Would just like to introduce myself. I'm Jess, 31 from Fresno in Central California area and I'm new to ant keeping. I've had an interest in insects and entomology my whole life but ended up going into botany. For a year or so I've been researching ant keeping and ants in general. I've been casually trying to find someone to purchase a queen from but have had little luck. So yesterday I went out anting since the day prior we had a rain storm so I thought maybe they might be flying. I was able to catch 7 queens, all solenopsis. I didn't have any test tubes since I wasn't confident I was going to find anything, being wheelchair bound I'm relegated to the pavement and walk ways. So I ended up improvising and using 10cc syringes capped with the plungers removed using cotton and water as one would in a test tube method.
All the queens I caught were all on the ground walking around still with wings fairly close to known colonies. So I'm worried that they've not been fertilized. So I guess time will tell.
You guys seem to have a great community here, there's lots of great info to learn.
Thanks,
Jess
the ants