
Thanks !

[Crimmy]

Hehe yeah i am very new to this. Just a really big kid trying to get into a new hobby that wont burn a hole in my pocket. Can you guys tell me a little more about the mating flights? The winged ones are the queens? So i need to catch one of those?

Hehe wish i could afford an exterminator steve. BUt in all fairness the ants were here before us. This place isnt worth the money though its a crappy run down mobile home thats rotting and falling apart and sinking into the ground. Truly not safe to be livable but hopefully we will be out of here before it gets warm and they really start picking up again. Really sucks waking up in the morning and i left a soda can out and its covered in them. Mostly right now i just see a few scouts here n there trying to find a food source. And i dont like to use chemical repellents. KNow of any natural herbs that Ant's dont like? I love to grow things.

[Kale^^]

Welcome to the forum, Crimmy

Search around the net (find out what species live in your state), pick the nicest and go looking for them in the summer I found thousands of nests and saw hundreds of queens flying/mating/digging/running/etc last summer on my backyard.

[Crimmy]

Ok but still. Do i only need one of the winged ones or do i need to find partners for it?

[Indica]

Ok but still. Do i only need one of the winged ones or do i need to find partners for it?

I'm complete newb too, but as I've understand you need a queen with no wings (Mated queen). Search for just big ant without wings, who is alone and looks like she's looking for something, I guess?
This way you'll find a queen who looks for a new home, you grab her and place her to your farm..

[tail__]

Yes, Indica is right. Crimmy, mating flights will occur no earlier than late spring, so you have time to learn some theoretical knowledge about ants. Whatever animal you want to keep, you have to know anything about it's biology, otherwise you may harm it. There are some web sites about this, I don't know many, but you may start e.g. here:
Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar
Maybe you also could find some books, I recommend you "Journey to the Ants" by E.O.Wilson and B.Holldobler.

[JimmyVe]

I shall explain in a bit.
When ants have a mating flight they go high op into the sky to mate, after that the queens land and trow of there wings, than they go look for a nice place to start a colony. That is when you need to pick them up, after they removed there wings and before she digs herself in.

Most flight find place in spring and summer. So you have to be a bit patient now, you always needs patient with ants.




Let us know who you are,
here.
Thanks !

[Crimmy]

Ive got patience. I have an entire indoor herb garden which i plan to expand into a real business some day. And lemme tell you that takes ALOT of patience. I had a fruit fly infestation awhile back going in and eating my sun flowers.

Thank you guys for being so patient with me and offering your advice. This is important to me. Jimmy you said i have to pick them up after theyre wings fall off. Obviously im going to have to do some research to be able to identify what they look like after there wings come off. But is there any obvious characteristics to point out that it is a queen without its wings thats general for all species? Truthfully all the ants look the same to me here. Theyre all tiny maybe 1-4 cm's or the wood eatin ants with the huge pincers theyre about an inch ive never seen a colony of those ones only a stray one wandering about. Maybe those large ones ive got confused by? Everyones always called em carpenter ants since i was a kid and they look exactly like any other ant just bigger.

Once again thank you for the patience and consideration. And the book refrences. I suppose if im going to do anythign right itd be best to investigate.

[JimmyVe]

Well, the queens are much bigger than the workers. (in most cases)
So you need to look after the big ants, the one that are wondering around alone.
You can find much pictures of my ants here take a few looks there are a few pictures of queens and workers so you have an idea.




Let us know who you are,
here.
Thanks !

[Indica]

What I have noticed on pictures is that queens have a lot bigger middle part of their body, compared to their head than workers. Some have a lot bigger back end too.. Thats how I usually understand if it's queen or worker when looking at picture.
Or yes, the simple fact that they are simply a lot bigger than workers.

[Crimmy]

Hmm come this spring/summer when i go a huntin and bring back me specimens... Would i be able to take pictures and post em here for verification on wether it is a queen or not?