ANTSTORE World of Ants

[nepenthes_ak]

Collecting Queens
By - nepenthes_ak

This forum does seem to be lacking any recognition to collection ants in the WILD. There are a few reasons why I am doing this write up, Sometimes not everyone has money for collecting ants, or you aren’t able to order ants from Antstore, and I think the most important part of keeping ants is going out and looking for ants! Seeing how they live in the wild is probably the most entertaining, and important part of anting. It can give you new Ideas for set up designs, and it just gets you outdoors into nature.

I know Europeans are going to have limited ants they can find, compared to the Americans. But that makes no difference; it’s all a learning process. First you want to find out when nuptial flights are in your area. Probably the most important part, but Ill leave that up to you as this isn’t a nuptial flight write up. Queens are usually allot larger than males, and have larger heads, and an overall bulkier look. Always have a few test tubes, this saves you allot of trouble. So find out a general time when the ant you are looking for mates. There are Several ways of finding your future mated queens.

-Trapping
-Light Attraction
-Baiting
-Getting out and look!

Trapping is relatively easy, the best way is if you have a bit of extra money (or this might have been done for you) buy a kiddy pool and fill it up all season, or around the time you know your ants fly. Your neighbors might have one, or you might already have a pool. Get out and check on the pools, Usually early in the morning but check throughout the day. People have found hundreds of queens, in pools. Some pools have built in lights, leave them on at night this will be a hot bed for queens.

Light attraction You need a Black light, or a very bright light, and a white sheet, and probably an extension cord. That can be replaced with a generator or battery. I find extension cords or a battery to be much more relaxing than the hum of a generator. When it starts to get dark out, lay down the white sheet on a fence, or drape it up between two trees. If you are crafty build a frame for it. Any time while It is dark shine the light on the sheet. You will attract millions of insects, and you will attract alated queens. I suggest finding queens that land and wait for them to de-alate, I know that I have a 40% fertility rate when I find alated queens. Remember this should be done around the time when your ants mate or you will just find bugs, which can be fu as well if you are a collector.

Baiting is probably the easiest of them all, get a large flat piece of wood, and set it out, and check on it throughout the day, queens will go under it to find shelter to de-alate. Some might even start to dig a colony, which isn’t a problem, just catch them.

Going out Some species just don’t like to come to you, so you have to get out and explore for yourself, use the same ideas as baiting, check under things, check in logs, use your mind where ants might be. Some are easy to find some aren’t, I suggest usually looking in the early morning after a rain, or between 2-5 the warmer part of the day.

Setting up an enclosure

This is when you want to find your queens species. This could mean you can start a single or multiple queen colonies. It also gives you an idea on if your queen is specialized predator, or if you even aren’t supposed to catch her! Once you know your queens species, make a set up. You might have a queen that needs to forage, so you will want an open test tube, or your queen might not need to forage, so you want to have a closed set up or a clustural cell. If you find a queen with wings and you have a test tube set up for her she might de-alate in the test tube, which is just fine, she might move the wings closer to the exit so you can move it. It can take a long time for your queen to lay eggs this really depends on the species, so be patient! Once there are workers, put sugar water or honey nearby until they start foraging allot then have a mixture of sugary substance and protein. You know what to do from their!

If you copy and paste this please give credit to Cody Cardenas, and the Ant Store, and a Link to where you found it.

[miszt]

Usually the lasius niger queens lay eggs within 2 days of capture in my experience at least

Something worth adding, keep your new Queens in a dark place and dont disturb them to much, infact I would leave them alone completly except to check water supplies and that they are healthy

For feeding (not really needed for new Queens as they wuldnt normaly get to eat at first, but helps keep them strong) I recomend a Syringe and a Long needle, I use rubber caps with air holes on the test tube because the paper 'breathable' ones can be damaged by repeatedly inserting a needle, you can then inject a tiny amount of honey/protien formula into the test tube with very little disturbance to the new colony, also can be used to top up water supplies if the needle is long enough to reach past the cotton wool ( I use a 2.75 inch needle, ~7cm). Rember to only give a tiny amount of food, a drop the size of her head (lasisus niger) is to much and will go bad before she has eaten it all, also Sugary substances like Honey will absorb water very quickly and could melt and end up all over the eggs and queen, not good!

Most colonys (lasius niger) i've kept sealed and left alone for about 3 months, by then there are usualy about 10+ workers that are itching to get out and explore

[nepenthes_ak]

Miszt, true, But I wouldn't keep them in a dark place, When I keep them in a dark place, they tend to cluster in places where its dark all the time making the colony look unnatural in their set ups. (I don't cover them up either). So if you do it from the start like leave them in room light, but not direct light, they will do great.

I use cotton, and just open them up and quickly take a tooth pick with some honey on the tip, drop it towards the middle. Pure honey works best for me.

Ive had some Campontus species die from plastic caps, and cotton is just cheaper.

[MrILoveTheAnts]

Myrmica species too seem to die form rubber and plastic caps. I've even had a Formic die in this way too but I'm not certain the cap was the cause of her death. I tried filtering here back to life but she never revived.