28 replies to this topic

[Manitobant]

Finding your first queen is a very exciting event. This thread has been made to tell us about the very first queen you ever caught (while you were an antkeeper of course).

I will start:


My very first queen was a camponotus novaeboracensis found at my grandmas house. I didn't have any tubes on me so I put her in a pill container with a hole in it (i had no intact ones on me). I blocked this hole with a cotton pad that was wetted to give her hydration until I bought some test tubes. Sadly, I underestimated the strength of camponotus jaws and she chewed her way out and I couldn't find her despite searching through my whole garage

Edited by Manitobant, December 11 2019 - 4:20 PM.

[NickAnter]

Mine was a Pheidole navigans queen.  It was infertile and died soon after though.

[Ferox_Formicae]

Camponotus nearcticus. I thought she was dying, so left her in an open container. When I checked on her in the morning though, she was gone.

[camponotuskeeper]

Tetramorium immigrans found at least fifty when I first began ant keeping in my pool.

Edited by camponotuskeeper, December 11 2019 - 4:43 PM.

[ponerinecat]

Interesting one: a hypoponera cf opaciceps queen.

[JenC]

Prenolepis Imparis, caught her on my driveway.

[Somethinghmm]

Solenopsis xyloni. I found her struggling in my toilet out of sheer luck. She turned out to be infertile though.

[Formicoidea]

Rhytidoponera Metallica, i knew the queen needed food during brood development, but i didn't know i needed to give them insects. She ate her brood and eventually died... Not my proudest achievement...

[ANTdrew]

Tetramorium immigrans. She is still thriving.

[TennesseeAnts]

Formica pacifica. She has a huge 4,000 worker strong colony now.

[Broncos]

Pogonomyrmex Rugosus, sadly she was infertile.

[dspdrew]

Crematogaster

[B_rad0806]

Solenopsis 

[DDD101DDD]

Camponoutus Pennsylvannicus

[Jean]

Novomessor Cockerelli. Was forced to give the fledgling colony of queen + 6 workers away when I moved out of state! Very sad.

[AntsExodus]

Formica queen. She was fertile but I had to release her because I had moved.

[TheMicroPlanet]

I haven't been able to capture any queens yet, but the first queen i got to actually observe was a Prenolepis imparis alate.

Edited by TheMicroPlanet, December 15 2019 - 2:36 PM.

[Antlover24]

Mine was also tetramorium immigrans she is doing fine still.(=

[Dnail]

Carabera afinis 

[LPN1982]

Camponotus floridanus was the first queen ant that I caught. I found her early in the morning hiding under a flower pot near my driveway. She was a nice decent sized queen, and already shed her wings.

I immediately put together a test tube setup and even placed a small amount of clean (chemical free) soil within it. I left her alone for 2 days, and when I checked on her she had a nice little pile of eggs. I offered her small dabs of honey or maple syrup twice weekly to give her some extra energy even though they are fully claustral.

Camponotus floridanus was probably the coolest species I have ever had the pleasure of raising. Even now I have a 2 year old colony with so many workers, decent amount of larvae, and piles of pupae. I caught the queen this past June 2018.

Edited by LPN1982, August 15 2020 - 2:08 AM.