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Massive Solenopsis molesta Flight (Simi Valley, CA 4-29-15)

theif ant fire ant solenopsis solenopsis molesta

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#1 Offline Gregory2455 - Posted April 29 2015 - 10:16 PM

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After yesterdays floods of queens getting ready to fly, they decided to fly overnight. There are still more alates getting ready to fly, so everyone in this area be on alert!

 

Well anyway I caught over 150 queens from this flight! Why such a large number (even for me or drew)? Because I have a feeling that only a very small percentage of them are actually fertile, even though I actually found a load of males this year besides all the alates and dealates.

 

Here is my catch in a bin before processing into test tubes.

 

Here they are in test tubes. They are divided into 10 alates per test tube, while each dealate get their own test tube due to a likelier chance of fertility. This picture was taken before all my dealates were placed in test tubes, but it gives you an idea of how many queens I caught.

 

(Why such a large number of alates? If you recall it was because the actual flight happened over night, so most of the queens I caught were fished out of my pool. In case you do not know, queens that land in water or on a blacklight tend to forget to take their wings off.)


Edited by Gregory2455, April 29 2015 - 10:17 PM.


#2 Offline drtrmiller - Posted April 29 2015 - 10:26 PM

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In case you do not know, queens that land in water or on a blacklight tend to forget to take their wings off.

 

Sounds to me like a bug in the program.  Cough cough.




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#3 Offline Alza - Posted April 29 2015 - 10:36 PM

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trade, argentine ants for those



#4 Offline Vendayn - Posted April 29 2015 - 10:54 PM

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This species is really interesting, even if very tiny.

 

Very easy to get too. Just walk along trails and if there are Solenopsis molesta nesting in the area...they fly really low to the ground and you can use a bug net to catch them. Or they also cling to your clothes and hair as well as you are walking. They fly right before the sun sets, and then disappear...I think its a 15-30 minute window of them flying if I recall.



#5 Offline Alza - Posted April 29 2015 - 11:00 PM

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I've never seen them...no fair 



#6 Offline Chromerust - Posted April 29 2015 - 11:13 PM

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Nice find. My multi queen setups ended up with one single queen in the end. I'm curious if the outcome will be the same for you.

#7 Offline Barristan - Posted April 30 2015 - 6:05 AM

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Very nice video and pictures. This ant is quite small isn't it? Reminds me of Solenopsis fugax.



#8 Offline dspdrew - Posted April 30 2015 - 7:01 AM

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trade, argentine ants for those

 

What a deal.


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#9 Offline Tpro4 - Posted April 30 2015 - 8:12 PM

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i only have one queen molesta, and so far she is doing well, she got a small pile of eggs
Remember Dragon Warrior, anything is possible when you have inner peace. - Master Shifu

Current Queens:
1 Unknown Pogomyemex
1 Solenopsis Xyloni





Also tagged with one or more of these keywords: theif ant, fire ant, solenopsis, solenopsis molesta

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