2110 replies to this topic

[Myrmidon]

I noticed that sometimes the stuff from Tar Heel can smell "chemically", probably due to the way he makes them and materials involved. So if you went that route, you should probably clean it, let it air out, etc. prior. I have done that with his items and seemed to be just fine after. 

 

@mallonje - Yes, that's usually what I do with the young colonies and when it's hibernation time just close up the tube and hibernate! I'm currently doing that with my Formica colony. 

 

And Myrmidon comes from the Ancient Greeks, they were a warlike people that fought at Troy or so they say.

Edited by Myrmidon, June 3 2018 - 11:00 AM.

[fleetingyouth]

Thanks everyone. 

I will keep all that in mind when I go out looking. 

I set up a bunch of bricks in areas in my yard i often see ants in hopes to trap a couple this summer. 

 

I take it a cool day/night like today isn't good for looking?

 

Its suppose to rain the next couple days but be cool does temp matter?

[akaant]

Thanks everyone. 

I will keep all that in mind when I go out looking. 

I set up a bunch of bricks in areas in my yard i often see ants in hopes to trap a couple this summer. 

 

I take it a cool day/night like today isn't good for looking?

 

Its suppose to rain the next couple days but be cool does temp matter?

Cold nights like this yield little. Best hunting nights I had were warm and humid. Don't step on the cockroaches!

[noebl1]

@fleetingyouth Welcome!!  Quite a group of MA people now

 

As @akaant mentioned, warm/humid nights are the best.  One tell sign I usually is based on what other insects I see.  If I go outside, and it's a bit cool/dry, I may see some moths, and that's about it which is a pretty good indication ants won't be flying.  However on ideal conditions, where's it's warm/humid there's *tons* of insects flying, just like ants.  Last week really threw me off as the temperature and humidity seemed where they should be, especially Fri, but not much happened.

 

With @Nathant2131 seeing a Tetramorium dealate, and @mallonje finding what looks like a Tetramorium alate in early June, that's pretty crazy.  We have a few Tetramorium nests here, but was away Sat night so didn't get to check for any flights.  However definitely been a weird anting season.   @mallonje, how's she doing?

 

@Myrmidon  I think there was a thread about this, where he had to make a change for his THA newer nests as realized something was creating fumes during the construction process.

[ConcordAntman]

For Myrmidon & noebl1
http://www.formicult...i-formicariums/

[Aquaexploder]

Tetramorium flying here in RI!

[mallonje]

@Noebl1 - She's skittish, more so then my other queens. So I don't want to over tax her. I also still don't have a positive ID. I'm hoping she's just the first of many this year so I can continue to build up my repertoire.

 

Now for the stupid novice question that google doesn't want to answer... I assume because Queen's have ovipositors they don't have stingers? I ask because T. Caespitum has a distinctive triangular stinger. I've confirmed the two box shaped pedicle, and the propodeal spine. I think I see an anteroventral tooth. But without better optics I don't think I'm going to be able to see the rugae, or accurately count antenna segments. but if I can check her stinger I'm golden.  

[rdurham02]

Found a Tetramorium queen crawling around on one of the desks at my work yesterday morning and she still had one wing! It does seem rather early for them to fly here given last year's data. I think they may be confused by the extreme weather patterns we have been having in Southern Maine. 

[noebl1]

Hopefully some flights today/tomorrow now that it will hit the 80Fs, been quiet for me at least the last few days with the cooler air mass moving thru.

 

My first Crematogaster nanitic eclosed, took forever.   My Lasius are starting to slowly eclose too, looks like I have another L. flavus or similar (hard to ID without using a microscope as so small.)  Probably be looking for a home for these as I don't need them.  Back down to 2 Myrmica queens, the third one I found never really settled down, and died this week.  The first one still has a giant brood pile, and the other one looks to have maybe settled, will keep an eye out for eggs.  All my Camponotus have brood piles too they are quietly tending as well.   Both Aphaenogaster colonies are growing, especially the A. picea which she is an egg laying machine.  In the span of 2mos went from 1 to 20+ workers.

 

@mallonje - Great question, I'm honestly not sure either.  Most of the species that can sting I've kept until recently were too small to feel.  Myrmica ants are probably large enough, but not something I've read in great detail before.  Googling isn't that helpful as ends up with Quora results, or exterminating companies talking about "fire ants"...

 

I found out yesterday that if you join The Container Store email rewards program, they give you 15% off your next order, so I stocked up on more outworld containers

[fleetingyouth]

Still out looking for my first queens hoping tonight might be a good night. I also asked my buddy who is a lawn care guy on the south shore to let me know if he sees any nuptial flights. If he does I will post them. 

 

I've been doing a ton of reading and youtube watching on formicariums the last couple of days. I know that its premature but part of what has drawn me to try this hobby is the building of environments. I will probably try some natural ones if I ever manage to get a large enough colony but until then I really like the detailed carved out natural rock shape type. Obviously, there doesnt seem to be an easy way to get AAC in the area so what are other types of materials I could experiment with? 

 

I'm very handy and have experience carving/engraving so I'm pretty sure if I had some AAC I could make pretty interesting designs. I was thinking of trying various different bricks and stone from lowes to see what I could get. But I don't know much about how the different materials will react to ants. I couldn't find much online outside of Ytong, plaster, and grout. I'd really like to carve my own. 

 

I have a stack of old red bricks in the yard I might try to carve up and see how they look. Would make for some nice tabletop decorations if it works. 

 

Thanks for any tips and info.

[noebl1]

@fleetingyouth  I've heard people have used fire brick, but I've personally never tried it.  AAC is in the US, but unfortunately seems like something only construction companies have access too.  Occasionally I've seen it for sale in the US on eBay, but not very often.

 

There apparently were some Tetramorium, Camponotus, and Nylanderia flying reported on Discord in MA, I but I didn't observe any myself.  It's been kind of a lull for me, curious to see if today in the 80Fs, or maybe middle of this week again it warms up if we see a spurt of flights.

 

 

Other weird thing for me, a bunch of my 2016 Lasius neoniger pupae just eclosed, and there's several male alates.  Hoping it was just a fluke and my queen isn't becoming a dud (not common, but can happen.)  

[Myrmidon]

Well patience finally paid off - caught my first C. nearcticus queen from the local colonies in my yard. She suffered some casualties and lost a leg but she seems mostly intact. They have probably already flown/are flying.

 

Also flipped over a rock and saw lots of Tetra reproductive larvae so they are definitely gearing up over here. 

Edited by Myrmidon, June 9 2018 - 1:54 PM.

[mallonje]

Welp, the weather has pretty much shutdown my collecting. I was really psyched to finally get rain, but to then follow it up with mid 50's... I mean, how rude!

Otherwise, nothing out of my P. Imparis or my L. Embratus and my new Tetramorium is still skittish.

All 3 of my Camponotus have eggs, one even has pupae. But, now that one's gaster is swollen with eggs - I can clearly see it has a very distinctive red hue.

[akaant]

I'll be selling ant colonies soon. I might as well sign up for GAN program.

[Myrmidon]

Which are you selling? I see you have Novae's.... I might need one or two? 

[akaant]

Camponotus chromaiodes ,novaeboracensis,  pennsylvanicus , *(americanus very soon)* and 2 species of Aphaenogaster. I would of had more species available but a mouse stole my test tube cotton ball plugs during hibernation.   I lost half of the colonies due to this but I'ii bounce back this season. This was the first time I had any issues during hibernation in all my years ant keeping.

[noebl1]

@akaant Just saw your thread, those are some really fair prices   Every time I see the GAN prices for the guy in NH, I cringe...

 

Also for the A. picea he has, that's a great species at a good price, and one of my favorites.  In my 3 years of looking for queens, I've only coming across their alates once by accident, literally minutes before a thunderstorm rolled thru yet I see the workers all the time.

 

This looks like a really good week for flights with mid to upper 80Fs mid week, next Monday (assuming the forecast doesn't change), if it hits 90F, I bet there will be the day for a large Camponotus flight.

[akaant]

@akaant Just saw your thread, those are some really fair prices   Every time I see the GAN prices for the guy in NH, I cringe...

 

Also for the A. picea he has, that's a great species at a good price, and one of my favorites.  In my 3 years of looking for queens, I've only coming across their alates once by accident, literally minutes before a thunderstorm rolled thru yet I see the workers all the time.

 

This looks like a really good week for flights with mid to upper 80Fs mid week, next Monday (assuming the forecast doesn't change), if it hits 90F, I bet there will be the day for a large Camponotus flight.

Thanks. I made sure not to go over board on the pricing. I too am hoping for at least 1 more good flight.

[greenavacado]

Hi guys, I'm quite new to anting in general, but I thought I would help represent NH  

I have started keeping some queens, I found a Campontus queen earlier this week but found what I believe is a Tetramorium queen today. Either Tetra queens are much smaller than I thought or she's something else, pics linked.

Yesterday while gardening I found a massive colony that had a ton of alates, they looked quite pale compared to the workers so I'm not sure how young they were. I tried to get some pics of the small chunk of the colony on the rock but they were moving fast! (The rock was returned promptly, the rushed blurry pic can confirm, haha) I'm not quite sure what they were, maybe Lasius? I can confidently ID componotus and tetra workers, that's about it at the moment.

 

pics of both: https://imgur.com/a/50nfjbT

 

Besides that I haven't seen much else in the area

[fleetingyouth]

Been out looking for queens with not much luck. I'm definitely not the patient type haha. 

 

Thought today might be good, humid scattered showers. But I really didn't see much ant activity. 

 

I did come across this which I don't think is a queen but its way bigger than any of the ants I've been seeing so thought it was worth getting IDed. Carpenter Major?

 

Edited by fleetingyouth, June 13 2018 - 1:58 PM.