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Hello, old ant love but new formicarium...ist


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#1 Offline BitT - Posted May 9 2020 - 11:04 AM

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Hello, I just joined and only have just started the ant keeping hobby.

 

I've loved ants since I was a kid (like under 10 years) and use to argue with other kids that didn't know that winged ants were both males and young queens. I remember this one time I got so frustrated I yelled at a kid to go read a book! lol Back then I even tried starting my own colony but didn't know how. I would collect newly mated queens and put them in a small tank with dirt and waited with no luck. I knew my local queens fasted but I didn't understand the water issue back then. I even became obsessed with the old Sim Ant game. haha But continued failures discouraged me and back then I didn't know ant keeping was a "real hobby" outside of queenless ant farms so my little obsession became more a "oh look, an ant, they cool".

 

Fast forward and I am now in my 30s. I had discovered some Ant Hobbyists a couple of years ago on YouTube and occasionally watched them, so when I discovered a Fire Ant queen wandering the walk way at work on my way to my car I figured... hey, why not try again? So, taking advice from some YouTube Ant-ers I put her in a Test Tube setup and a day after she started laying eggs! My excitement was boundless after all these years. lol But sadly, I learned about exactly when queens have their flights and now I may have over done it. Is 34 queens too many? I mean, they're invasive so it's not like I'm hurting the environment from removing them... I was just going to take maybe 5-ish in case my first girl didn't survive but... Maybe someone would be willing to trade for some other local species because I would reeeally love some real Florida Natives.

 

I also have another species that soon I will be posting in the ID thread. I wasn't planning on taking an already established colony but my father found them between some old plywood and called me to collect them if I wanted because he was going to spray them to death. I was lucky enough to catch what looked like an egg laying queen and gathered a few minor and major workers, some brood and a few alates (which was probably a bad idea). I guess we'll see if the queen is actually laying in a few months when the current workers get old and die. They seem happy enough and recently enjoyed a mealy worm I gave them. I learned they kinda like honey, tomatoes, pure peanut butter, and flies but don't care for pear.

 

I am very much looking forward to raising some queens and been doing a lot of research for making formicarium nests and foraging areas. I'm probably going to get a lot of flak for collecting so many queens but truthfully I didn't think they were going to do this well. I guess they are fire ants after all, at least I had a lot of experience with getting bit as a kid.

 

My far in the future dream is to have a Colobopsis Impressa colony! They are so ugly and cool, I love them! And a Florida Native from what I read but are a supposedly nocturnal species so probably going to be harder to find a mated queen. And I wouldn't mind Pogonomyrmex Badius or Florida Harvester Ant, I remember collecting workers as a kid and they're pretty big! I guess for now I'll just work hard in learning how to care for ants with my hoard of Fire Ant queens.

 

Any advise or suggestions are welcomed! I want to make sure my girls do well.

 

 


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#2 Offline Zeiss - Posted May 9 2020 - 11:08 AM

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Welcome to the forum!  If you ever feel like you don't want your Solenopsis invicta anymore, make sure you kill them.  As for FL native species, we have a nuptial flight chart here.  Figure out what's around you then use that to help know when to go out for them.  


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#3 Offline TennesseeAnts - Posted May 9 2020 - 11:10 AM

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Welcome to the forum!

#4 Offline BitT - Posted May 9 2020 - 11:16 AM

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Thank you, Zeiss. <3 And I'm not 100% sure they are Solenopsis invicta, maybe 99% sure because of how easy it was to find them. I don't want to kill off our native fire ant if I got lucky enough to catch those. But if I do decide not to keep them or give them to another ant-fan I will be sure to carefully check their species before releasing or killing them.

 

 

And Thank You, Ant Dude!


Edited by BitT, May 9 2020 - 11:17 AM.

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#5 Offline Zeiss - Posted May 9 2020 - 11:26 AM

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Post an ID request.  At the top of that subforum, you can find a guide on how to post an ID request.  If you're using a phone camera, keep the lens 3-4 inches away from the subject for best focusing.  Make sure to use plenty of lighting.



#6 Offline ANTdrew - Posted May 9 2020 - 11:56 AM

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Welcome to the forum and this crazy hobby!
"The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer." Prov. 30:25
Keep ordinary ants in extraordinary ways.

#7 Offline Temperateants - Posted May 9 2020 - 12:05 PM

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Welcome. Also, first time hearing about someone describing ants as "ugly" as a reason to keep them.  :lol:


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Check out my Youtube Channel! https://www.youtube....xh-HaScAuE5CShQ

Check out my Crematogaster Journal! https://www.formicul...e-2#entry141180

 

 


#8 Offline BitT - Posted May 9 2020 - 12:47 PM

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ANTdrew,

I'd be into the hobby sooner if I knew about it sooner, haha Thank you!

 

Temperateants,

When I was looking up Florida Natives I happened upon their flat faces and I was instantly revolted. lol But they grow on you! Reading up on them and why they have those faces just made me fall in ant love. XD Evolution and it's strangeness! Now they're at that point of "so ugly they're cute" and they are my dream ant.


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#9 Offline Ants_Dakota - Posted May 9 2020 - 5:13 PM

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haha! Well, you will not be discouraged with this hobby!


Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. -Proverbs 6: 6-8

My South Dakotan Shop Here

Attention Ant-Keepers in South Dakota! Join the SoDak(Society Of Dakotan Ant Keepers)


#10 Offline BugFinder - Posted May 9 2020 - 7:20 PM

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Welcome from California!  glad you are here!


“If an ant carries an object a hundred times its weight, you can carry burdens many times your size.”  ― Matshona Dhliwayo

 

My Journals:

Pogonomyrmex subdentatus

Camponotus Vicinus

Camponotus sansabeanus

Tetramorium (sp)

Pogonomyrmex Californicus

My Ant Goals!


#11 Offline Temperateants - Posted May 10 2020 - 4:00 AM

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ANTdrew,

I'd be into the hobby sooner if I knew about it sooner, haha Thank you!

 

Temperateants,

When I was looking up Florida Natives I happened upon their flat faces and I was instantly revolted. lol But they grow on you! Reading up on them and why they have those faces just made me fall in ant love. XD Evolution and it's strangeness! Now they're at that point of "so ugly they're cute" and they are my dream ant.

They would be very amazing to keep.


Check out my Youtube Channel! https://www.youtube....xh-HaScAuE5CShQ

Check out my Crematogaster Journal! https://www.formicul...e-2#entry141180

 

 


#12 Offline BitT - Posted May 11 2020 - 2:14 PM

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Ants_Dakota, BugFinder, Thank you and hello! ^^

 

Temperateants, I agree!


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#13 Offline OhNoNotAgain - Posted May 13 2020 - 10:03 AM

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Hey just found this thread and had to add that I too started off clueless - way way before the Internet era (and yeah I'm a good bit older than you lol) - and while as a youngster I managed to catch some queens and get nanitics, I killed off my colonies through neglect and/or ignorance. And I also played the heck out of Sim Ant and found it frustrating because real ants are smarter. Last year I got back into ants (hence "OhNoNotAgain") and I'm glad to see other people coming back to pursue a childhood interest.


Edited by OhNoNotAgain, May 13 2020 - 10:04 AM.

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Formiculture Journals::

Veromessor pergandei, andrei; Novomessor cockerelli

Camponotus fragilis; also separate journal: Camponotus sansabeanus, vicinus, quercicola

Liometopum occidentale;  Prenolepis imparis; Myrmecocystus mexicanus

Pogonomyrmex subnitidus and previously californicus

Tetramorium sp.

Termites: Zootermopsis angusticollis

 

Isopods: A. gestroi, granulatum, kluugi, maculatum, vulgare; C. murina; P. hoffmannseggi, P. haasi, P. ornatus; V. parvus

Spoods: Phidippus sp.


#14 Offline ANTdrew - Posted May 13 2020 - 10:41 AM

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I was 36 when I got into this craziness, myself. I don’t regret a thing, except for the time thousands of my Tetramorium escaped in my kitchen. Lol
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"The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer." Prov. 30:25
Keep ordinary ants in extraordinary ways.

#15 Offline AntsDakota - Posted May 13 2020 - 10:46 AM

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I might just regret it if my Pogonomyrmex broke loose and stung my cats.............


"God made..... all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. (including ants) And God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:25 NIV version


#16 Offline BitT - Posted May 18 2020 - 1:58 PM

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OhNoNotAgain,

I didn't mind Sim Ant not being scientifically perfect, I was just happy to be an ant and try taking over the world. lol Have you checked out "Empires of the Undergrowth"? Not perfect but closer than Sim Ant was and a lot of fun. It's Early Access on Steam but even for Early Access it's pretty good. Only thing I don't like about it is you can't move the queen.

But yes, it's been a dream to have a real colony with a queen I could observe up close so it's been very exciting to get into this hobby.

 

AntDrew, AntsDakota,

Yaaaah, that's kinda my fear of them escaping into the house. lol Especially the Fire Ants but I'm going to try and be careful about it. The Pheidoles I have I'm a little worried about at the moment as I had one female alate I caught and one that came from a larva/pupa I didn't know I collected so I had two winged girls. Hopefully they didn't sneak out when I was at work or sleeping because I've been only seeing one queen when I check on them. The colony likes to huddle in these two dark tight spots in the nest so they might be hiding there. I just been trying to avoid shining lights in there since they're wild caught and seem more sensitive about being disturbed. But they also seem to nest-mate (or inbreed?) so I'm hoping they will just breed and stay with the first queen which, if I understand right, this species does do that. In the future I want get a micro drill so I can make some plexiglass lids to add to the barriers. I was going to do stainless steel micro mesh but it's so expensive! 






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