2110 replies to this topic

[Antcatcherpro3]

Camponotus is going to start flying next month.

[Antcatcherpro3]

I have carpenter ants in my house, and I'm going to try to hire someone to get them out.... but when I see them in my kitchen, I don't kill them, I just can't. Thinking of their whole life just to work for the queen, and then them being squished is not my way. I would never by a good ant exterminator. If I don't hire someone I might try to find the nest and catch the queen. And this colony is a few years old because I see alates every year.

I might try to catch some queens this year. I will also look for formica and pheidole in the summer.

[noebl1]

We usually don't see Camponotus in MA until maybe end of April to early May since I've been tracking them since 2016 (all depends on the temperatures and rains, April 28th the earlier ever observed). The Camponotus Myrmentoma subgenus will fly first, during the day when it's hot if in the upper 70s, and then stop at sunset when it cools down. Then usually 1-4 weeks after that the big Camponotus will fly, and have several flights, usually with a big one in June. HOWEVER... I predict this may be a bad season for Camponotus flights in at least Massachusetts. Last couple years flights have been very spotty, and no real giant flights as I've seen in the past. They also have been flying into July which is very unusual for them. In the Fall there were queen ejections due to low resources/starving colonies (observed by myself and others in New England). The reason for this I suspect is for the last few years we've been in a cycle where we have a cold wet Spring, then summer is really dry, and have had 2 -3 droughts the last few years. That's really where prediction for poor flights this year comes from as last year was a bad drought, but I could be wrong.

There's a lot of variability for flights for species I've seen as well and cycles for what's observed. Some years for example I won't see any C. americanus, then another I find several queens. C. pennsylvanicus is the biggest population we have here, so has the most flights observed. Other variations like C. novaeboracensis I see maybe 1 or 2 queens a year in comparison.  C. nearcticus is spotty as well, but usually has several flights, and if conditions are right, will have huge flights with the big Camponotus. The largest flight I ever observed a few years back had Camponotus flying from PA to ME all on the same night, was incredible. Hundreds and hundreds of queens, and a mix of several types. I found queens for hours and even the next day were everywhere. Last couple years, nothing even remotely like that, and often localized flights where it would rain and a few miles of flights, but others wouldn't see them in MA.

[noebl1]

I have carpenter ants in my house, and I'm going to try to hire someone to get them out.... but when I see them in my kitchen, I don't kill them, I just can't. Thinking of their whole life just to work for the queen, and then them being squished is not my way. I would never by a good ant exterminator. If I don't hire someone I might try to find the nest and catch the queen. And this colony is a few years old because I see alates every year.

I might try to catch some queens this year. I will also look for formica and pheidole in the summer.

 

We live in the woods, and get them in every year, we now have a company come and treat the foundation. There's no damage to the wood, but they realized the perfect conditions in the attic for example and between joists. The attic temperature maybe 120F, but with the A/C running, the ceiling maybe be 75F. So between the insulation and drywall they find perfect temperatures to raise brood.  C. pennsylvanicus also does not need overly humid conditions for brood, actually can raise brood on very low humidity. So a house with a constant food supply, water ( condensation on pipes, dripping faucets, etc), dead mice and other insects in attics, etcmake our houses perfect for them... just like cavities in a tree.

[Antcatcherpro3]

I still don't have the heart to kill them.

lol

[ConcordAntman]

 

I have carpenter ants in my house, and I'm going to try to hire someone to get them out.... but when I see them in my kitchen, I don't kill them, I just can't. Thinking of their whole life just to work for the queen, and then them being squished is not my way. I would never by a good ant exterminator. If I don't hire someone I might try to find the nest and catch the queen. And this colony is a few years old because I see alates every year.

I might try to catch some queens this year. I will also look for formica and pheidole in the summer.

 

We live in the woods, and get them in every year, we now have a company come and treat the foundation. There's no damage to the wood, but they realized the perfect conditions in the attic for example and between joists. The attic temperature maybe 120F, but with the A/C running, the ceiling maybe be 75F. So between the insulation and drywall they find perfect temperatures to raise brood.  C. pennsylvanicus also does not need overly humid conditions for brood, actually can raise brood on very low humidity. So a house with a constant food supply, water ( condensation on pipes, dripping faucets, etc), dead mice and other insects in attics, etcmake our houses perfect for them... just like cavities in a tree.

 

We have a fieldstone foundation and have the occasional C. pennsylvanicus queen or worker scuttle through but as yet we haven’t seen any signs of a gallery-nawing horde. I’ve seen shots of your colonies. You have a massive collection! I worry about the insecticides used in the farm fields across the street from us. Do you worry about the safety of your collection? How do you protect your colonies from the pesticides the exterminators are using?

[noebl1]

 

 

We have a fieldstone foundation and have the occasional C. pennsylvanicus queen or worker scuttle through but as yet we haven’t seen any signs of a gallery-nawing horde. I’ve seen shots of your colonies. You have a massive collection! I worry about the insecticides used in the farm fields across the street from us. Do you worry about the safety of your collection? How do you protect your colonies from the pesticides the exterminators are using?

 

Great questions!  So hasn't been a problem so far. I also don't collect ants off the foundation either for that reason. Also, you'd be surprised how ineffective the foundation spraying can be. It keeps out *some* ants, however Monomorium sneak in all the time unimpeded. When a colony moves during the summer, doesn't stop them either. Usually have to have a direct treatment of them to remove them. Also a lot of the "over the counter" poisons we can buy at stores usually don't last long at all, especially if it rains. I have found queens very obviously poisoned when they fly, always curious what it was. This time of year, I may grab insects from outdoors that I am unsure what they are, but they are cold weather hardy and look very much like mosquitoes. Once the Spring/Summer start, I don't usually grab flying insects for food as people to spray here for mosquitoes. Our lawn is not treated, especially as we have chickens, so things like crickets and such I may be more apt to try.

Actually, I had a fascinating experience with this last week. So working on a vivarium for a scorpion, so was looking to order some mixed lava rock. I had in the past ordered a natural rock/bark mix used for bonsai. I had used it for a few outworlds, so ordered another bag of it. "All organic."  So after I ordered another gallon bag, I was looking through their site, and found a line about "bark Treated per USDA requirements with Bifenthrin", (used primarily to kill ants). Crap. Well in the two outworlds for my P. occidentalis I built a year or so ago, neither of them were having any issues, so I had just sprinkled a little bit of the bark and bunch of the lava rocks, no issues. Hmmm. Then it dawned on me, last year I also had created an outworld for one of my C. americanus colonies, and I used quit a bit of that mix in the outworld. I also was using that colony to test diluted uric acid (1-5%). I was having workers dying left and right inside the outworld and tubing to get there. I had assumed it was maybe the uric acid, as it was very obvious they were dying from poisoning. The other colonies all the same size gathered the same time were fine. I suspect the concentration of Bifenthrin may vary within the mix (i.e. some was treated recently, some months ago, but all randomly mixed together.) So P. occidentaltis may have had mostly rocks and "safer" bark, the colony here obviously didn't. So I carefully removed every piece I could find in the outworlds, and will clean up the outworld for the C. americanus colony currently in diapause.  So I guess for anything with wood or bark pieces in it, have to be careful if not reptile safe (which seems overall to be safe for insects.)

[MinigunL5]

I still don't have the heart to kill them.

lol

I do 

[Antcatcherpro3]

 found some male winter ants. I am going to try to find a queen.

[Antkeeper014]

 found some male winter ants. I am going to try to find a queen.

Are you certain? Do you have any pictures? The temps barely broke 60 today in most parts of Massachusetts, which isn't exactly an ideal temperature for flights to occur. Perhaps you saw some other flying insect.

[Antcatcherpro3]

No. I'm sure it was a male imparis. It looked exactly like one. It's dead now but i still have it so I will take some pics of it.

[noebl1]

Someone took a video today of a small P. imparis flight in MA. With it being in the 70Fs tomorrow, they may more widely in MA and surrounding areas tomorrow.

[noebl1]

Oops it's Thursday that's in the 70Fs

[Antkeeper014]

I'm sure you folks active on the discord community have heard about it, but P. imparis had a small flight today in Central Mass. While temps peaked at 68 degrees this afternoon, I observed most of the colonies in my yard having modest nuptial activity. Most only sent out a couple males, but 2 or 3 of the largest colonies actually had several dozen males taking off and a couple females every now and then.

In the end I only ended up finding one dealate female, the rest I saw that day were still winged. I usually refrain from catching the alates, since my yard has a pretty dense population of Imparis and I can usually find 10-40 dealate females during large scale flights. Anyways, I'm looking forward to Thursday (70+ in most areas ), and hopefully Imparis will end up flying on a large scale throughout Central MA.

[Chickalo]

I have carpenter ants in my house, and I'm going to try to hire someone to get them out.... but when I see them in my kitchen, I don't kill them, I just can't. Thinking of their whole life just to work for the queen, and then them being squished is not my way. I would never by a good ant exterminator. If I don't hire someone I might try to find the nest and catch the queen. And this colony is a few years old because I see alates every year.

I might try to catch some queens this year. I will also look for formica and pheidole in the summer.

Same, I'm pretty sure I have Camponotus pennsylvanicus.  Also I thought they lived to spread their genes?  Whatever, but if you find any queens let us know 

[Chickalo]

I'm sure you folks active on the discord community have heard about it, but P. imparis had a small flight today in Central Mass. While temps peaked at 68 degrees this afternoon, I observed most of the colonies in my yard having modest nuptial activity. Most only sent out a couple males, but 2 or 3 of the largest colonies actually had several dozen males taking off and a couple females every now and then.

In the end I only ended up finding one dealate female, the rest I saw that day were still winged. I usually refrain from catching the alates, since my yard has a pretty dense population of Imparis and I can usually find 10-40 dealate females during large scale flights. Anyways, I'm looking forward to Thursday (70+ in most areas ), and hopefully Imparis will end up flying on a large scale throughout Central MA.

God you're so lucky!  Here on the coast its considerably cooler, there's even still small snow patches.  Great photos, can't wait till Prenelo flies here, too

[Kaelwizard]

I found an alate here in MI. I wish I found more since I have a feeling it is infertile.

[Antcatcherpro3]

I found an alate here in MI. I wish I found more since I have a feeling it is infertile.

Cool! I didn't find a queen but on a side note, tetramorium in my yard are coming out of hiberntation. So are the carpenter ants.

[Antcatcherpro3]

 

I'm sure you folks active on the discord community have heard about it, but P. imparis had a small flight today in Central Mass. While temps peaked at 68 degrees this afternoon, I observed most of the colonies in my yard having modest nuptial activity. Most only sent out a couple males, but 2 or 3 of the largest colonies actually had several dozen males taking off and a couple females every now and then.

In the end I only ended up finding one dealate female, the rest I saw that day were still winged. I usually refrain from catching the alates, since my yard has a pretty dense population of Imparis and I can usually find 10-40 dealate females during large scale flights. Anyways, I'm looking forward to Thursday (70+ in most areas ), and hopefully Imparis will end up flying on a large scale throughout Central MA.

God you're so lucky!  Here on the coast its considerably cooler, there's even still small snow patches.  Great photos, can't wait till Prenelo flies here, too

 

There is snow probaly where you  live but where I live which is like a few miles southwest of boston, there is no more snow. It's gotten warmer here.

[ConcordAntman]

Nice shots. Good luck anting!