52 replies to this topic

[Vendayn]

They even make that weird carton-like material my old Pheidole megacephala colony had. That colony I froze in the freezer, but they made weird nests too.

Edited by Vendayn, September 6 2015 - 6:30 PM.

[dspdrew]

I'm confused. What does your dad or the apartment have to do with you sending something to somebody in the mail?

[Vendayn]

With that said. All the native ants I introduced have been killed by Solenopsis invicta and Argentine ants combined. The entire project of introducing native ants failed.

 

If I have to choose between S. invicta (which sting and are far more annoying) or Argentine ants (which do sting as my mom gets stung by them a lot and gets allergic reactions) that are very annoying. Or Pheidole megacephala, which don't sting or bite and are at least kinda interesting. And not annoying at all. I'll just choose to keep Pheidole megacephala around. I'd MUCH rather have those than the other two. No one likes Solenopsis invicta, and not many people actually like Argentine ants. The entire area has already been taken over by invading ants, pretty sure Pheidole megacephala aren't going to do that much more damage than what S. invicta will be doing after their massive flights.

 

Too bad all the native ants I tried saving died anyway, but they were going to die even before I tried helping them. Sad, but guess that is the way it is.

[Vendayn]

I don't have a car to drive to a post office, and the only way to send things here is to go either through management at the apartment office or the post office. Seeing that going into the actual apartment office isn't a good idea as dad would get rather pissed I went behind his back (they keep logs online of who does what at the office and facilities). And I have no way to get to a post office...I have to rely on dad to ship things to people.

 

Plus, as my point was. If I have to choose between the three invasive ants, since the pest control isn't going to do a mass killing of S. invicta (which flew by the thousands the other day) and Argentine ants...I'd much rather have Pheidole megacephala. So if I send samples in (if dad actually agreed to go to the post office, but he doesn't since he doesn't want people seeing the address), people see the address and then come and kill the P. megacephala. Then all that is left is VERY annoying Solenopsis invicta or the very boring and annoying Argentine ants that always give mom an allergic reaction. And all the native ants here are dead now, they got defeated very quickly this year. On top of the bulldozing they have going on, all that is left is invasive and non-native ants now.

No more Pogonomyrmex californicus or anything else that is native. My entire project of introducing native ants failed.

 

However, if pest control killed every Argentine ant and Solenopsis invicta (which are far more numerous now). I'd probably try to convince my dad more. But, Argentine ants and S.invicta are by far the worst of the three.

Edited by Vendayn, September 6 2015 - 6:54 PM.

[dspdrew]

Argentine ants don't sting; they don't have stingers.

[Vendayn]

Oh, I guess they bite then. Well, I guess mom is allergic to their bite as she gets bit by them and she gets a huge red rash any time that happens. If she itches it, it spreads up her arm/leg. She is deathly allergic to Fire ants, not as much to Argentine ants but it bothers her a lot and leaves her skin all red and itchy. She is very allergic to ants. Funny enough, she had Pheidole megacephala climb on her at the pool last night and it didn't bother her at al,l even when a worker tried biting. She didn't have pain or anything, which is normal for P. megacephala.

 

Wonder what it is with Argentine ants then that make mom's skin get really bad till she takes a shower.

 

Well, in any case. There are already tons of invasive ants all over the place and no more native ants. I spent all day yesterday and today looking; either the colonies have been bulldozed or/and have been killed off by S.invicta and Argentine ants. Sad, there used to be a much bigger ant diversity around here. I went to each native ant colony in the area, and they don't exist anymore. In their place are S. invicta and Argentine ants.

 

Guess introducing and relocating native ants doesn't work out that well when the area is already heavily invaded by other ants. It did work out for a while.

Edited by Vendayn, September 6 2015 - 7:06 PM.

[Vendayn]

On the bright side, at least it wasn't anyone that actually purposely brought all these invasive ants. The S. invicta have been around a while, except this year they had MASSIVE flights. Argentine ants were already everywhere and the Pheidole megacephala came in on plumerias and other plants gardeners brought in. They probably didn't even notice the ants, since not many people actually notice things like that unless they sting/bite.

 

I at least did tell the complex and they went out and sprayed weird blue foam and put ant baits out. Didn't help much at all. But, the entire area is already pretty much gone as far as native ants go. Even down by the river are mounds of S.invicta now. Kill one species, and there is still a massive problem of S.invicta and Argentine ants...doesn't really do anything to help lol.

 

I'll probably just tell management again and they'll go and spray that weird blue foam again and put more ant baits. Too bad the native ants are already gone though.

 

I live off alton pkwy though in one of the apartments along that road, if pest control wants to come here and kill the S.invicta. That would sure be nice. Then a sorta short walk to the river down through spectrum used to be Pogonomyrmex californicus but they died. Lots of Argentine ants there. All the invasive ants are just north of the freeway.

 

I'll try and get management to do something about the S.invicta though that are everywhere. Maybe they can do two rounds of foamy stuff and ant baits, that should work out better.

 

(edit: Well, they aren't Pheidole. They sting, though just not very aggressive except against Argentine ants. Must be some type of Solenopsis.

 

In any case, looks like relocating native ants didn't work out that well. The Solenopsis invicta and Argentine ants killed all my efforts. )

Edited by Vendayn, September 6 2015 - 11:35 PM.

[gcsnelling]

I rather suspected that would be the response, how bout collecting a decent sample and meeting up with someone who could send them to me? I know of a few folks in that area that might be willing to do so. Or if you can give me some more detail about where the ants are I can perhaps get a friend over that way to look for them. I am working on a paper and confirmation of this population would be quite valuable.

Edited by gcsnelling, September 7 2015 - 4:30 AM.

[BrittonLS]

I fully support combating invasive species with native ones. Even if they got out of control the local environment is equipped to deal with them when invasive ants can have very few predators.

I would NOT suggest telling your apartment complex to spray or put out general ant bait. When you over spray stuff like that usually it kills off native species and the invasive ones are less effected by it, leaving them a nice unoccupied hole to fill in.

Also I figured all Pheidile stung since they are Mymicinae? Oh I just looked it up, only some members of Myrmicinae have stingers.

[Vendayn]

Nope, they are Pheidole megacephala. I took some workers and soldiers from my neighbor's plant pot and took them to Costa Mesa. They did fight, but they are 100% the same. The queens even look 100% the same. I don't know what stung me, but maybe there are Solenopsis around to that look about the same. In any case, the P. megacephala are really beating up the Argentine ants...they haven't stood any chance.

 

And yeah decided not to tell the complex. They made it worse by spraying the weird blue foam. It just made the ants spread out a lot more

Edited by Vendayn, September 8 2015 - 1:35 PM.

[Subverted]

I rather suspected that would be the response, how bout collecting a decent sample and meeting up with someone who could send them to me? I know of a few folks in that area that might be willing to do so. Or if you can give me some more detail about where the ants are I can perhaps get a friend over that way to look for them. I am working on a paper and confirmation of this population would be quite valuable.

 

I can try to run by his area in a day or two. I think I live the closest to him and I have loads of free time.

 

Vendayn, give me some tips on where to look in your apartment complex. Are they over by that park that leads down to the "river"?

[Vendayn]

Subverted, I sent you off a private message with my actual sort of location. I just don't like people knowing where I live on the internet. But, maybe thursday we can meet outside the main office and I can give you the samples. I'll give a bunch of workers and whatever soldiers I can in a plastic tube. I don't have anything to preserve them, so I'll just put them in as they are. They are definitely Pheidole megacephala, but we can have an expert/someone else confirm.

Edited by Vendayn, September 8 2015 - 5:57 PM.

[gcsnelling]

Once you have them they can be preserved in plain rubbing alcohol. Seal the vial tightly and you can send them to me. Shoot me a PM and will give you a mailing address.

[Vendayn]

I gave him the location(s) where I found them. So if he is in the area he can come to look if he wants. I just won't be here.

 

Tomorrow I'm leaving, since too much traffic to travel anywhere on Fridays (and weekends). Except, the apartments have been spraying all over every two days (I let subverted know), so hopefully there are remnants of them left so its not just a big waste of time. I'd be very sad since no one would ever know. The only colony I know of that is left is in my neighbor's garage, because I took the colony that was in his pot and kept it for myself. The large colony by the river I watched them getting heavily sprayed, it looked like kind of overkill but oh well. I checked on them and only saw Argentine ants where they used to be, so I don't know. They seemed to have moved back in fast, but there are lots of those along the river.

 

But captive ant samples don't seem very helpful since they could kind of just come from anywhere. And as a side note, if they get too many, I'm definitely freezing them. From what I saw of them, they sure expand fast and are actually way worse than Argentine ants if they got everywhere.

 

Oh! I'll send him another PM, he can find a colony that I know is still there as I saw them the other day. No one has sprayed in that area. And it isn't so close to my unit that anyone would know where I live. There is at least two colonies by my area that I know are still there, but I don't want random people knowing close where I live.

 

(edit: Yeah hopefully me and him can meet tomorrow as I shouldn't need to leave till the evening. The weird thing is, this colony is pretty small and there aren't any other colonies anywhere around that I could see. All the others are/were (unless they sprayed them) in other sections of the complex where I live. But, maybe I haven't explored that area enough, its pretty far from where I live in the complex. I only saw them because I saw some workers and soldiers along the sidewalk/pavement and someone dropped food and they were making a trail to it. But, should make good samples that aren't from my captive colony. I did put more food out for them, some wet cat food, just to see how big the colony is. Looks small, so must be sort of new.)

Edited by Vendayn, September 9 2015 - 5:28 PM.

[gcsnelling]

Any luck?

[Subverted]

I havent run over there as Vendayn is leaving on a trip for a few days, its been super hot, and I'm not terribly keen on exploring an apartment complex without living there! I might go look in the next few days or possibly wait to connect with Vendayn at the end of next week.

[gcsnelling]

Ok. Thanks

[Subverted]

Well, finally the Pheidole in question are found:

 

 

 

I will try to get some better pics later on, didn't have as much time to devote to that as I thought tonight.

[gcsnelling]

I look forward to seeing them in person.

[Vendayn]

It was really hard to find a colony that was still left. We ended up going toward where I initially saw most of them, but there were still a lot less. A lot of ant bait was still around, and they had gone in and sprayed a lot. But, at least he was able to get samples for you. I don't imagine the Pheidole megacephala will last long though here, with all the ant bait they put out. But, that is a good thing!