19 replies to this topic

[Reevak]

So today I went out and found my very first queen! She's a Prenolepis imparis queen and she is the only one I managed to find today. Here are two pictures of her.

 

 

I'll update this if i manage to find more Prenolepis imparis or if she hits some sort of milestone that's worth noting.

[Nathant2131]

Good luck with her. I've heard they do best in mid to high sixties farenheight.

[Reevak]

I found 9 more queens today. They were mating not even two houses away from me (near a patch of trees).

 

 

I will be putting 1 or more of these queens into the item(s) that Loops117 sent me.

 

Update: I have 3 queens on their own, 2 sets of 2 queens together, and then 1 set of 3 queens together. 

Edited by Reevak, April 10 2017 - 2:29 PM.

[Ant Love]

When do u think its the best time to catch these queens? Lots of people have told me different things but never caught them.... I want to hear it from someone that has already had some sort of experience of catching them.....

[AnthonyP163]

When do u think its the best time to catch these queens? Lots of people have told me different things but never caught them.... I want to hear it from someone that has already had some sort of experience of catching them.....

Well, next Saturday is when its supposed to be very nice out. Talking 70 degrees. I caught 22 queens when it was 72 degrees, I bet there'll be some on that day. However, after that, there probably won't be anymore. Otherwise, any day that's 70 or so would work. If you're in the south, I'm not sure.

Edited by AnthonyP163, April 11 2017 - 11:31 AM.

[Reevak]

When do u think its the best time to catch these queens? Lots of people have told me different things but never caught them.... I want to hear it from someone that has already had some sort of experience of catching them.....

It was about 1 or 2 PM when I found them mating just outside a patch of trees near my house. Behind the patch of trees there is a creek and it was about 70 degrees yesterday. Also, my friends were hanging out near a small waterfall and apparently they said there were about 10 orange looking and many more tiny black flying ants which was definitely a Prenolepis imparis nuptial flight. I would assume that they mate near water based off of the two known nuptial flights in my city yesterday. Hope this helps.

[ultraex2]

 

When do u think its the best time to catch these queens? Lots of people have told me different things but never caught them.... I want to hear it from someone that has already had some sort of experience of catching them.....

Well, next Saturday is when its supposed to be very nice out. Talking 70 degrees. I caught 22 queens when it was 72 degrees, I bet there'll be some on that day. However, after that, there probably won't be anymore. Otherwise, any day that's 70 or so would work. If you're in the south, I'm not sure.

 

The first thing you'll want to do is locate the nests - once you find them you can just keep checking them until they fly.  While I guess potentially they could go somewhere else, if you find nests in an area then they probably have their nuptial flight in that area too.  

[Ant Love]

Thanks! The info helped a lot ＼(^o^)／

[Reevak]

Update: Here are 3 of my Prenolepis imparis queens. I've had them for about a month now and they seem to be doing fine with lots of eggs/larvae.

 

Edited by Reevak, May 16 2017 - 10:18 AM.

[Cindy]

Nice cat!

[Myrmidon]

3 queens! I'm kind of hoping to get at least 4 of them to accept each other and have that be my main colony. I'm hoping that since I have setups of 2 that it will work out. I've seen someone have a colony of 8 work well (the journal has totally blanked on me but it's easy to find online) and he had them join up after they started getting their first few workers. I'm kind of a fan of the slower growing colony species being a newer ant-keeper so I have more time to observe and just take it all in. I hope yours do well together!

 

And yes, nice cat!

[Reevak]

Here is a quick look at the Prenolepis imparis queen I have in the Round Nanitic Chamber (discontinued) given to me by Loops117 (owner of 117 Colonies & Ant Farms).

 

 

 

(1 Week Later)

Edited by Reevak, May 28 2017 - 11:24 AM.

[Reevak]

Update: I'm back with more news on my Prenolepis imparis colonies! They all have nanitics now. Most of them got them about a month ago but some were a little late. 

 

I've been feeding them superworms and a mixture of honey, water, and sugar (soaked in napkin balls). The workers accept both whenever I give them some to eat, but they don't always need it because they can hold so much that they save enough to last them a while after their scheduled feeding times. This is a worker from the queen in the video in the previous post. 

 

These two test tubes have two queens each and there don't seem to be any problems with either colony.

 

This triple queen colony is also doing very well. It's my most promising colony.

 

Even so, my favorite queen is this one because she kept her wings. She was also one of the first queens, if not the first, to have her nanitics eclose, even though she was the last one I caught and I thought she would be infertile.

 

Ironically, the very first queen I caught was one of the last to have her nanitics eclose. But the good news is that she has already laid another batch of eggs (as did many other queens). You can't see the eggs in the photo because they are directly under her but when I look back at the very small number of eggs she had 2 weeks before her nanitics eclosed and the amount she has now, it is pretty obvious that she has laid another batch.

 

I am very excited to take care of these ants because they are the first ant species I ever caught, and one of my favorite species because of their many special features. Thanks for checking out my post!

Edited by Reevak, July 18 2017 - 12:30 AM.

[RhodyAnts]

Very awesome. They sure do take for forever. :-)

[Reevak]

I haven't updated in a while, but the 3 queen Colony is doing well. They have about 50 workers with some pupae still in the tube. I gave them an outworld yesterday so that they could forage better. Before yesterday, I have not fed these ants for over a month because they don't like leaving the tube unless they really need to. They still have quite a few replete workers but the ones that weren't left to find food. I also put a new tube in the container so that they could move, since they were running out of water in their current tube. Here are just of pictures that I took of them. I know, they aren't great.

 

 

 

 

 

[Reevak]

I've become extremely lazy with my journals so here's one of my Prenolepis imparis colonies from last year. Doing well.

 

 

 

 

That's about it. These pictures were taken about a week ago. If you have any questions, ask them. If not, that's cool too. 

[Mettcollsuss]

So, wait... you got Prenolpis imparis into year two? How?

[Major]

The first queen I found was Prenolepis Imparis! But I didn’t have a container on hand. Not like it would make a difference. Because my friend well uhh... he umm... squished it. Now all I can find is Camponotus and Myrmica. The Myrmica I had to release because I have young kids living in my house(siblings) So I didn’t want them getting stung. Also, I suck at semi-clausteral.

[YsTheAnt]

How did you go by winter with these?

[Antennal_Scrobe]

Are these ants still alive? I'm thinking about getting a colony of this species.

Edited by Antennal_Scrobe, July 17 2019 - 3:24 PM.