6 replies to this topic

[Vendayn]

Will Argentine ants grow nicely with only two queens? And produce alates? I am showing a class how Argentine ants spread fast and displace native ant species. That was the plan anyway. But I wanted to get a colony that was by the school. I saw lots of Solenopsis invicta, and one small Argentine ant colony and all I could get was two Argentine ant queens (that was all the colony had). So, it will probably just end up how Argentine ants and Solenopsis interact with each other, since there aren't any native ants by the school.

 

Will the Argentine ant colony even do anything? Would they even produce alates with such a small number of queens? And usually 1-3 queens die when I get Argentine ants, so worst case scenario there won't be any queens. Otherwise, I may end up with just one, especially since one of the queens looks weak (and she is missing her legs on half her body, probably attacked by S. invicta at one point). The kids will observe them (and Solenopsis invicta) over the Summer, and in Winter I'll get the colony back.

 

But, with 1-2 queens, I dunno...I'm worried its a bust and there won't be much in the way of Argentine ants to observe. Unless at least one queen can expand fast enough and produce alates by herself.

 

[Ants4fun]

Can you show them how Solenopais displace other ants? They are invasive, yet far much easier to raise. I believe it would still show how they displace native sp.

[Vendayn]

Well, I'm trying to keep things more locally around the school. I don't want to get something from somewhere else. And only two ant species are there by the school that would be fun for the kids to watch, Argentine ants (and I probably got the last colony for that area, going to try one more time to find another colony) and Solenopsis invicta. There is sort of a nature area by them, with no irrigation. It is probably an acre, so not that big. Except on the outer part of it, are houses that look like they use more water in a day than I do in a month. But, all that is there are Solenopsis invicta as well. I DID see Solenopsis molesta, but those escape too easily and are too tiny.

 

If there were Brachymyrmex I might have done those (though they aren't native either), but I didn't see any Brachymyrmex colonies in the area. Just those three I listed in first paragraph.

 

I guess I could take workers from somewhere else, but that doesn't sound that great to do.

Edited by Vendayn, March 17 2016 - 5:59 PM.

[Vendayn]

Would Argentine ants not do good with one queen? Since 2nd one is most likely to die anyway. Might be interesting to see what they do with only one queen, but I dunno if she'd ever produce alates. Cause one thing I'm hoping is they produce alates this year, so the kids can see how much they expand. Solenopsis invicta mate in the air I guess (pretty sure I read that, and they need other colonies to mate with), so can't really do that with them.

[Ants4fun]

I have never heard of anyone having an Argentine ant colony do well enough to produce alates. I haven't fared very well keeping them myself.

[klawfran3]

I have never heard of anyone having an Argentine ant colony do well enough to produce alates. I haven't fared very well keeping them myself.

I tried keeping them but I found them pretty bland. Nothing special about them (no polymorphism, stingers, size, color, etc.) and they don't have any really interesting habits to me. I froze them after about two weeks because I'm not going to release them of course.

They never stayed in their test tubes either, they always camped out around their outworld. Miserable ants to keep, I would go to the Solenopsis any day. Solenopsis are one of my favorite genera of ants too so I might be biased

 

It was the same with my Monomorium ergatogyna colony too, they never hung out in any nests I gave them at all. It was actually pretty ridiculous because I went to some crazy lengths to get them in it. Fans constantly blowing into the outworld, bright hot lights on 24/7, near constant agitation, and the ants would move into the nest for about ten minutes and then bring all the brood back out. The nest was dark, moist, roomy, and warm, so they had no reason to NOT go into it. But at least Monomorium can be somewhat interesting

Edited by klawfran3, March 18 2016 - 7:50 AM.

[dspdrew]

You should have made the nest look like a small garbage can. The Argentine ants would have loved it.