2450 replies to this topic

[dspdrew]

Should be a lot of queens flying in the foothills and canyons over the next five days.

[dspdrew]

Wow I just noticed Angelus Oaks jumped way up to 81 degrees today. I'm going up there right now to see if any C. laevigatus are flying. If they aren't there, then they might be a little higher in elevation.

[StopSpazzing]

Should be a lot of queens flying in the foothills and canyons over the next five days.

any specific locations? Are they black light attracted? can't remember how I caught the 2 I got tbh. Should I test out my blacklighting this weekend? Also do you think Trabuco Canyon is a good spot still?

[dspdrew]

 

Should be a lot of queens flying in the foothills and canyons over the next five days.

any specific locations? Are they black light attracted? Cant remember how I caught the 2 I got tbh. Should I test out my blacklighting this weekend? Also do you think Trabuco Canyon is a good spot still?

 

 

No these don't land on black lights. You just have to find them wandering around in their habitat.

 

I ended up finding 16 C. laevigatus, 6 all-black C. vicinus, and 1 C. quercicola a little ways up from Angelas Oaks.

[BADANT]

Hey folks, looking to see if anyone is going out hunting for queens in the next couple of days?

Or, if you are not going but know of a good area

[BADANT]

 

 

Should be a lot of queens flying in the foothills and canyons over the next five days.

any specific locations? Are they black light attracted? can't remember how I caught the 2 I got tbh. Should I test out my blacklighting this weekend? Also do you think Trabuco Canyon is a good spot still?

 

 

No these don't land on black lights. You just have to find them wandering around in their habitat.

 

I ended up finding 16 C. laevigatus, 6 all-black C. vicinus, and 1 C. quercicola a little ways up from Angelas Oaks.

 

were these caught by walking during the day or evening?

[dspdrew]

 

 

 

Should be a lot of queens flying in the foothills and canyons over the next five days.

any specific locations? Are they black light attracted? can't remember how I caught the 2 I got tbh. Should I test out my blacklighting this weekend? Also do you think Trabuco Canyon is a good spot still?

 

 

No these don't land on black lights. You just have to find them wandering around in their habitat.

 

I ended up finding 16 C. laevigatus, 6 all-black C. vicinus, and 1 C. quercicola a little ways up from Angelas Oaks.

 

were these caught by walking during the day or evening?

 

 

Queens of these species of Camponotus are normally only found out after around 9:00 PM in Southern CA.

[BADANT]

 

 

 

 

Should be a lot of queens flying in the foothills and canyons over the next five days.

any specific locations? Are they black light attracted? can't remember how I caught the 2 I got tbh. Should I test out my blacklighting this weekend? Also do you think Trabuco Canyon is a good spot still?

 

 

No these don't land on black lights. You just have to find them wandering around in their habitat.

 

I ended up finding 16 C. laevigatus, 6 all-black C. vicinus, and 1 C. quercicola a little ways up from Angelas Oaks.

 

were these caught by walking during the day or evening?

 

 

Queens of these species of Camponotus are normally only found out after around 9:00 PM in Southern CA.

 

Great idea, thank you very much this entire thread helped me.

I went out and caught 7 Camponotus. I will be posting pix in the gallery, when I have more time. There are 3 that look to me to be C. laevigatus, and 4 that seem to be C. vicinus. After reading dspdrew's journal on C. quercicola, I went to take a better look at the features. However, the queens of that species had started laying eggs so I let them be.

[Somethinghmm]

Pogonomyrmex cf. californicus had a small flight this morning!

[PTAntFan]

Where and has anyone been successful in keeping them? Please point me to a journal.

[BADANT]

Pogonomyrmex cf. californicus had a small flight this morning!

where was this at?

[AntsCalifornia]

100 degrees, its hot out here, must mean that loads of queens will fly in the mountains tonight, right? I don't have any more queens and need a lot more. Also there are a lot of Pogonomyrmex around my house so if they are flying I guess I better look for them. I was thinking Baldy, unless anyone stops me I will probably check there tonight.

Edited by AntsCalifornia, June 10 2019 - 3:34 PM.

[NickAnter]

Do you think that, this weekend, if i went up to Angelus Oaks, above it, that if I looked in logs and under stones that I could find some Laevigatus queens that just recently flew?

[ariaant]

Solenopsis molesta (4 mm yellow queens, i can't think what else it could be) had a huge flight today and yesterday at mission trails regional park in san diego at dusk.  My shirt literally had 20 queens on it at one point when we went through a cloud of them.  I also found one fire ant queen (8 mm red head/thorax black gastor) and a bunch of argentine ant alates came out at the same time (at the entrance of the trail).  I was thinking about staying late to find some camponotus but after running into two rattle snakes i went home.   

I read that the east coast guys have some luck finding camponotus queens during the day by looking under logs/rocks.  Anyone have any success here in southern california doing that?

[AntPhycho]

Solenopsis molesta (4 mm yellow queens, i can't think what else it could be) had a huge flight today and yesterday at mission trails regional park in san diego at dusk.  My shirt literally had 20 queens on it at one point when we went through a cloud of them.  I also found one fire ant queen (8 mm red head/thorax black gastor) and a bunch of argentine ant alates came out at the same time (at the entrance of the trail).  I was thinking about staying late to find some camponotus but after running into two rattle snakes i went home.   

I read that the east coast guys have some luck finding camponotus queens during the day by looking under logs/rocks.  Anyone have any success here in southern california doing that?

Oh the amount of rocks I have flipped... I have never had luck with finding any species under a rock or log here in SoCal.

[dspdrew]

Queens of these species of Camponotus are normally only found out after around 9:00 PM in Southern CA.

 

Great idea, thank you very much this entire thread helped me.

I went out and caught 7 Camponotus. I will be posting pix in the gallery, when I have more time. There are 3 that look to me to be C. laevigatus, and 4 that seem to be C. vicinus. After reading dspdrew's journal on C. quercicola, I went to take a better look at the features. However, the queens of that species had started laying eggs so I let them be.

 

Awesome. C. laevigatus are easy to ID if you shine a light on them. You will see the glistening white hairs all over them. C. quercicola's hairs are yellow. They usually have slightly longer gasters than C. laevigatus too. One other thing about C. laevigatus, is they are almost never found anywhere but on very large rotted pine logs. The only time I find them on smaller logs is when they are next to a large one. I don't think I have ever found one on the ground.

 

You definitely went to the right place at the right time. Where exactly did you find these anyway?

[dspdrew]

Where and has anyone been successful in keeping them? Please point me to a journal.

 
I had success keeping the desert bicolor ones.
 
http://www.formicult...l-160-6-5-2019/
 

 

I was thinking Baldy, unless anyone stops me I will probably check there tonight.

If it's Icehouse Canyon Trail you're going to, Camponotus already flew there. It's possible you could find something further up in elevation, but you can't drive up any further than the ski lifts.
 

 

Do you think that, this weekend, if i went up to Angelus Oaks, above it, that if I looked in logs and under stones that I could find some Laevigatus queens that just recently flew?

You won't find C. laevigatus under rocks. if you tore into some very large rotted logs, it's possible you could find some. You won't find much of anything under rocks in Southern California; it's just too dry.

[dspdrew]

Solenopsis molesta (4 mm yellow queens, i can't think what else it could be) had a huge flight today and yesterday at mission trails regional park in san diego at dusk.  My shirt literally had 20 queens on it at one point when we went through a cloud of them.

 
Could also be Temnothorax. They both fly at the exact same time, and look very much alike.

Anyone have any success here in southern california doing that?

Oh the amount of rocks I have flipped... I have never had luck with finding any species under a rock or log here in SoCal.

Same here. It's just too dry.

[dspdrew]

Sunday night in Trabuco Canyon we saw flights of Temnothorax and Solenopsis molesta. Found a few random Camponotus essigi and Camponotus us-ca02 alates, but I doubt they are fertile. We also found a few Liometopum occidentale alates that I think are probably not fertile either, unfortunately; all of mine still had their wings the next day.

[Scrixx]

Where and has anyone been successful in keeping them? Please point me to a journal.

 

If you're talking about Pogonomyrmex then I have three species from last year but I haven't updated in a while. I'll try to update this week. 

 

http://www.formicult...-journal/page-2