225 replies to this topic

[azzaaazzzz00]

Yesterday at like 2:00 am I saw something moving on the window sill of my bedroom (I still don't know why I was awake), I got up and realized it was a queen. So I ran to my drawer to get a test tube, basicly crushed my d*ck, ran back to window only to nearly fling myself out. And worst of all i didn't catch the queen. So pained and defeated I flopped back onto my bed.

Edited by azzaaazzzz00, February 22 2022 - 4:08 PM.

[NicholasP]

About a week ago I was anting flipping rocks seeing what species there were in my area and I flipped on rock and found a colony of Camponotus ocreatus underneath! There was a fair bit of brood, so I aspirated that but then it hit me that I had to snap out of getting the brood galore and instead look for the queen. So I flipped another rock that was part of the colony and I believe I saw the queen and she scurried away inside so I dug like a maniac tearing my hands to shreds and after 30 minutes of digging with my hands and sifting I realized she was gone. I felt so sad after that since I wouldn't be able to add ocreatus to my collection. And a few days later my knees hurt like crazy and still do today when I try to squat down and get back up. The price one must pay for the love of looking for ants is expensive but dang is it worth it!

[ANTS_KL]

Colobopsis queen flew onto my computer while I was in class. I was capturing her in front of everyone with my vid on so the rest of the class was very confused. This queen is currently rearing larvae

[PaigeX]

Today I found a small colony of Polyrhachis Hookeri in the leaf litter around a shed. I'm always around in this area so i have no idea how they got past my eyes xD.
Anyway... I was able to aspirate the whole colony + the queen, very easily (yay) and the whole time next to me not even a meter away was sheet metal from a roof.

I normally leave it there as I have found two bull ant queens under it a month apart and its a great area for other ant nests. I was around it for about an hour and in this time i had walked over it, dug near it and had a feeling to just have a look after it.
However I was too busy with the Poly colony that only to the end of everything when I was packing up my catching material did I lift it up to have a look under. 
This is when I found, curled up around the area I had just been sitting..... A baby Red belly black snake.

Unfortunately due to the approximate location where i frequently go, I had to end its life.    (death was very quick, had a shovel with me) Babies are the worse to have around. They are even more dangerous than the adults because they inject all their venom at once. Unlike the adults who have learnt to save it and not inject it all.

 

I normally don't kill that kind of snake even tho they are very venomous because they eat other venomous snakes and generally don't stay near human activity. They are the good kinds that eat the Eastern brown snake. The Eastern brown snake will not hesitate to attack you if you come too close to it. 

Its been a few years since I've seen a snake on the property around the house. Gonna have to be more careful for now on.

FYI - To me this was funny because i even walked over the darn thing (snake) and it never move. 

Edited by PaigeX, March 8 2022 - 9:24 PM.

[Leptomyrmx]

Today I found a small colony of Polyrhachis Hookeri in the leaf litter around a shed. I'm always around in this area so i have no idea how they got past my eyes xD.
Anyway... I was able to aspirate the whole colony + the queen, very easily (yay) and the whole time next to me not even a meter away was sheet metal from a roof.

I normally leave it there as I have found two bull ant queens under it a month apart and its a great area for other ant nests. I was around it for about an hour and in this time i had walked over it, dug near it and had a feeling to just have a look after it.
However I was too busy with the Poly colony that only to the end of everything when I was packing up my catching material did I lift it up to have a look under. 
This is when I found, curled up around the area I had just been sitting..... A baby Red belly black snake.

Unfortunately due to the approximate location where i frequently go, I had to end its life.    (death was very quick, had a shovel with me) Babies are the worse to have around. They are even more dangerous than the adults because they inject all their venom at once. Unlike the adults who have learnt to save it and not inject it all.

 

I normally don't kill that kind of snake even tho they are very venomous because they eat other venomous snakes and generally don't stay near human activity. They are the good kinds that eat the Eastern brown snake. The Eastern brown snake will not hesitate to attack you if you come too close to it. 

Its been a few years since I've seen a snake on the property around the house. Gonna have to be more careful for now on.

Whoah, yeah. I had an anting encounter with a snake (I think) once.

I was lifting rocks looking for ants, and then I saw this long black thing wriggling around crazily. I would have assumed it was a worm if it were a bit slower but it was, for no better phrase, wriggling really fast.

So I think it was a small snake of some kind.

[ColAnt735]

In July of 2021 my brother tripped and face planted onto pavement and from his shrieks of pain he told me that he found a Formica incerta queen that is the amazing and pretty painful experience for my brother (that I found funny because I always laugh when someone falls. I have issues I know) and the start of my Formica incerta colony.

Edited by ColAnt735, March 9 2022 - 4:54 PM.

[Leptomyrmx]

My brother tripped and face planted onto pavement and from his shrieks of pain he told me that he found a Formica incerta queen that is the amazing and pretty painful experience for my brother (that I found funny because I always laugh when someone falls. I have issues I know) and the start of my Formica incerta colony. 

 

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA- Oh look, a Formica incertaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA- queen AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-

[ColAnt735]

 

My brother tripped and face planted onto pavement and from his shrieks of pain he told me that he found a Formica incerta queen that is the amazing and pretty painful experience for my brother (that I found funny because I always laugh when someone falls. I have issues I know) and the start of my Formica incerta colony. 

 

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA- Oh look, a Formica incertaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA- queen AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-

You nailed the shrieks of terror from my brother mixed with the excitement of finding his first queen ant.

[Chickalo]

I forgot I existed for a solid couple of weeks

 

This story recently got brought up to me:

 

Spring/Summer of 2020 (actually might've been Fall of 2021)

 

To set the image, it's after school and children are leaving.  The stairwell is filled with people when out of the blue, a group of teenage girls yell in disgust outside of the exit.  The disgust is directed towards a large insect known as Camponotus pennsylvanicus.  However, I was at the bottom of the stairs talking to friends, but the yell managed to travel it's way down.  Obviously, yelling teenage girls mean one of two things; a boy, or alternatively, and oversized bug that's decently the size of a thumb.  Actually, I take that back, I know nothing about women.

 

Anyways.

 

Me, using my absolute amazing social skills, explain to the crowd of ever growing 学生 (I've been studying) about the evolution of ants, and how they're amazing creatures.  Sike, I can't talk!  So, ooga booga, caveman brain idea, I don't need to talk to them, I just need to run there and scoop the queen in a medicine bottle.  Like an absolute master of disguise, I run up next to the stairs so I can catch the queen with a clean getaway.  Pulling my dRuG bottle out as one would with a pokeball, I quickly open it up and scoop it in within milliseconds.  Just kidding, it took, like, four attempts until it actually went it.  Then I ran down and walked home.

 

The two best parts about it?

 

1.  The queen died.

2.  My friend brought it up to me today, for he was supposedly a bystander in all of this.

 

I've also been practicing my ability to convey a story in an interesting way, if you couldn't tell.

[NicholasP]

Formica incerta are flying up North?

Edited by NicholasP, March 9 2022 - 3:33 PM.

[ColAnt735]

I well actually my brother caught the queen in July. It’s still far to cold for ants here as it is only just above freezing in celsius.

Edited by ColAnt735, March 9 2022 - 4:53 PM.

[ANTdrew]

Formica incerta are flying up North?

Read his story again carefully.

[Leptomyrmx]

Another one I have, very short and random.

So I'm just walking to class at school, and it had been raining for a couple of days and it was raining at the time, and I look down and see a random Pheidole sp. queen just walking through the rain.

 

I had a more interesting one, I forgot it though. I'll go clean out my brain, maybe I'll find it.

[SYUTEO]

Here's a random one that happen a few weeks ago:

 

One time at school someone saw an insect on the shoulder of the person sitting nest to me, she didn't notice it until the teacher flicked it off. The insect turned out to be a queen alate of either Pheidole or Crematogaster but the teacher thought it's a moth  , I tried to get close to it to get a more accurate ID but someone told me not to get too close to it. I didn't managed to catch it because I don't have anything to put it in. 

[SYUTEO]

Colobopsis queen flew onto my computer while I was in class. I was capturing her in front of everyone with my vid on so the rest of the class was very confused. This queen is currently rearing larvae

I think the same thing happened to me with my late Carebara (Oligomyrmex) queen. Can't quite remember though.

[Chickalo]

Here's a random one that happen a few weeks ago:

 

One time at school someone saw an insect on the shoulder of the person sitting nest to me, she didn't notice it until the teacher flicked it off. The insect turned out to be a queen alate of either Pheidole or Crematogaster but the teacher thought it's a moth  , I tried to get close to it to get a more accurate ID but someone told me not to get too close to it. I didn't managed to catch it because I don't have anything to put it in. 

You should of said something along these lines:

 

"I went to eight years formicidae school and majored in *list a bunch of random ant genera*, so step aside and let the doctor take care of this."

[SYUTEO]

A long while ago I captured a small BCA colony and the next day the whole colony escaped because I forgot to close the lid. Oh, did I mention they can climb the barrier?

[LowQualityAnts]

I forgot I existed for a solid couple of weeks

This story recently got brought up to me:

Spring/Summer of 2020 (actually might've been Fall of 2021)

To set the image, it's after school and children are leaving. The stairwell is filled with people when out of the blue, a group of teenage girls yell in disgust outside of the exit. The disgust is directed towards a large insect known as Camponotus pennsylvanicus. However, I was at the bottom of the stairs talking to friends, but the yell managed to travel it's way down. Obviously, yelling teenage girls mean one of two things; a boy, or alternatively, and oversized bug that's decently the size of a thumb. Actually, I take that back, I know nothing about women.

Anyways.

Me, using my absolute amazing social skills, explain to the crowd of ever growing 学生 (I've been studying) about the evolution of ants, and how they're amazing creatures. Sike, I can't talk! So, ooga booga, caveman brain idea, I don't need to talk to them, I just need to run there and scoop the queen in a medicine bottle. Like an absolute master of disguise, I run up next to the stairs so I can catch the queen with a clean getaway. Pulling my dRuG bottle out as one would with a pokeball, I quickly open it up and scoop it in within milliseconds. Just kidding, it took, like, four attempts until it actually went it. Then I ran down and walked home.

The two best parts about it?

1. The queen died.
2. My friend brought it up to me today, for he was supposedly a bystander in all of this.

I've also been practicing my ability to convey a story in an interesting way, if you couldn't tell.

This is too relatable

I got called out for having drugs a few weeks ago because I left a test tube in my pocket.

Edited by LowQualityAnts, October 16 2022 - 5:26 PM.

[AntPerson76]

I know no one has posted here for almost a year but I'd like to share my stories. Whenever I'm with my friend or brothers and I'm outside anting and find a red colored ant, they tell me, "don't touch that it's a fire ant!". I look back at the red carpenter ant and try to explain to them that it doesn't sting. It's honestly funny but I also hate how so many people misidentify any red ant for fire ants. Another funny time was when I was lifting rocks next to a sidewalk and people walked by. I immediately stood up and stayed there until they walked past and then crouched down and began lifting up rocks again. Anting can make you look like your word but it's rewarding.
The most memorable time is when I was at a outdoor restaurant, and lasius were flying all over. I would get up from my table and try to go under the wooden railing without anyone seeing me so I could go into the parking lot and pick up that lasius queen I spotted. The test tubes I take out of my pocket randomly definitely make people stare at me.

[Izzy]

I got pulled over by the police on Friday for speeding (guilty, it was a flat road in the middle of no where and no one is on it so I was going 70 in a 55). He immediately noticed the bin full of snap cap vials on my passenger seat and asked what it was. So I had to explain there were queens in there. He never actually checked though, so would be a good thing to say if you're really into that kind of thing.

About a month ago I was up in the mountains with a friend looking for some ants. I was near some spot where I guess people who are backpacking the area camp out at a lot and this guy saw me looking around and flipping rocks and asked me what I was doing. I told him I was looking for ants to raise ant colonies and he just looked at me and said very aggressively: "Why?" I don't remember what I said, I think my friend just responded (its nice to have a wingman so you don't feel so insane), but I wanted to ask him the same thing about camping alone in the woods.

 

Debating about carrying around a clipboard and getting an orange vest to wear when I go out as nobody will dare question you if you have those.