2451 replies to this topic

[dspdrew]

I think there's a chance they could fly.

[Vendayn]

It is supposed to warm up a lot on Tuesday. And according to national weather, tonight might be patchy drizzle and its going to be cool on Saturday, Sunday and maybe Monday.

 

Still waiting for Solenopsis invicta...

 

Maybe Tuesday, Solenopsis invicta will finally have their flights.

Edited by Vendayn, April 29 2016 - 9:28 PM.

[dspdrew]

Yeah Tuesday was going to be the hottest, but it cooled down so much, that now it's the only day with any chance of something flying. It's still barely going to be warm enough. I'm now planning to go to the mountains on Tuesday instead. I think there might be a few species flying in the hills that day. I caught a bunch last year on my black light this same time, but it was 10 degrees warmer.

[PTAntFan]

70 degrees before 10am at Mt. Baldy today.  I am really short on time, think it's worth an afternoon visit?  I can go tomorrow morning instead.

[dspdrew]

Yeah, it looks like that's the only place that warmed up enough for a mating flight. I'm probably going to go there tonight to look for lollygaggers.

[PTAntFan]

Did ya get there? My day was ridiculous. Couldn't get there.

[dspdrew]

Yeah, but I only found one Camponotus vicinus queen. They usually all start coming out around 9:00, but I left just before then. My car was the only one in the lot, so I knew there weren't anymore hikers out there. I felt like 45 minutes of wandering around in the dark alone was enough.

[PTAntFan]

Definitely. Well next week could be promising with rain on the weekend.

[dspdrew]

Wednesday is looking real good.

[PTAntFan]

Night or day?  Wednesday is shot for me.  I'll be busy all day, might be able to hit it in the evening.

[dspdrew]

At night. Not going to find anything when it's light out, unless you catch them flying.

[dspdrew]

Looks like Thursday is the day now.

[PTAntFan]

Not quite as warm as promised. I'm a bit under the weather so I won't make it out to the mountains tonight most likely. Ever been up to Castaic?

[dspdrew]

All the weather sites I've been looking at show warmer temps today than were forecast. I'm definitely going to Angelus Oaks tonight. I've never been to Castaic.

[PTAntFan]

93 miles plus mountain. I wish I had your gumption. What time you going? I'm paying cash for big Camponotus.

[dspdrew]

I'm up there right now and ants and termites are both flying already.

[PTAntFan]

Looking forward to hearing about your spoils.

[dspdrew]

Myrmecocystus testaceus started flying about 20 minutes after I got there, around 8:00 PM. Amazingly, it was 73 degrees, and still 73 degrees when left this spot an hour later.

 

Not a great video, but you can see the males taking off.

 

 

 

Funny thing is I never saw any female alates come out and fly off, but about 20 minutes after the males flew off, females started landing everywhere and tearing off their wings. I only grabbed six of them this time. Every queen I grab is one more test tube setup I have to make when I get home.    There's probably founding chambers everywhere along that stretch of the road now. If anyone wants any, I can give you directions. You should be able to easily dig them up for a few days.

 

After that spot, I drove a few miles up the road to the nature trails to look for Camponotus laevigatus, and just as I expected, there were tons of them all over the giant logs. What was funny about this time, is there were almost no workers out walking around on the logs--only queens. I grabbed about fifteen of these and then left.

 

Here's a queen digging her founding nest in the log.

 

 

 

This had to be one of my quickest and easiest, queen collecting trips I've gone on yet. The only thing easier than this would have been someone waiting there for me with a hand-full of queens.

 

I also found two C. vicinus queens wandering around at the first spot, and a bunch of Dampwood termites. I figured I'll give them a try again.

[PTAntFan]

LOLz! That's great. Id like directions, my afternoon just freed up.

[dspdrew]

LOLz! That's great. Id like directions, my afternoon just freed up.

 

They're all along Mill Creek Road.