51 replies to this topic

[Bugging3out]

Hello all, yes I am a newbie at this forum but I have been keeping ants for 1 year and 2 months and I have learned a lot since then, so I am up for the challenge to keep fire ants. probably the hardest species of fire ant to keep. and no this is not click bait for Solenopsis molesta, okay? so lets get straight into it.

alright it all started off as a normal day all I have in my ant room its just same old native ants beside my Formica pacifica who I got rom my friend in Washington state. anyways I went online to the antscanada.com GAN farmer page. I went to Georgia for some random reason. there it was Solenopsis invicta for sale $35 and I was like I want to drive to Georgia but ended up seeing a email address so I clicked on it and i said to the person can you ship the Solenopsis invicta colony? he said yes I can ship it but you'll have to pay the shipping fee. then I asked him if there was a difference with S. Geminata and S. Invicta, and he said yes big difference invicta is much smaller then geminata and the queens live less. so geminata is a much better choice he said but it will be more expensive and he has many of S. geminata. So 2 weeks later I bought a Solenopsis geminata colony that had 5 workers and they were the dark form of It from the guy. its gonna come July 8th through the 9th. so I put a poll if I should take of video of my unboxing the geminata colony. so please answer that. anyways I won't let this species go in anyway once I have it and I won't sell it. so new York is not harmed.

 

peace!

Edited by Bugging3out, June 30 2021 - 8:20 AM.

[Skwiggledork]

Hi, Welcome to the forum. I'm also from NY, so it's nice to see people from my neck of the woods. Heads up though, transporting ants across state lines without a permit is illegal and frowned upon, especially with non native Solenopsis. If you happen to be near Ulster county I'd love to go hunting and hopefully find some of the awesome local species we have.

[Bugging3out]

yes the person selling it has a license so its perfectly fine to order.

[Bugging3out]

so feel free to order since then person selling

it has a license.

[Skwiggledork]

Permit to ship S.geminata/invicta?

 

lol. I could be wrong. Either way I can't wait to see pictures or videos and I hope they do well for you.

[Bugging3out]

Thank you.

[AntBoi3030]

If you would like to get rid of them you must destroy them in the freezer. There stings hurt like heck and they usually sting on mass and require high amounts of food and heat.

[ANTdrew]

Oh boy. Ain’t no good coming from this.
Please do not bring any more business to this unethical GAN farmer. Edit your post to remove his email.

[Skwiggledork]

Just out of curiosity, what is the biggest colony you have with you 14 months experience? I'm going on 4 years or so and the biggest I've had was a few hundred Tetramorium that I killed by accident trying to make a naturalistic setup.

[ANTdrew]

Let me be real. Once a colony gets above 1,000 ants, it’s not very much fun. It is WORK.
Here’s a scenario to think about: your huge fire ant colony empties its nectar feeder every few days. The massive colony fills every inch of the outworld, including the feeder. You need to brush hundreds of angry, stinging workers off the feeder every 48 hours just to refill it. You need to repeat doing this for 8 months a year, ever year. Does that still sound fun to you?

[Bugging3out]

Well I don’t know.

[Bugging3out]

Honestly like antboi said I can just put them in the freezer. I will take down the email now. You’re right it’s just gonna bring harm.

[Bugging3out]

Okay the ants arrive on 8-9 of July when they arrive I will end the pole and see what the votes are. Remember vote!

[Chickalo]

Let me be real. Once a colony gets above 1,000 ants, it’s not very much fun. It is WORK.
Here’s a scenario to think about: your huge fire ant colony empties its nectar feeder every few days. The massive colony fills every inch of the outworld, including the feeder. You need to brush hundreds of angry, stinging workers off the feeder every 48 hours just to refill it. You need to repeat doing this for 8 months a year, ever year. Does that still sound fun to you?

This is why whenever I see opportunity to by a split colony I ask for 50 or less workers.  A. so I can enjoy the small peaceful time longer and B. so its less money lmao (someone however doesn't want to give me just 50 [cough cough Otter cough cough])

Edited by Chickalo, June 30 2021 - 8:22 AM.

[ANTdrew]

Honestly like antboi said I can just put them in the freezer. I will take down the email now. You’re right it’s just gonna bring harm.

Maybe you still have time to cancel and get a refund? I’m not trying to sweat you, but I know from experience how much goes into raising and containing massive colonies. I saw you already have Tetramorium. They are basically off-brand fire ants, but their stings don’t burn like fire, nor are they an ecological catastrophe. Why not learn with them?

[AntBoi3030]

You could also just keep the colony small I’m not sure how but you could. Maybe don’t feed them very often and keep them cool.

[CatsnAnts]

Yeah, don’t buy from out of state lines for most, if not all, situations. Even if the seller has a permit, you would also need a permit for the specific species that you are buying to bring them back to NY. I really don’t understand why so many people are so keen to get their hands on a colony of fire ants; I personally am really into exploring the native colonies around where I live, and I can guarantee you that there are far more interesting, and safe, ants to find. I would cancel the order as soon as possible, as getting caught could have bad consequences, especially if packaged is inspected. Either way it’s up to you to make the right decision, but just because you shouldn’t have fire ants doesn’t mean that you can’t have loads of other cool species, it just takes time to find them - which is part of the fun!

[AntsMaryland]

Are you sure this seller even has a license...? Also, I could be wrong so anyone who knows, please correct me – but I always thought the responsibility for a permit is mostly centered around the person KEEPING the ant colony. Why would a seller have a blanket license to ship Solenopsis invicta, logically? One of the species that's the reason we have restrictions for transporting queens across state lines.

Edited by AntsMaryland, June 30 2021 - 1:45 PM.

[Swirlysnowflake]

Are you sure this seller even has a license...? Also, I could be wrong so anyone who knows, please correct me – but I always thought the responsibility for a permit is mostly centered around the person KEEPING the ant colony. Why would a seller have a blanket license to ship Solenopsis invicta, logically? One of the species that's the reason we have restrictions for transporting queens across state lines.

Yes, most times it is the receiver who needs the permit. An exception is TarHeelAnts for example, who has a permit to ship a Formica species to some states. A permit for S. invicta is so unlikely, I would be willing to bet the seller definitely does not have a permit.

[ANTS_KL]

WHY U BUY?! WHY?!?!?!? S. geminata and invicta are highly invasive sp.