ANTSTORE World of Ants

[Bob]

[size=18] [/size][font=Arial] [/font] Hello everyone,

I wanted to ask. Are there any ant keepers, collectors here from Georgia, United States? The reason I'm asking is I haven't found any. Furthermore, I haven't seen any nuptial flights here. I would appreciate any feedback from individuals from Georgia or its surrounding states e.g North & South Carolina, Florida, Tennessee and/or Alabama.


Please message me or email me forest786@hotmail.com

[Bob]

Any Americans here? Any of you located near the southern United States by any chance? I need more insight on where to obtain ant colonies as we just don't have any in my area. Would appreciate it if some ant owners/enthusiasts from the U.S.A would get in touch!

[Skippy]

Hi Bob!

I don´t know ,here in this forum are only European ant keepers ,very small number of USA and other country ant keepers are here. From USA I know only about 4mykids ,he live (I think) in Pennsylvania and Scooby ,he making photos of ants.

Now is time for many species nuptial flights ,so good luck ,maybe you will to see some

Skippy

[Bob]

Sadly I have not seen any nuptial flights in my area. It's been very disappointing. Can you put me in touch with your relative or anyone who can mail me a queen caught after her nuptial flight?

[Skippy]

Sorry Bob

I have friends in USA ,but I am not with them in contact ,so I cannot help you with this. I will to get you one experience. If you walking anywhere ,you could to looking on earth sometimes ,maybe you will to find some young queen. I doing it like that and look on my all species what I have (no only I ,anybody here) .

Skippy

[Bob]

I found a fire ant queen the other day. There was a worker ant with its jaws tightly clasped around one of her legs. I do not know whether they were trying to drag her back into the nest or if they wanted to eat her. Anyways this resulted in her losing a leg. I rescued her anyway and having no test tubes, I placed her inside a gel ant farm. She is doing well and appears to be enjoying the moistness of her environment. It's anyone's guess what will happen next, if she'll make it or not. I only rescued her as a goodwill gesture. What I'm really interested in are large species of ants, such as harvesters, carpenters and ponerine/ponera ants. However, the lack of ant availableness in the USA is frustrating (very few areas have open swarms visible to the eyes). I'm just afraid swarming season will pass me by and I won't be able to locate a queen for another year.

[JimmyVe]

Hi Bob,

I think they probably wanted to eat or kill here. It it possible they want to drag here back into the nest but they do not pull out a leg to do that.

Harvest ants are very difficult to keep. maybe to start with carpenters ants are easier to keep. I'm sorry to hear that you can not find ants there.

[Bob]

I like carpenters too. I have also been giving great thoughts on what kind of nest to build. Do carpenters always have to be placed in a wooden nest? What about a plaster nest? I find soil nests boring. I also find two sided nests boring. I really like one sided nests where there is a glass cover on the top and you can observe the ants in their chambers. However I don't like the amount of space they take. Therefore I got a perfect idea. I want to make a one sided nest but stand it up so that its vertical rather than horizontal though you would still only be able to see the ants from one side instead of two. What would also help is getting in touch with people who've kept them before and being in regular communication with them.

[JimmyVe]

It is in deed possible to keep them in a plaster ore a y-tong nest. Vertical nest are good because they don't need so much space but not al ants like them.

[brgnsoccer]

Look under rocks near woods, you may find ant colonies there. One site that helped me with its links as well is Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar

[nepenthes_ak]

Well Im hear if that counts for any thing now!

[Reacker]

Me as well.

Bob: Harvesters are quite easy to keep, at least in my experience. I am located in the West, Southern Idaho. Pogonomyrmex are very abundant and easily captured during the spring and in mid summer after it rains. I have personally experienced P. rugosus flights so thick after a Thunder storm in Nevada with queens so thick on the ground it was impossible to move without stepping on several of them at once.

[Arcais]

I've been reading this forum for months, and finally signed up today. I'm in Northern California, which is suppose to have a ton of harvester ants. I can't find any either yet.... time to go hiking I guess.

[JimmyVe]

Hi Arcais and welcome.

Is this the time of year the ants keep there swarm time there ? (here it is) so if you go out you probably will find some young queens looking for a new home. Try to look for them in the late afternoon, when it is going to rain soon. That is the time most species fly out to mate.

[Arcais]

Hi Jimmy, thanks for the welcome.

I was going to say it hardly ever rains in the summer over here, but it rained tonight
Around here, I've never seen a swarm, and I've live on the San Francisco peninsula for years. In Santa Cruz and up in the mountains (Mammoth Lakes) I've seen swarms.
Although I did fine a cool site that shows several species in the area: Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar

Any suggestions on what I should go look for?