3 replies to this topic

[koeng]

Hello everyone, 

 

I was watering some plants, and suddenly I see a mass of ants erupting from one of the pots! They were carrying larvae and such out of the nest. A few minutes in I spotted the queen helping move brood, and I sniped her into one of my large but empty formicariums. The ants are quite reluctant to come onto the card I placed out to capture them, so I've only caught a small amount of brood. 

 

Fortunately enough, the ants were moving directly into the pot RIGHT NEXT to the one I just watered! I now have a queen and some workers in a large formicarium and I have a pot with the entire rest of the brood. What would be the best way to capture them?

 

I'm considering making a water moat around the pot and filling it up to force them to move, then having the only route out to be directly into my outhouse for the ant colony. How does this plan sound? Any better ways?

 

Also, my apologies for the ethics of hurting a colony to capture it. They are an invasive species, which is how I justify taking a colony from the wild into captivity. I wish to hurt the ants as little as possible with the transfer. Any ways to ensure this?

 

Some low quality pictures - 

http://imgur.com/a/zEOOP

 

-Koeng

[koeng]

I was utterly wrong. That is not where they were headed to.

 

I saw a cricket and a few ants go behind a box, and so when I moved the box... well I'm pretty sure I found the colony...

 

http://imgur.com/a/iKj1y

 

Any tips on what to do? I sorta just slid the box back into place (I think there may have been a few casualties from that...)

 

I also saw 2-3 more queens in the mass of bodies. 

 

-Koeng

[Kevin]

Wow, that's a pretty cool find. You could use a low powered vacuum or bug vacuum. Aspirators work well too, but keep in mind Argentine's need a lot of workers to create a successful colony.

[Serafine]

Put all of them into a basin with the formicarium attached, water the pod. They will run out of the pod and directly into the formicarium.