28 replies to this topic

[Ants_Texas]

Oh, I never saw this thread. Let me prepare my amazing answer.

 

Solenopsis invicta

[ANTdrew]

Camponotus floridanus was the first queen ant that I caught. I found her early in the morning hiding under a flower pot near my driveway. She was a nice decent sized queen, and already shed her wings.

I immediately put together a test tube setup and even placed a small amount of clean (chemical free) soil within it. I left her alone for 2 days, and when I checked on her she had a nice little pile of eggs. I offered her small dabs of honey or maple syrup twice weekly to give her some extra energy even though they are fully claustral.

I had the colony for 5 years until I came home from work and discovered the queen had passed away from unknown reasons. But the time I had them was pretty epic. Camponotus floridanus was probably the coolest species I have ever had the pleasure of raising. Even now I have a 7 month old colony with 38 workers, decent amount of larvae, and a small pile of pupae. I caught this new queen this past June 2019.

This is a great story! Thanks for sharing, and I hope the new floridanus colony does even better.

[OhNoNotAgain]

I wish I knew what queens I used to catch. It was in the US Midwest. They were fully claustral. Bigger than Tetramorium. Queens had a fat gaster with lighter colored banding - very pretty in sunlight. It might have been Lasius or Formica. Let's just say it was well before the internet era (can't even remember which years) so finding any information on care/ID was very difficult. (It's sort of painful to remember how hard it was to find information on anything back then, or look for rare books, or find people with similar interests.)

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, January 26 2020 - 1:10 PM.

[Kaelwizard]

Camponotus novaeboracensis. My mom found it when we were taking out flowers and replacing them with new ones. I had no idea how to keep them and I put it in a dry container with sand that had no source of water. She actually lasted a decent amount of time.

[RushmoreAnts]

Formica sp. from the fusca group. It was actually a whole colony, which I busted open and handpicked queen, workers, and brood, as I didn't know any better. I was still very new.....

[Ants_Dakota]

Same(Formica sp.), although knowing nothing about ants, i labeled a queen pupa as an egg...

[ForestDragon]

yeah my first queen was a C.pennsylvanicus, very new i busted open a log got her and someone told me GET HER HER WORKERS, i gave her 5 of hers, layed like 50 eggs then i overfed honey and they drowned in it, i didn't even have tubes, i had a bottle with a cotton ball in it

[Da_NewAntOnTheBlock]

Lol, Mine was Camponotus Pennsylvanicus too. Put her in a confined space and she freaked and died the end lol. Was quite sad though

[kgollehon]

Formica fusca several years ago!