13 replies to this topic

[William. T]

Let's say you are anting, and suddenly you see hundreds of queen. Let's say they are medium rare, the size of Lasius. How many will you take?

[Gregory2455]

I do honestly take everything. How else does one end up with 80 fertile Crematogaster queens?

[dermy]

About 10-20 or so. If it's something cool like Myrmica then I'll take all of them Just depends on species.

[Ants4fun]

I saw thousands of Lasius neoniger, and grabbed as many fertile ones possible.
Which was 55

[LC3]

Depends I usually keep 2 of the same species mainly because I find most queens when I'm not prepared if I was though I guess I'll take 5 - 10.

If it's something I like though (Like Myrmica :3) I'll go grab as many as I can.

[William. T]

Depends I usually keep 2 of the same species mainly because I find most queens when I'm not prepared if I was though I guess I'll take 5 - 10.

If it's something I like though (Like Myrmica :3) I'll go grab as many as I can.

I feel guilty sometimes if I take too many queens. My neighbors are good with Raid, and regular douse any ant nests. 

[Tpro4]

I do honestly take everything. How else does one end up with 80 fertile Crematogaster queens?

I'm gonna flip you off now Greg, you are one lucky son of a gun. Jealousy Rage

[Crystals]

After years of collecting, if the species really interests me, as in I would like a personal colony of one, I would take 5-10 or so (depending how high I judge the casualty rate might be). If it is a species that interests me, but I don't want to give up one of my other favorite colonies to make room for it, then I would likely grab 1-3 of them.  If it is like most queens I have seen this summer, I simply watch them scurry away. 

 

I am past the days of collecting more than 10 of any species... 

 

There is not much demand in Canada for ant colonies yet, so it does not serve any purpose for me to have several hundred colonies.  I may sell 12-20 at most over the 7 month long winter.  And I seem to have insane luck at finding small colonies with the queen in the midst of them during spring and summer (aka. I can look for 1-4 hours and find a colony if I put my mind to it, depending on the species I am targeting).

[Roachant]

I took 10 Lasius queens about a month ago thinking a few will probably die. I now have ten mini colonies and they are getting larger every day with an average of ten workers each that can run really fast. Makes it tricky feeding them.

 
There is not much demand in Canada for ant colonies yet, so it does not serve any purpose for me to have several hundred colonies.  I may sell 12-20 at most over the 7 month long winter.  And I seem to have insane luck at finding small colonies with the queen in the midst of them during spring and summer (aka. I can look for 1-4 hours and find a colony if I put my mind to it, depending on the species I am targeting).

I would gladly take some crematogaster if you were lucky to find some

[Crystals]

 

 
There is not much demand in Canada for ant colonies yet, so it does not serve any purpose for me to have several hundred colonies.  I may sell 12-20 at most over the 7 month long winter.  And I seem to have insane luck at finding small colonies with the queen in the midst of them during spring and summer (aka. I can look for 1-4 hours and find a colony if I put my mind to it, depending on the species I am targeting).

I would gladly take some crematogaster if you were lucky to find some

 

My Crematogaster queen came from a friend in Ontario, not far from Mercutia's location actually. 

I have never seen Crematogaster around my location.  I findly mostly Camponotus herculeanus, Lasius, and a lot of various Formica species.

[William. T]

 

 

 
There is not much demand in Canada for ant colonies yet, so it does not serve any purpose for me to have several hundred colonies.  I may sell 12-20 at most over the 7 month long winter.  And I seem to have insane luck at finding small colonies with the queen in the midst of them during spring and summer (aka. I can look for 1-4 hours and find a colony if I put my mind to it, depending on the species I am targeting).

I would gladly take some crematogaster if you were lucky to find some

 

My Crematogaster queen came from a friend in Ontario, not far from Mercutia's location actually. 

I have never seen Crematogaster around my location.  I findly mostly Camponotus herculeanus, Lasius, and a lot of various Formica species.

 

I have to go to Sugarloaf mountain or somewhere to get my Camponotus. They are really bad competition. 

[Works4TheGood]

I suppose that the number of queens you take depends on your experience level, the amount of room you have, and the demands of the particular species. For example, the very first batch of queens I ever grabbed were all parasitic (L. murphyi) and the number I SHOULD have grabbed is zero. I also grabbed a few Ponera pennsylvanica a few weeks ago, but I ended up releasing them because their unusual feeding needs. Finally, I caught some S. molesta, and later found out that they are polygynous with up to 8 queens in a single nest, and so I regret not catching at least 24 because they cohabitate.

As for the space concern, I now have about 20 queens in incubation of various species and now I'm wondering how the heck I'm gonna have formicariums ready for all of them, and where they're all going to physically be located at.

Still, another keeper on this forum once told me that even advanced hobbyists lose 30% to 70% of all queens in any setup and often for unexplained reasons, so it's good to have the redundancy of several queens of the ssame species.

In a nutshell, grab a whole bunch and keep them captive at least until you fully understand what you've caught. Once you understand their needs, release any extras. If you're new to the hobby, keep more than usual because then you can afford to lose a few due to riskier experimental blunders. Have a backup plan for when you have too many colonies. Finally, always keep in mind that 30%-70% are not going to make it and you're never going to understand the cause of death.

[Crystals]

I suppose that the number of queens you take depends on your experience level, the amount of room you have, and the demands of the particular species. For example, the very first batch of queens I ever grabbed were all parasitic (L. murphyi) and the number I SHOULD have grabbed is zero. I also grabbed a few Ponera pennsylvanica a few weeks ago, but I ended up releasing them because their unusual feeding needs. Finally, I caught some S. molesta, and later found out that they are polygynous with up to 8 queens in a single nest, and so I regret not catching at least 24 because they cohabitate.

As for the space concern, I now have about 20 queens in incubation of various species and now I'm wondering how the heck I'm gonna have formicariums ready for all of them, and where they're all going to physically be located at.

Still, another keeper on this forum once told me that even advanced hobbyists lose 30% to 70% of all queens in any setup and often for unexplained reasons, so it's good to have the redundancy of several queens of the ssame species.

In a nutshell, grab a whole bunch and keep them captive at least until you fully understand what you've caught. Once you understand their needs, release any extras. If you're new to the hobby, keep more than usual because then you can afford to lose a few due to riskier experimental blunders. Have a backup plan for when you have too many colonies. Finally, always keep in mind that 30%-70% are not going to make it and you're never going to understand the cause of death.

Very good reasoning.

Yes, space for older colonies will come into play after about a year.  25 test tubes with lone queens need a lot less attention than a 25 colonies each with 1000+ workers. 

Ensure you have a backup plan on how to re-home any extras. 

 

Many people will lose 30% of the queens, most noticeably in the first 30 days.  Parasites such as phorid flies could have laid eggs in the queen and you won't know for 1-2 weeks.  Also injuries from their clumbsy flight can lead to causulties in the first few weeks.

 

I was once asked for 50 young Camponotus colonies + nests in 2 years time to be delivered to an educational supplier for most northern AB schools.  (They fly by the thousands up in my location)

I collected 100 queens since I expected to lose at least 30% (not even 1/4 of the queens that crossed my driveway). 

I lost a total of 8 in the first 6 months.  2 years later, I still have a dozen left from that big collection that are for sale.

 

I did learn a lot about differences in queens of the same species.  Even when they are from the same flight and held in the same conditions. But, I would never do that again...

[TheAnswerIsTheLogic]

I had 18 colonys (5-6 same species) and no one died , now i just have 1 of every and when i have much of it i wait untill have some workers, and let the colonys go.(I'm my garden)