17 replies to this topic

[Kaelwizard]

This is about sharing the most disappointing thing ever- when you lose the queen you are trying to catch! (and never find it again) I'll start it off:

Today, I found my first Leptothorax queen ever, but-don't forget the but- it fell of the container into wood chips, and with it being so small it was impossible to find.

Edited by Kaelwizard, July 29 2020 - 3:05 PM.

[AnthonyP163]

I just found a Monomorium minimum queen crawling on my door earlier. First time I'd ever seen a Monomorium queen, and I put a tube beneath her and she fell down. Ran into a crack between the wall and my door and was never seen again.

[ANTdrew]

Not ants, but I caught several Recticulitermes flavipes termite alates this summer. I set their vial on top my hot car for like 15 seconds while loading up my kids, but that was enough to bake them.

[Spazmops]

Never lost a queen while catching, but one of my lasius queens escaped the other day through a gap in the cotton

[Antkid12]

Lost a Strumigenys queen. I accidentally killed her while trying to but her in the tube. 

[TheMicroPlanet]

Well, though I didn't actually lose her, I ALMOST lost my current Camponotus pennsylvanicus queen. I found her scaling a tree in my backyard, so I had to climb to get her (I was quite determined...). So I got out my snapcap vile and try to catch her, then boom; one small mistake sends her falling to the ground from about a meter 1/2 up. She was fine, of course, and I very well could've lost her. Luckily though, I DID catch her and she's got pupae and is expecting nanitics this very day!

[AntsMaryland]

Caught a Pheidole sp. queen and was trying to put her in a test in my garage and dropped the queen… never found it.

[Devi]

Lets see... I guess this kind of counts.  I was looking for ants by peeling away bark from a rotted tree and after a lot of bark-peeling, I found a Camponotus!  I got really excited and bent down to collect her, and that's when I realized she was already dead.   Hey, at least she wasn't alive and I crushed her or something, that would make me even more upset. lol

[ponerinecat]

Drowned a crippled pseudomyrmex queen in a drop of dew after rescuing her from a liom luctuosum trail

[Manitobant]

I have a few stories

Dropped a test tube on a formica subsericea queen, crushing her

Decapitated a leptothorax canadensis queen while trying to put a test tube over her

Slapped a temnothorax ambiguus queen after she landed on my arm and i thought she was a mosquito

Crushed a physogastric brachymyrmex depilis queen's gaster after picking her up

that's what i can remember off of the top of my head, but there is probably many more incidents

Edited by Manitobant, July 29 2020 - 10:38 AM.

[ponerinecat]

I mean I've "accidentally" smeared a lot of Linepithema queens. May or may not have been intentional, sometimes your foot just repeatedly slips, you know?

[VenomousBeast]

Back when I lived in Texas, I lost an Atta queen due to her loosing all her fungus. Those rookie mistakes I do have a journal on them though! (Physical journal, not on here.)

[OhNoNotAgain]

Oh man, reading these is painful!

 

The first queen I saw in this area was one who just landed on my windshield at a red light.

I would've had time to open the door, grab the queen ... but nowhere to put her.

While I waffled the traffic light turned green.

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, August 3 2020 - 1:16 PM.

[Antkid12]

Oh man, reading these is painful!

 

The first queen I saw in this area was one who just landed on my windshield at a red light.

I would've had time to open the door, grab the queen ... but nowhere to put her.

While I waffled the traffic light turned green.

Do you know what species it was?

[NickAnter]

For me it was a, queen that got away, it was my stupidity in releasing them. I caught 2 Formica aserva queens, and saw many more that I did not collect. I looked for hosts, but didn't find any, and then, then, as I couldn't find hosts I release them. The next day I find hosts.

[Spazmops]

Ouch...

[zantezaint]

I messed up big time. I lost a Linepithema humile queen. It scurried into my keyboard in the garage. I can't find it now, but, if it does escape into the wild and takes over, god have mercy on my soul.

[LiMike]

I was out on my Harley when I passed by a local park That I usually go to hunt for queens. My family was out for the day so I had a couple of hours to kill. I figured why not stop and look for some queens. I always have 2 test tubes on me so I'm ready!! After about 5 minutes I came across a beautiful Camponotus Americanus. I was very surprised and excited!! I got her into the test tube and put her right into my front pocket. There are a lot of familys playing with their kids and walking their dogs and what not. I didn't want to look like some drug guy getting off his harley walking around the park with a vial in his hand so into the pocket it goes LOL People always ask me if I lost something when I am looking and when I explain that I'm actually looking for queen ants they give a look LOL anyway I kept looking for about 20 more minutes and when I got back to my bike I took out the test tube and the cotton must have fallen off when I was bending down ( she was gone) in my pants no less LOL anyway, I never seen her again. I'm just glad I didn't find her squashed in my pocket.