108 replies to this topic

[Witmen]

My son and I spent a hour walking around the neighborhood. The ants were out all over the place, we didn't find any queens, but my little one is getting awful good at catching workers. 

[brian]

Still looking in my part of Indiana. When i was a kid i could find them all day all spring and summer. Now with my big adult eyes and loss of innocence i can't seem to find anything but workers out on the prowl and the Camponotus sneaking into my house looking for something tasty. You know if they would all just line up and march into my formicarium they would get food and water all day any time. Be safe from predators and have all the comforts of a nice out world. But how do you explain that to them when my dog thinks there tasty black floor nibbles that play with her. She is a Husky / Arctic white wolf mix and she just loves to eat anything small moving on the ground. LOL

[Martialis]

Haha... you might have more luck further into the summer. All that's flying as of now are Prenolepis imparis and the social parasite, Lasius interjectus, You'll be able to find other social parasitic queens until late spring.

Edited by Martialis, April 23 2017 - 5:22 AM.

[Martialis]

At a school, I've identified most of the genera present:

 

Crematogaster

Prenolepis*

Brachymyrmex

Ponera

Solenopsis

Camponotus

Monomorium

Tetramorium

Lasius

Formica

Aphaenogaster

 

*The colony possessed reproductive larvae.

[BMM]

Looks like we may have had more Camponotus flights in Missouri. I found a dead queen last Thursday and caught an alive, winged queen at work today. Sadly I only had a plastic bag with me and she ended up crushed before I could get her into a vial. We were in the upper 70's last week, had a cold weekend, and then broke 80 today. There's been some intermittent rain over the past week.

[Martialis]

Yep. They're flying up here, too. Caught a Camponotus queen yesterday.

[brian]

I'm still looking every day after work for an hour and for like 3 or 4 on Sat. I even live in a cuntry setting in Hobart. Parks, forest, huge sandy beach with nature preserve and orchards but zip so far.

[BMM]

Try flipping every bit of wood you find. That worked pretty well for me.

[BMM]

Here in St. Louis it's going to be rainy tomorrow and 85°+ on Tuesday. Sounds promising. I'm not sure what effect the flooding might have had on any potential nuptial flights.

[ultraex2]

This weekend was good - I found 9 queens Saturday that I need to get pictures of and get identified later today - they look like a small aphaenogaster, not sure what they are.

[Klassien]

This weekend was good - I found 9 queens Saturday that I need to get pictures of and get identified later today - they look like a small aphaenogaster, not sure what they are.

 

That's great! Aphaenogaster seem to fly in mid-late summer here when it's really hot. I know that Camponotus are definitely out (caught a few myself), and I spot them easily around dusk on a warm, humid, and barely breezy days. Guessing tetramorium are also getting ready for flight if they haven't had a few already.

 

We had bad flooding here a week ago as well; I actually think it helped with keeping the humidity up for a while and triggered some Camp. flights (because it was storming/raining for a week here).

 

Temperature is being forecasted mid-80s this week, and so far it's been accurate, with humidity hanging around 40%-60%.

 

I'm hoping everyone is having some good anting weather!

Edited by Klassien, May 15 2017 - 2:21 PM.

[Winston]

 

This weekend was good - I found 9 queens Saturday that I need to get pictures of and get identified later today - they look like a small aphaenogaster, not sure what they are.

 

That's great! Aphaenogaster seem to fly in mid-late summer here when it's really hot. I know that Camponotus are definitely out (caught a few myself), and I spot them easily around dusk on a warm, humid, and barely breezy days. Guessing tetramorium are also getting ready for flight if they haven't had a few already.

 

We had bad flooding here a week ago as well; I actually think it helped with keeping the humidity up for a while and triggered some Camp. flights (because it was storming/raining for a week here).

 

Temperature is being forecasted mid-80s this week, and so far it's been accurate, with humidity hanging around 40%-60%.

 

I'm hoping everyone is having some good anting weather!

 

I've found 6 Camponotus Queens within the past 8 days. I'm working on re-identifying four of the queens I caught because initially I thought they were Ligniperda queens until I realized they were native to Europe, and ranges did not seem to include New Jersey, US. I'm almost 100% certain that the other 2 queens were Camponotus Pennsylvancius Queens. I've had good luck going out and lifting up the bark on some fallen trees, and finding queens in their founding stages, either excavating their claustral chamber, or the most progressed colony I found was the queen and her first workers, and 10-20 or so eggs.

[Martialis]

Hopefully the condition's that triggered the "ozone alert" will also trigger some flights.

[Witmen]

http://imgur.com/a/mXbNl

 

This just snuck into my house after I took my dog out for a walk. Is that a queen? 

[BMM]

Looks like a Camponotus queen. 

 

Still no luck in St. Louis. I think the massive flooding we had may have disrupted things. We've been close to 90° for nearly two days and not a queen to be found.

[Witmen]

The strange thing is I looked for a couple of hours after seeing this one and couldn't find any other males or queens. 

 

If it was a flight it must have been a small one. 

[BMM]

When I found my Camponotus queens this year, it was right after a flight and they were mostly on the edge of wooded areas. All of them were hiding under small logs and bits of bark. My speculation is that it takes them a few days to find suitable pieces of wood to start a founding chamber in. After that point you would probably need to start looking for them in rotting logs and similar places.

[ultraex2]

 

This weekend was good - I found 9 queens Saturday that I need to get pictures of and get identified later today - they look like a small aphaenogaster, not sure what they are.

 

That's great! Aphaenogaster seem to fly in mid-late summer here when it's really hot. I know that Camponotus are definitely out (caught a few myself), and I spot them easily around dusk on a warm, humid, and barely breezy days. Guessing tetramorium are also getting ready for flight if they haven't had a few already.

 

We had bad flooding here a week ago as well; I actually think it helped with keeping the humidity up for a while and triggered some Camp. flights (because it was storming/raining for a week here).

 

Temperature is being forecasted mid-80s this week, and so far it's been accurate, with humidity hanging around 40%-60%.

 

I'm hoping everyone is having some good anting weather!

 

There was a big storm last night - I'm hoping there will be more ants out today.  Hopefully I can get some aphaenogaster queens this year, too - I don't think tetramorium have flown yet, though.  There is a huge/multiple colonies all over my driveway and I haven't seen them swarm/fly yet.

I think I also got those 9 queens identified - pretty sure stenamma brevicorne.

Edited by ultraex2, May 16 2017 - 8:26 AM.

[Witmen]

I carefully checked on her just now and she is active and has ripped her wings off! 

[Martialis]

While looking for Camponotus queens, I destroyed the nest of a small Aphaenogaster cf. rudis colony. Whoops..

 

There's around 12-20 workers along with the queen, I caught them all instead of letting them doe of exposure and the nearby Formica colony.