2451 replies to this topic

[dspdrew]

Need to go to desert.

[Vendayn]

Isn't it about time for ants to start coming out hibernation anyway? Though I know not all desert ants actually hibernate, so maybe they are still active where you go. And it has been pretty hot past couple days, and temperature is going to be pretty high next few days.

[dspdrew]

its possible Veromessor pergandei flew.

[dermy]

Ants already flying, only thing flying for me is this wicked wind.

[dspdrew]

The heat is insane right now. It was 76 F at 3:00 AM this morning.

[Foogoo]

The heat is insane right now. It was 76 F at 3:00 AM this morning.

How did it go? I'm thinking about heading out Saturday.

[dspdrew]

 

The heat is insane right now. It was 76 F at 3:00 AM this morning.

How did it go? I'm thinking about heading out Saturday.

 

 

This heat was in Santa Ana, not the desert.   It got up to 95 F here yesterday.

 

I haven't even gone to the desert. I'm hoping to go Saturday, mainly to get some substrate for some stuff I'm making.

[Foogoo]

This heat was in Santa Ana, not the desert.   It got up to 95 F here yesterday.
 
I haven't even gone to the desert. I'm hoping to go Saturday, mainly to get some substrate for some stuff I'm making.

Gotcha  . Going north or east? I'm planning on heading out to the Palm Desert where you had some luck last year.

[dspdrew]

Yeah I was thinking of going to that area. Pinyon Pines, right up the road a bit is a good place too. I once saw Camponotus semitestaceus flying there in mid March.

[dspdrew]

BTW, I never found anything near Pinyon Pines. Clearly nothing has flown yet, or I would have seen founding chambers, so there's still a chance in that area if anyone is looking for Veromessor pergandei.
 
Today I hiked the San Juan Loop Trail, hoping to get lucky and catch a M. wheeleri flight, or at least see signs of one coming up soon. Unfortunately, I didn't see any them out at all. As always, there are plenty Camponotus anthrax colonies cleaning up their nests. I dig into the top of one, and saw they had quite a few alates ready to go. I also found one wandering Veromessor andrei worker along the trail. This is the first time I've ever seen them along that trail.

[Here for the honeypots]

Some days now are nice and hot and then it will blizzard for three days straight.  Nevada has quite bipolar weather. Haven't seen any flights yet

[Vendayn]

They are saying its likely southern California will still be in drought like conditions and another dry year for us, unless things massively improve next month. On the other hand, the Sierra Nevadas I've read are completely packed with snow. A lot of the rain and snow went more north (so far) due to the high pressure we're having here.

 

I know last year, thunderstorms for us sucked. They didn't happen until way late, and Acromyrmex versicolor flew VERY late into the year. We didn't even get a single thunderstorm, until it was nearly Fall and by then anting season was pretty much over.

 

I know mostly for here in Orange County, its just been hot and Summer-like. Its like, we skipped Winter and Spring and went right to Summer lol.

 

Probably doesn't make for good anting, since a lot of ants (especially desert ones) rely on rain to fly.

[dspdrew]

Southern California just doesn't get rain anymore. Not even during the strongest El Nino in 18 years.

[BaconPancakes]

Southern California just doesn't get rain anymore. Not even during the strongest El Nino in 18 years.

 

Sunday and Monday (3/5 and 3/6) are forecasted as rainy days.

[dspdrew]

Yeah it's amazing. We'll see if it ever gets here though. Usually when there is rain in the forecast, it slowly disappears until it's gone completely before that day ever comes.

[Ants4fun]

https://weather.com/...-flooding-march

 

It looks like your going to get plenty of rain!

[dspdrew]

Yeah, but Southern California is a lot different than Northern California. They've been saying this since September. I'll believe it when I see it.

[Vendayn]

Well, I think we might get some rain. Or at least heavy drizzle.

 

However the last "big" storm or two all moved down to San Diego lol. I know I saw at least one of them do that, my friend in San Diego got huge a storm where he was. They had major flooding down there too. Though the 3rd storm we got, he barely got any rain and we got it a bit more up here, but it still mostly broke apart.

 

Literally watched the radar, San Diego got pummeled in one storm and when rain was right off the coast of Irvine, the storm completely broke apart and it was weak showers. Its like there is a rain shadow or something. Cause the last three storms, pretty much just completely died right before they hit land. I think I've only seen one good storm so far this year, but even then San Diego got it way better than we did here in Irvine. And it wasn't even the biggest storm I've seen, it was just really heavy rain.

[dspdrew]

Weather Underground's forecast is already showing the duration and chance of rain dropped by about 30% and the rainfall totals dropped by 50%. Haha, same thing every single time. I could do much better at forecasting the rain here--just take their forecast, and drop all the numbers by 70%, and it'll be spot on.

[dspdrew]

Well, we did get some rain. We got a amazing 1/4 inch of rain, and are on track to getting another whopping 1/4 inch of rain today too! This is definitely going to be causing some serious flooding.