14.08.2017
I really want to have my own ant colony. I've been fascinated in those creatures not so long, but long enough for me to start beeing impatient.
So it happened...
"Mom, can I have ants?" Everybody knows the answer for sure - either from moms and dads perspective. But it never made me give up on this idea, defenitely not. From the first question there have been planty of them, always asking about having an ant colony. Everything changed when I went to the woods for air gun shooting. I accidentaly saw an ant swarm. Plenty of new ant queens were about to fly in the air to find a new place for a nest. The question I wanted to ask my parents was still there, but slightly different.
"Dad, can I keep it?" That changed a lot, I guess. Or were they just to tired to resist anymore? At last I was allowed to keep two queen ants (which I have later released, but that's another story). That was the moment when I got their permission, so I coudn't just leave it like that. I started to look for new queens. First day: nothing. I realised that it was too cold. Second day similiar problem... but even when there was sunny weather, for some reason I coudn't find any queen ant. I was looking in park, forest, garden, backyard, hometown... everywhere, nothing.
It's the fourth day...
...and I still can't fint my queen ant!
19.08.2017
She's here, she's here, she's here!
She's beautiful - amazingly lively and very protective. Formica Cinerea. She's not caught, although I had no time before my holiday. I'm about to leave in few days for a week and it would be definitely too late for catching my queen when I'm back. So I decided to buy her. Some 14y.o. boy from a neartown had one F. Cinerea to sell, and... it happened. It's the second day she's at my place. I left her in closet for a day before changing her previous test-tube. And now she's again left alone to have peace and quiet. I wonder if I should name her somehow...
COLONY STATUS
Formica Cinerea
- Queen: 1
- Workers: 0
- larvae: 4
- Eggs: 1
