12 replies to this topic

[Vendayn]

I'm mostly going for the snow. But, some amount of years ago (10+ years) I went up to the same mountains. This was a long time before I had ant farms.

 

My mom picked up a huge pine cone (the pine cones are huge, and the trees aren't that big...which is funny...as Redwood trees are massive and have tiny pine cones) and there was a colony of some type of Formica ant nesting in the pine cone. This was when there was snow all over, and they were mostly dormant (just moved really really slow)...and around December if I recall.

 

I'm hoping to find a pine cone with ants in it. Not sure how many pine cones I'll have to pick up, but it was easy last time to find them and I wasn't even looking. We only picked up one pine cone. Unless that was just luck.

 

I'll mostly be looking for Formica ants, as I don't do good with keeping Camponotus at all. And, I'll be looking for larger sized ants (so that pretty much means Formica ants), not small ants. I'll probably find Monomorium ergatogyna, but they are kind of too small for me. Tapinoma sessile I'll probably find too, but they don't tend to do good in captivity.

 

That is mostly if it snows that is, which looks really likely.

Edited by Vendayn, December 30 2014 - 12:30 AM.

[Gregory2455]

Cool, I may be going to the mountains sometime "mainly for the snow" as well, but I am also going to be looking around for ants. Some red Formica, and some black Camponotus would do well in my collection!

[dspdrew]

Last time I was up there this time of year I couldn't find a single ant. I think they all go underground up there and don't come out until the spring.

[Vendayn]

Last time I was up there this time of year I couldn't find a single ant. I think they all go underground up there and don't come out until the spring.

Ah, that would be a shame. That wasn't my experience during December/January, but then again, that was a long time ago. I (well, my mom) found a colony nesting in one of the pine cones near the top of the mountain (had to hike up).

 

Did you look through pine cones at all? That was where my mom found them.

Edited by Vendayn, December 30 2014 - 12:20 PM.

[dspdrew]

I wasn't specifically checking pine cones. No.

[Vendayn]

Ah, okay. Cause last time I was up there in the snow, there wasn't any ants anywhere either. The Formica probably chose that pine cone to hibernate in or something. They weren't too happy about being picked up, though. Luckily for my mom, they moved really really slow.

 

Well, in any case...hopefully I end up with a nice Formica colony. They tend to make good ant farm ants, and are pretty easy to care for.

[LAnt]

Cool, I may be going to the mountains sometime "mainly for the snow" as well, but I am also going to be looking around for ants. Some red Formica, and some black Camponotus would do well in my collection!

what's the species name for the red formica?

[Gregory2455]

Any red Formica. Any. 

[Crystals]

 

what's the species name for the red formica?

 

 

Most parasitic Formica have a red head and thorax. 

There are quite a few species out there, even Alberta has 24 or so parasitic Formica with that coloration.

[dermy]

I never did get you southerners and your "I have to see the snow" or those weird people who come to see the Leaves Change Colour [or should I say Color]

[Vendayn]

Well, I never ended up going. There were some accidents, road closures and today the traffic up there is/was insane. Would have been stuck up there probably all day and night because too many people going/leaving.

[dspdrew]

Haha yeah, this would have been the absolute worst time you could have possibly picked to go up there. Even the 15 freeway near Temecula was closed for a while with 6 inches of snow.

[Vendayn]

Haha yeah, this would have been the absolute worst time you could have possibly picked to go up there. Even the 15 freeway near Temecula was closed for a while with almost a foot of snow.

Yeah, it was a bad time to plan it. That and I should have realized the 1st day of new years would have been really crowded.

 

On top of that, it actually works better when the snow level wasn't as low as it was. The times I've gone up there, its usually 2000-3000 feet...but it went really far down this last storm. It even, like you mentioned, snowed in Temecula...that must be super rare.