23 replies to this topic

[Nathant2131]

Hello, everyone! I am a beginner ant keeper from the Boston area of Massachusetts. I sort of just woke up one day and randomly decided ants were cool, (I have super anti-climactic origin stories    ) so I did some research and found AntsCanada, and now I am here. I am so engulfed and fascinated by this hobby already, and hope to learn more in the future on this seemingly very active forum, although I primarily use the AC Ant Forum right now, so don't expect lightning-quick replies from me.   So yeah, just wanted to say a quick little hello to anyone reading this and have a nice day! 

[Kevin]

This forum is much active than AC with a better community, and I highly recommend you make a full move over to Formiculture.

[Nathant2131]

This forum is much active than AC with a better community, and I highly recommend you make a full move over to Formiculture.

Yes I have been considering that, but I believe I would like to zoom around the forum, get used to it, and make a gradual move, as this forum is a bit more complex than ACAF. Chances are this will eventually be my go-to forum eventually, though. Thank you for the reccomendation! 

[noebl1]

Hey!  Just saw you are from Dracut, I'm literally next door in Tyngsboro  Welcome!

[Nathant2131]

Hey!  Just saw you are from Dracut, I'm literally next door in Tyngsboro  Welcome!

Oh you are that close? That is pretty cool!

[Alabama Anter]

Hey man Welcome! I have to agree with Kevin! Formiculture.com is wayyyy more active/less strict then the AC forums! We have way more knowledgeable personal as well! Welcome again

[noebl1]

Yup!  Bunch of us here in MA; met a couple so far near work giving away a few extra queens I had (and vice versa)

 

Looking at your wish list... 

• P. Imparis is on my wishlist too, one of the guys outside of Boston was nice enough to give me one, but not so sure she's fertile.  I looked all Spring and never found any.
• Temnothorax during the early summer were *very* plentiful here. Several nights this summer with a flashlight and my shirt was covered with them.
• Formica -  I may have a colony I need to evict from a box outside, see this thread (http://www.formicult...bernating-pics/), if I find a queen and if they survived the -4F, you are welcome to them.  Not 100% on the ID, can validate when I relocate them.
• Aphaenogaster - Didn't see any flying this year. 
• L. Alienus - I may have at least 1 (potentially 3 as not 100% on ID due to similar look in Lasius queens), but another member has first dibs from last season.  I also may have some extra L. Neoniger as well.

I much prefer here over AC forums... Knowledgeable group, very helpful, and especially as I can post ----^ without being banned for not being part of GAN

Edited by noebl1, December 19 2016 - 6:06 PM.

[T.C.]

Hello, and welcome to the forum. Honestly I wouldn't say Ants Canada is a bad forum, and perhaps these people are making it sound a little like it is a forum for the devil. I know he has got strict rules, and it may be not as active as formiculture. However Ants Canada has brought a lot of people to the hobby. So I believe he deserves some credit for that at least.

[noebl1]

Hello, and welcome to the forum. Honestly I wouldn't say Ants Canada is a bad forum, and perhaps these people are making it sound a little like it is a forum for the devil. I know he has got strict rules, and it may be not as active as formiculture. However Ants Canada has brought a lot of people to the hobby. So I believe he deserves some credit for that at least.

I don't think it's the forum for the devil; as a matter of fact I like the Nuptial Flights/Spotting forum there as it's broken out by Regions/States/etc so can subscribe to a thread to get an idea of what's flying fairly real time.  Bunch of us there in MA posting during the Spring/Summer/Fall.

[Okeedoke22]

Welcome. This forum is awesome. Nothing wrong with using multiple forums but as people said this forum is IMO top notch. Especially nest ideas. The users here are pretty amazing.

Edited by Okeedoke22, December 19 2016 - 6:40 PM.

[Diesel]

Hey welcome. I'm from southern Maine. I believe we will be looking after similar species. Good luck to you. I'm a newbie as well. Got lucky with my first colony.

[CallMeCraven]

Welcome to formiculture!

[Salmon]

Aphaenogaster are very easy to find  by peeling back the bark of dead logs in warm, humid weather. I could probably collect three or four colonies with queens in a day if I wanted.

[Leo]

are there any in the tropics?

[Nathant2131]

Wow I had no idea Temnothorax was hot here. Do you find the queens in the forest? That is one of my more wanted genus. I have probably never seen Temnothorax in my life nor Formica for that matter which I find weird. Just a lot of Lasius for me.

[Nathant2131]

Well, thank you everyone for the warm welcome! I will eventually call Formiculture home base soon.

[FSTP]

Welcome to formiculture! 

 

My feelings are AC is good because it gets people interested in ants, but formiculture is where you're going to end up if you become more serious about ant keeping. Being an open and mostly censor free forum there is going to be a greater exchange of information and ideas.

Edited by FSTP, December 20 2016 - 3:47 AM.

[AnthonyP163]

Yes, on Formiculture, you can sell ants on your own without getting banned. On ACAF, you cannot speak of selling ants unless it's GAN. The only rule for selling ants on this forum is that you cannot ship if it isn't legal. For example, in the US, you cannot ship over state borders. In the EU, you can ship wherever you want.

The better option would be to meet up with someone. It's better.

Edited by AnthonyP163, December 20 2016 - 10:22 AM.

[randeee]

So many MA anters :^) Welcome. 

[noebl1]

Wow I had no idea Temnothorax was hot here. Do you find the queens in the forest? That is one of my more wanted genus. I have probably never seen Temnothorax in my life nor Formica for that matter which I find weird. Just a lot of Lasius for me.

 

Yup, I live in the middle of the woods, surrounded by a bunch of conservation land (property is littered with oak trees as well, so guessing this also helps for Temnothorax).  Majority of the ants I saw this summer were Temnothorax, Camponotus (several varieties including the Myrmentoma types, but mostly Pennsylvanicus of plague proportions back in May),  Lasius late summer (caught about a dozen in one night), and handful of Ponera , Myrmica and  Myrmecina started flying same time as the Lasius.    I re-aggravated a back injury back in March, and spent a *lot* of time outside walking/hiking all Spring/Summer/Fall to help it, and also went out almost every night after kid's went to bed so spent 100s of hours alate hunting this season.  Pheidole and P. Imparis both on my list, but never saw either

 

The Temnothorax flew at night and were attracted to our driveway lights.  If I had a white shirt and held a flash light, I'd be covered in them for about a few days starting on Jun 29th.  I saw them for about 2 weeks flying, with highest numbers on warm-humid evenings (looking at log entries it was 66F, 81% humidity for the best night).  I have a single Temnothorax queen and worker...  Their test tube dried out and they were super-resistant to move to another one adjoining them.  By the time I realized they were refusing to move and not finding the other test tube with water, I lost 4 out of the 5 workers.  I taped another test tube direct, they still haven't moved, but stopped the die off.  I checked on them yesterday in the wine fridge and still alive.  They were pretty easy feeders, similar to the Tetramorium in terms of food. 

Edited by noebl1, December 20 2016 - 10:49 AM.