2124 replies to this topic

[ANTdrew]

C. castaneus fly at night time, much later than other eastern Camponotus.

[Chickalo]

C. castaneus fly at night time, much later than other eastern Camponotus.

I'm checking for any flights from last night (my parent's wouldn't let me bike half way across town at 11 just to find queens)

[ANTdrew]

You may have luck looking under stones for new queens.

[Chickalo]

Alright, thanks for the tip!  I look around surrounding stones (there's TONS of them I have yet to flip), hopefully the Formica that basically surrounds the largest body of the colony didn't catch any queens.  Otter told me to get some brood, so I'll do that, too, however at this time of year all they have is larvae.  I don't think I'll find any, but incase they flew I'll still check.  I hope I didn't disturb them too much when I discovered some their colony.

[ConcordAntman]

Just back from almost a month in Boulder, CO. ANTdrew helped me figure out a way to keep my colonies going without supervision and it worked! My four colonies survived my absence and are now caring for their broods. The P. imparis I caught over a month ago is still eggless so either the chill to 58 degrees retarded her egg laying or, she’s unfertilized. My only bad news is that a filename glitch caused me to “misplace” about 2000 images   Over the past week with help from Adobe IT, I’ve been able to recover my shots but I need to get another external hard drive to store 500+ Gigs of my RAW files before I can begin to upload and edit new shots  It seems everyone is up for this anting season and garnering queens. Here’s my wishes for a successful season. Good hunting all!

[Antcatcherpro3]

I'm excited to catch some camponotus!

[Antcatcherpro3]

Sorry I haven't posted for a while. I went to New Hampshire on Friday afternoon and came back a little while ago.

[ANTdrew]

Sorry I haven't posted for a while. I went to New Hampshire on Friday afternoon and came back a little while ago.

It’s all good.

[Antcatcherpro3]

Not many New ants there but I did go hiking up in the white mountains and saw a lot of Formica and a tick.

[Antcatcherpro3]

And tons, and tons, and tons of lasius, and a little less tetramorium but they were still there. I also found a parasitic lasius queen. Guess they find host colonies and little later because it was kind of cold up there. But it was still pretty good weather.

[Antcatcherpro3]

You know what I'll just give a full update on my colonies right now-

Nylanderia parvula: Doing good. They are all fed and their numbers seem to be growing rapidly. Might have to move them soon.

Solenopsis molesta: I'm just setting them free. I have a limit to how many ants I want to keep, and one less might be nice.

Prenolepis queens: All are doing quite good with small larvae now.

Formica subsericea: This is the exciting update. They will be getting workers in a few days, the second generation. They ave 2 pupae and a small patch of eggs!

I will post these updates in each of these colonies journals also.

Edited by Antcatcherpro3, May 9 2021 - 10:05 PM.

[Chickalo]

Sorry I haven't posted for a while. I went to New Hampshire on Friday afternoon and came back a little while ago.

I'm going to New Hampshire for a wedding in september I wish it was in Massachusetts so I could at least keep any ants I catch.

[ConcordAntman]

Following up on my colonies when I chilled them for 3 weeks after they’d been out of diapause for a month. My C. pennsylvanicus and C. americanus colonies seem fine, my P. impairs queen is still eggless (any recommendations on what I should do about her?), and my C. novaeboracensis has eggs, larvae and a pupa. Today, I watched the queen eclose the pupa but the newly enclosed ant was dead. I guess the pupa didn’t have enough fat reserves to survive the 3 week chill. My two C. pennsylvanicus colonies have bunches of pupae. I hope they fare better. 

 

[Chickalo]

Nice!  My Prenolepis queens haven't laid either...  When did you catch the Camponotus?  If this year where?  I want to catch as many queens of different species from now until November first for no particular reason... 

[Chickalo]

Forgot to mention:  Expect Tetramorium immigrans flights soon, I saw a bunch of colonies near Philips beach in Swampscott with alate brood, they were huge!

Edited by Chickalo, May 14 2021 - 6:53 AM.

[Antcatcherpro3]

I'm def going to try to find camponotus and tretramorium!

[Antcatcherpro3]

Does anyone know how long it take for a Formica pupae to become and worker? My colony got pupae about a week ago and they are still pupae.

[Chickalo]

Does anyone know how long it take for a Formica pupae to become and worker? My colony got pupae about a week ago and they are still pupae.

According to Reddit its 20-25 days for pupae to worker

[ANTdrew]

I've had Formica queens get from eggs to workers in four weeks, so it goes pretty fast.

[Antcatcherpro3]

Ok so I still have a little wait.