sithmaster676: capturing Myrmica rubra (12. Dez 2006 08:27)

i wish to find and capture a colony of myrmica rubra with about 6 queens and 100 workers so that i can place them in my newly setup tank around April time
can anyone please give any info to me that might help
Thanks
Sithmaster676 :)

Fabian: (12. Dez 2006 15:59)

I, i suggest you wait until june - july next year, when there are new young Mr queens, may be you can catch 5 or 6, but without workers, at the moment, within the hibernation i wouldn't catch some!

JimmyVe: (12. Dez 2006 17:13)

I would do the same,
catch some queens when the fly out (for mating) if they are on the gowned with nog wings they probably are fertilized.
i think this is better then digging a colony out.

Greets

sithmaster676: (12. Dez 2006 17:37)

i don't like capturing queens without workers as i have had bad experiences with queens so i am going to capture some so that they can get started quickly if workers are present then they speed up the ant colony production wise
Sithmaster676

JimmyVe: (12. Dez 2006 18:53)

That is true. If you capture a just a queen it takes a few years to build up a colony, but i like the charm of it. ;)

greets

sithmaster676: (12. Dez 2006 19:30)

and to be honest i dont really want a colony that will take time to build up as i dont have long (about 4 years) before i will start to have to get rid of my colonies before i go to uni which i hope to do
thanks
Sithmaster676

Fabian: (12. Dez 2006 20:31)

But just for a few month fun, you may kill a whole colony by destroying their Nest, catching their queens and killing dozents of workers and maybe queens while diggin for them! Not a good idea, if you realy like ants!

LeonofLondon: (13. Dez 2006 00:08)

you dont have to dig up a nest to get M rubra you can just find colonys in early summer under stones and logs ants at that time of year a close to the surface how you think ant store get theres raise them lol.

sithmaster I believe we have discuseed this in another board :wink:

Fabian: (13. Dez 2006 06:26)

lol, ill never found a queen by picking up a stone ^^ I think Antstore and most of the other Shops get them by picking up the young queens in the sommer.

JimmyVe: (13. Dez 2006 16:20)

I'm not sure where they get them, but i like that idea more than digging one up.
If you go to college (we all hope you can ;) ) maybe you can donate the colony's you have to your friends are other ant keepers.
If you start with a new colony now it is a big colony when you leave (if everything works out well). When you are back from college you still have the experience to start with a colony so you can start over again. If you now what i mean. ;)