30 replies to this topic

[Vendayn]

65q24g4g5f

Edited by Vendayn, March 9 2018 - 7:18 PM.

[Ants4fun]

Congrats! You can also add more queens as you find more!

[Vendayn]

65q24g4g5f

Edited by Vendayn, March 9 2018 - 7:19 PM.

[Ants4fun]

I meant that you could catch them from nuptial flights!

[Vendayn]

65q24g4g5f

Edited by Vendayn, March 9 2018 - 7:19 PM.

[Vendayn]

65q24g4g5f

Edited by Vendayn, March 9 2018 - 7:19 PM.

[Vendayn]

65q24g4g5f

Edited by Vendayn, March 9 2018 - 7:19 PM.

[Vendayn]

65q24g4g5f

Edited by Vendayn, March 9 2018 - 7:19 PM.

[SMILEforAnts]

Yeah fluon is a godsend!

 

And they probably have a laid back personality because you know what they say about California.....the best weed is grown there and you know the air must be filled with a little something something if you know what I mean! lol jk. Good luck with them though!

[Vendayn]

I found a dying Camponutus queen, swarmed by Argentine ants. Queen was yuge. I froze her and gave her to the Pheidole colony. I put a piece of chicken too, which had a few ants eating it. But,less than 5 minutes hundreds of ants were already getting the Camponotus queen. A huge, one inch sized queen meal for them.

[AntLover101]

"Queen sized meal"

[Vendayn]

Haha! Yup.

Also, like I said in smile's journal of his pheidole colony. I'm glad I probably got two queens. I don't want as many ants in that fast of a time period. I wouldn't know what to do lol.

[dspdrew]

Where'd you find the Camponotus queen?

[Vendayn]

Along the sidewalk. On the other side of the hill is a bunch of trees and other stuff (can't really see it). I've never been there because its blocked off, but Solenopsis invicta are over there too. And, some other species I never got an ID on (maybe another type of Camponotus, or a Formica species). They fenced the entire area off though, so I can't even get onto the hillside.

 

The Camponotus queen was big, pure black and very shiny too. Reminded me of a Camponotus modoc queen I found up in Yosemite a few years ago. Looked pretty much the same. Do we have any species that are similar down here?

[dspdrew]

Did it have white hairs?

[Vendayn]

Well, I looked at the leftover abdomen and yeah, it has white hairs. I see Camponotus modoc has those, but I thought that was a northern California species. I'll have to see if I can't find an actual living queen, tomorrow. It be great to have a colony of them, without going 9 hour drive north. From my understanding, their colonies get really huge. Unless there is a similar looking species down here.

[Vendayn]

65q24g4g5f

Edited by Vendayn, March 9 2018 - 7:19 PM.

[Vendayn]

65q24g4g5f

Edited by Vendayn, March 9 2018 - 7:19 PM.

[Vendayn]

65q24g4g5f

Edited by Vendayn, March 9 2018 - 7:19 PM.

[Vendayn]

Something I've observed of Pheidole moerens, that I haven't seen mentioned anywhere. They are mostly active at night. When I have the heat lamp on, I barely see any out. At night, I turn it off and they become a lot more active. However, I have seen them active in shady areas in the day time or on cooler days. So, they seem to like cooler temperatures, which may account for them becoming active when I turn off the heat lamp.