329 replies to this topic

[Flu1d]

I'm so jealous of your Trachymyrmex colony. I have yet to find a Trachymyrmex septentrionalis queen, yet they have nests all over my yard and throughout my side of town.

I find them so interesting, and living vicariously through your journal brings me a bit of joy. Thank you

[kiedeerk]

I'm so jealous of your Trachymyrmex colony. I have yet to find a Trachymyrmex septentrionalis queen, yet they have nests all over my yard and throughout my side of town.

I find them so interesting, and living vicariously through your journal brings me a bit of joy. Thank you

Where are you from? They should be flying or flying soon


The queens are easy to spot as they are semiclaustral and need to hunt for organic matter for their fungus. The difficulty is finding fungal pellets if just dig for their fungus if you need some to start founding your own colonies

[Flu1d]

I'm so jealous of your Trachymyrmex colony. I have yet to find a Trachymyrmex septentrionalis queen, yet they have nests all over my yard and throughout my side of town.

I find them so interesting, and living vicariously through your journal brings me a bit of joy. Thank you

Where are you from? They should be flying or flying soon


The queens are easy to spot as they are semiclaustral and need to hunt for organic matter for their fungus. The difficulty is finding fungal pellets if just dig for their fungus if you need some to start founding your own colonies

Florida. They don't carry a bit of their fungus to get started like Atta do?

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

 

 

I'm so jealous of your Trachymyrmex colony. I have yet to find a Trachymyrmex septentrionalis queen, yet they have nests all over my yard and throughout my side of town.

I find them so interesting, and living vicariously through your journal brings me a bit of joy. Thank you

Where are you from? They should be flying or flying soon


The queens are easy to spot as they are semiclaustral and need to hunt for organic matter for their fungus. The difficulty is finding fungal pellets if just dig for their fungus if you need some to start founding your own colonies

Florida. They don't carry a bit of their fungus to get started like Atta do?

 

Yes but sometimes they've already have spat out their pellets. It's a problem that is frequently encountered with fungus growers

Edited by OwlThatLikesAnts, July 17 2025 - 11:40 AM.

[kiedeerk]

More native species I caught in the past month or so. Not all these I will keep or continue in this journal. Ant nuptials are in full swing. I have been away for the past week on vacation and just came back last night. All the ants did fine while I was away. Most of these species were caught using a black light in my back yard so it’s very easy to acquire for those still looking for queens. Black light is the easiest way to catch ant queens but you still have to be at a good location preferably near woods and somewhere where there isn’t much light pollution.

1. Prenolepis imparis. I caught this queen back in March/april. They are indeed very slow grower. She managed to get two workers out but now has a big pile of brood of all stages.

2. Tetramorium immigrans. I won’t probably keep them but they are so easy to catch and I put multiple queens together so they get a big nanitic population. Soon all but one queen will survive. I may release them or give/sell to a local ant keeper. If anyone in here is from Maryland I do have many duplicates of all these queens for giveaway/sell.

3. Temnothorax curvispinosus. These start to fly when night temperature hits 80s usually mid June to July. They fly in large numbers and are attracted to black light. They are polygenous and I usually found them 3-5 queens per tube.

4. Colobopsis impressa/obliqua. These fly at night from mid June to July when temps are in the 80s. They are also attracted to black lights. My house is like 50 yards from a forest and I have no problem attracting these. They are also poly and I also found them in groups of 2-4 queens.

5. Pheidole bicarinata also fly at night starting in July. They are also attracted to the black light.

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Edited by kiedeerk, July 19 2025 - 4:01 AM.

[kiedeerk]

Acromyrmex versicolor continues to do very well. Their fungal garden have grown a lot. They like to seed the fungus on the ceiling and grow it down from the ceiling as seen in the pictures.

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[kiedeerk]

The lantern fly is an invasive species from Asia that is wrecking havoc on the east coast. In a couple years, they are literally everywhere during the summer. You are encouraged to kill them when you see them as they damage the native trees. Since they are so abundant, they become food for my ants. Most of my ants love them as food

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[ANTdrew]

Wow! I’ve seen these for the first time in Alexandria and DC this summer. I’m glad to hear that ants will eat them. Their bright colors had me worried they were toxic in some way. I may give it a try, but I still have some doubts. Keep us posted.

[kiedeerk]

Wow! I’ve seen these for the first time in Alexandria and DC this summer. I’m glad to hear that ants will eat them. Their bright colors had me worried they were toxic in some way. I may give it a try, but I still have some doubts. Keep us posted.

I fed these to my ants last year and have been feeding them for the past month and no issues.

[kiedeerk]

Pheidole Rhea have been neglected for some time as they reached massive numbers and were hard to contain. Their numbers declined quite a bit and were probably only few hundred strong before I restarted feeding and heating them. The queen quickly restarted egg production and they are beginning to recover and grow rapidly in numbers again.

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