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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.
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).
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 :grin:
but collecting a queens during the mating flights is good way 2 :wink:
<--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.
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 !
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.
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.
Ok but still. Do i only need one of the winged ones or do i need to find partners for it?
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.. :)
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:
http://www.antnest.co.uk
Maybe you also could find some books, I recommend you "Journey to the Ants" by E.O.Wilson and B.Holldobler.