von Bob » 8. Jul 2007 21:20
I could and I will though with my luck I've probably missed the mating flights already. I don't believe in excavating established colonies simply because
1) It takes years for those colonies to reach that level of establishment. Then along comes man and the colony is gone from nature. (removing the queen means the colony perishes).
2) Secondly, excavated colonies (from my experience) are the types of colonies that are more likely to crash because. a) They are light sensitive and being exposed to light, after years, especially for the queen can have consequences(such as halting her egg laying cycle).
b) They are used to their natural environment and a 'change in environment' disrupts them and sends them into 'self destruct mode'.
c) They have become used to collecting food a certain way and once that way is eliminated, it becomes very challenging for them to accept formicarium based food.
For these reasons and more, I do not and will not excavate established colonies. However I am all for rearing new colonies from queens in test tubes. In fact I currently have two fire ants in test tubes who have a big clutch of eggs each and will hopefully live to see them become workers. Once they're established, I will release them. What I'm really looking for are carpenter queens. Anyways let's see what happens.