32 replies to this topic

[TennesseeAnts]

This will be used by Tennessee anters to report flight sightings and stay in touch.

[TennesseeAnts]

There should be some Prenolepis flights on Wednesday and Thursday. Weather is going to be in the mid 70's! Get your vials ready!

[Clumsy_Carp]

There should be some Prenolepis flights on Wednesday and Thursday. Weather is going to be in the mid 70's! Get your vials ready!

 

Awesome I will be on the lookout 

Thanks for starting this thread.

[TennesseeAnts]

No problem! They are probably flying right now actually.

[Rstheant]

Oh my GOD, Prenos are flying??????

[TennesseeAnts]

They just got done flying actually. I failed to find a queen. Hundreds of males though. Tomorrow they will fly again.

[TennesseeAnts]

The Pheidole colonies are opening up their nests!

[Rstheant]

Lucky brats... no good flights....

Edited by Rstheant, March 13 2019 - 7:34 PM.

[TennesseeAnts]

It is finally Spring!!! Camponotus, Formica and Solenopsis will be flying shortly!

[xTNxANTMANx]

Indeed! Formica are more later on around our parts. From my seeing anyway but I hope like he'll to get a Solenopsis queen this year. There are about 8 Solenopsis richteri nests at my mother's house and I'm determined to get another this year. didn't have time last year. I also plan to get another Camponotus castaneus this year. Miss the one I managed to find my first year into the hobby. She was doing absolutely fantastic with like 15+ workers her first year! Long story...but the colony didn't survive. End of this month and start of April is great for Camponotus pennsylvanicus. Want to get me another one of them as well. My first year i had like 9 of them lol. Traded and gave away all but 2 to friends. Something went wrong with hibernation tho and lost just the queens once they came out of diapose. I managed to get 2 majors with the bigger of the 2 in year 1. Was devistated...like this thread though. Once Formica subserica and Formica pallidefulva start flying, they are all over my area if anyone is looking and would like me to get some. Gonna be a good year I think!

[TennesseeAnts]

Is it possible for a mod to delete this? (Double post)

Edited by Ant_Dude2908, March 21 2019 - 4:32 AM.

[TennesseeAnts]

F. subsericea are seldom found in my woods... But there is one HUGE colony under a rock that flies a lot in July-August. If you find more Solenopsis queens, I may want one!

[TennesseeAnts]

Oh, and yeah...

Species: Prenolepis imparis
Location: White House, Tennessee
Date: 3-20-29
Time: 6:30 pm
Temperature: 65 F
Humidity:%60
Wind: N/A
Rain: 2 weeks ago

[xTNxANTMANx]

My house is surrounded by Formica. I have found plenty of them and also Colobopsis. They are to small for my liking though. 

[TennesseeAnts]

ATTENTION ALL TENNESSEE ANTKEEPERS. I JUST FOUND A BUNCH OF CAMPONOTUS AMERICANUS   ALATES IN A NEST! THEY ARE FLYING SHORTLY! CHECK EVERY NIGHT.

My house is surrounded by Formica. I have found plenty of them and also Colobopsis. They are to small for my liking though.

I would love some Colobopsis!

 

 

 

Edited by Ant_Dude2908, March 21 2019 - 12:37 PM.

[TennesseeAnts]

I also got back from the woods and got what appears to be a Solenopsis sp. colony, and a Camponotus subbarbatus colony. The Camponotus subbarbatus are up for grabs!

Edited by Ant_Dude2908, March 21 2019 - 12:29 PM.

[xTNxANTMANx]

Getting colonies already established isn't a good thing in my opinion. Unless they are in danger, your best bet is to leave them be and raise them from queens caught during a nuptial flight. You put so much stress on a colony when you take them from an already established location. You do what you want but true ant keeping doesn't involve destroying a colony for ones own personal gain...its just not right. Which brings me to ask, the colony you are wanting to trade, you said you have had them for just a few months I believe...were they captured in this manner as well? don't take this as me bashing you or anything because I'm not. I am just stating that the way you collect and "boost" colonies...you are doing way more harm than good.

[TennesseeAnts]

They were, but it was a queen with two workers in fire wood. It was actually already in the fire pit.

[TennesseeAnts]

The reason why I collect colonies is because when I lived in Washington, I lived in the city and couldn't, so I guess I have been taking advantage of the fact that I live in Tennessee, in the middle of nowhere, with new and different ants. This year I am definitely going to get more queens though!

Edit: How is collecting queens from flights any different? Also by collecting young colonies I am doing them a favor by giving them a good home, food, water and health. 90 plus percent of colonies never make it to maturity in the wild. In captivity, it is much lower than that, at around 40 percent for me. Take my second largest C. chromaiodes colony for example. They were doing terribly I'm the wild, probably on their last breaths. The queen was about half as big as a healthy queen of her speices. Now she is healthy with almost 100 workers. They never would have made it that far it they were I'm the wild. Also, I am never awake when the Camponotus have their flights. I usually dig up founding chambers. (I'm not trying to be rude, just trying to make a point.)

Edited by Ant_Dude2908, March 26 2019 - 4:55 AM.

[ANTdrew]

There's no doubt your are providing a good home for your ants and helping them in the short term. The issue I see is that they are being effectively removed from the breeding pool, which could have a negative overall effect in the long term on the species locally. Colonies send out way more queens than will ever survive in nuptial flights, so there is a natural redundancy. Capturing a few queens right after flights has a lesser impact, I believe, than removing colonies that have already made it past the perilous founding stage. I'm personally opposed to the practice of capturing wild colonies, and I would like to see more members of this forum taking a stand against the practice. This is just my opinion, and by no means do I wish to put you down.