23 replies to this topic

[BugFinder]

I finally popped my cherry!!  David was kind enough to meet me in an area he knows well and show me the ropes.  I learned a ton and we found many queens!  Not Andrew level, but it was alot to me!  lol.

 

For the first couple hours we saw nests but not much activity.  The workers we saw were foraging, not very excited...  But after a while we saw some Dormyrmex Bicolor looking excited, and I notice a few males outside a nest.  From there we started seeing males and females coming out of nests, and females getting attacked by workers, and flying up into the air.

 

David found the first queen, a Pogonomyrmex subdentatus.  She was a real beauty.  The first wild collected queen I had been present for.  Not long later, I found one, same species.  Then it started getting crazy with the Dorymyrmex bicolor, David and I spotting them all over the place.  We ended up collecting the two Pogonomyrmex, and 8 D. Bicolor.  It was a really great day and I can't thank David enough for just letting me tag along with him, not to mention teaching me so much and letting me take the queens home with me.

 

Now I've got plenty of queens to keep me occupied for a while, lol.

 

Edited by BugFinder, March 14 2015 - 11:01 PM.

[antmaniac]

Congratulations!

[dspdrew]

Awesome man. That would be David Gaban from the Ants California Facebook group, since he doesn't come on the forum and is probably not known by most here.

[dean_k]

Congrats, dude.

 

Welcome to the dark side.

[William. T]

Nice!

[James C. Trager]

"Welcome to the dark side." - The dark inner recesses of the ant nest, that is.   

[Jonathan21700]

Congratulations!

[antsinmypants]

The addiction is just beginning. Good for you. 

[Ra3MaN]

That will definitely take the sorrow out of your first ant colony, that is not doing too well... 

[BugFinder]

Yesterdays trip significantly changed the ant population in my home:  

 

 

Top Talus: P. Californicus:  1 queen, 1 pupae, 1 small bunch of eggs

Bottom Talus:  P. P Subdentatus: 1 queen

 

The test tubes contain 1 P. Subdentatus, 12 D. Bicolor, and 2 colonies of T. Caespitum that contains dozens of workers and brood.  I'm ordering talus's for all of the D. Bicolor colonies, and a Nucleus and something else for the D. Bicolor.  They should be fine in those test tubes I made up for them until the formicaria arrive from Tarheel Ants.

 

 

My first test tub builds:  

 

 

David built the two bottom test tubes and the two small ones.  The rest of them were the first test tube builds I've done.  I don't think they turned out that bad.  I also bought a heat lamp for them, so they shouldn't get cold any more.                   

Edited by BugFinder, March 15 2015 - 3:24 PM.

[dean_k]

Time for a username change.

 

AntFinder.

[Chromerust]

Don't count your chickens before they hatch as the saying goes. Hold off on spending a bunch of money just yet, some of those will die and some might just be plain old duds. Congrats on your finds!

[Foogoo]

Congrats! I found my first queens a week ago too, felt good! Where did you find the Pogonomyrmex queen? The local Pogonomyrmex nests are just beginning to wake up.

[BugFinder]

David and I found them near Hollister, CA.

[Foogoo]

David and I found them near Hollister, CA.

 

Sorry, I had meant to say in what fashion but I see on your journal they were wandering. I saw one nest moving last week (every worker was carrying another worker, really interesting sight to see) but couldn't stick around to see if the queen had already moved.

[BugFinder]

 

Sorry, I had meant to say in what fashion but I see on your journal they were wandering. I saw one nest moving last week (every worker was carrying another worker, really interesting sight to see) but couldn't stick around to see if the queen had already moved.

 

Yeah it looks like they were out foraging.

 

That must have been so cool to see them moving from one nest to another.

[BugFinder]

Video of the D. Bicolor getting ready to fly.  It was so awesome to see this!  

[Foogoo]

Video of the D. Bicolor getting ready to fly.  It was so awesome to see this!  

 

That's exactly what they looked like where I was last week, pure insanity along a good 50 feet stretch of nests. I placed my pill bottle down for a second and they were all over it. Then blanketed my arms. Would've been a nightmare for someone with an ant phobia!

[BugFinder]

Oh that sounds wonderful!  We didn't see that kind of action but we had alot of fun anyway

[ToeNhi]

I'm surprised the two Tetramorium caespitum colonies are not bigger. Those two queens were caught the same time and place as my first T. caespitum colony that is in the hundreds now.