ANTSTORE World of Ants

[sithmaster676]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

[Fabian]

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]

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.

[LeonofLondon]

when I say stone I mean large rock or lock on many occasions I have seen and sometime collected a colony in this way and I bet that its how the antstore collectors capture most of the colonys they sell atleast the european specie anyway.

[sithmaster676]

yeah i will properly donate it to my best friend or cousin who both keep ants themselves but not on such a large scale like me.
and what you said about it being here when i get back personally i wish to train to be a vet so that is at least 6 years away from home without a few holidays i will have but im sure that they will be fine
and what i mean by finding queens under stones is that last year i was walking around in my garden when i decided to look underneath a large stone which was hot from the days sun so i lifted it up only to be confronted by at least 7 queens and loads of workers and brood making the most of the stones heat so this is how i plan to capture a colony
Sithmaster676

[ralphdrake]

hey i havnt been part of this topic but jsut popped in to wish you luck with your ants and college, goodluck !

[sithmaster676]

thanks ralphdrake i will try my best
Sithmaster676

[Chalky723]

I found my colony under a housebrick!! It was a nice sunny day & there were over 15 queens & loads of workers under the brick.

Took 5 queens & about 40 workers. They're a bit livlier than my Lasius Niger colony that only has a queen & 7 workers, but I love 'em all!!

Chalky