ANTSTORE World of Ants

[Indica]

Hmm come this spring/summer when i go a huntin and bring back me specimens... Would i be able to take pictures and post em here for verification on wether it is a queen or not?

People in this forum seem to be very friendly and ready to help. I'm sure if you post a pictures here they can tell you if it's queen or not.

But there is quiet a lot time to later spring / summer. By then you can probably tell the difference yourself as well.

[miszt]

Its easy enough to spot a queen, wait for the flying ants to come out, then catch a few, the very large ones are queens usually, (usually large thorax, the bit the legs connect to, and gastor, the 'tail/butt') the smaller ones are usually males (often very small head, smaller thorax, and male sex organ visable extruding from the gaster/'tail')

You dont want to collect males or queens with wings, they are useless to you, but good to get a grip of what they look like...so let them go and start looking on the floor

You need to find the same big ants, but without any wings collect a couple, then you are fairly certain they are queens....post a pic and we'll be happy to confirm it for you





(obviously species vary allot, and in a few cases queens are very hard to spot)

[JimmyVe]

In deed Crimmy, you still have a few months to learn how queens look like. But we are glad to help you out if you post pics.




Let us know who you are,
here.
Thanks !

[Crimmy]

Uhg i just got back from war with the ants. They found my garden! They were only going after one plant though which i think is a species of bamboo and most bamboos have a very sweet sugary sap in them. I noticed throughout this summer id have to go smack ants off of a red wood bamboo. Took one of those air duster cans and blew them all off the plants and then flushed the plants with water to make sure none of em mightve taken up hiding in the soil. Oh it was bad. Amazes me how they can relocate hundreds in just a few short hours.

[JimmyVe]

Amazes me how they can relocate hundreds in just a few short hours.

Yep, ants are like a well oiled machine.




Let us know who you are,
here.
Thanks !

[tail__]

Why do you fight ants in garden? I understand you won't want such guests in house, but why you don't want them in garden?

[Crimmy]

Well mainly because it appeared they were eating off of one of my plants. Im worried they might kill it. I didnt want to mess with them because there was so many of them so i figured id leave em bo so long as they arent hurtin nothing. I reached in there to take the plants out and water them and they started swarming me. Thats why i got them out of there. Got rid of the main horde but 12 hours later theyve still got scouts roaming about looking for the plants. So if i put them back in the garden now theyll just come right back >.< Very frustrating because this is going to ruin my light scheduel and put my plants into hibernation for a week or two.

=> edit Mod
Post from 1:40

Oh i forgot to add in i was looking at the ants real closely and i saw two different kinds. Theyre both tiny 1-4 mm's. There was ants that were completely black those ones died quickly from the window cleaner i was using to clean the closet out. I was hoping it would get rid of some of their scent trails and discourage them from coming back. And then there were these ones with mustard colored stripes along their butt. Those ones didnt die from the window cleaner and those ones where much more agressive.

[tail__]

Ants do not eat plants. Not any of them, never. Ants are mostly carnivorous, some eat seeds, and only few tropical and sub-tropical species like Atta or Acromyrmex feed on special fungus, and use leaves to feed this fungus. So, if you would say that aliens or fairies eat your plants it would be more likely truth. Large carpenter ant (Camponotus) colony can damage old trees (or wooden houses). Ants often tend aphids and defend them from predators, making them more numerous, so this is the only ant activity against other plants. But aphids would be there anyway also without ants. But, in other hand, very large quantity of ants in garden often indicate presence of numerous aphids (including root aphids! They're hard to spot) or other, unidentified insects, which may be real pests. Ants hunt for every insects except of their aphid flock, so they actually defend the plants from any other, often much more dangerous, pest (maybe they think you are going to damage THEIR plant, that's why they attack you ) and help controlling the number of other insects. There are gozillions of potential garden pests, many of them are hard to detect, but whatever is damaging your plants, it's not the ants.

We'd like to help you with ID of your guests, but I'm afraid most of us aren't familiar with American species. A good photo would be very helpful, though.

[SteveUK28]

dude.. sorry to correct you but im sure there is still a few thousand ant speices yet to be discovered.. that could well eat plants.. so to completely rule it out would be slightly silly.. But i do doubt very much there is an ant in the US that eats plants

[Crimmy]

These ants were covering my plant and right where the small branches were extending from the main stem they were gnawing away at it. If it happens again ill take pictures just to spite you tail. =P This is an indoor garden so aphids shouldnt be a problem. The only other bug species ive noticed were fruit flys. They had a taste for the sun flower but they all went away on their own. But yes pictures are definitely in order. Now i just need to figure out how to keep an ant still long enough to snap a photo with a webcam =P

[SteveUK28]

ROFLMAO
perhaps shouting BOO at it really loudly might stun it for a few seconds
but tbh i doubt very much the ant will stay still on command lol.. Good luck tho

[Crimmy]

I actually just caught a couple but i think theyre eating through the plastic bag...

[Crimmy]

Theres the best zoom i could get with my webcam and in comparison to my fingerthe size.

[Crimmy]

I found out what plant it is the ants keep going after. It is called devil in a bush or love in a mist or the scientifical name is nigella damascena. Here are a few pictures. Lemme know on your thoughts of why you think ants would eat this plant.

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[JimmyVe]

Well i'm not an expert in plants ... I suppose it could be the ants live from the plant ore from the seeds.