A couple months ago I stumbled onto an Ants Canada Vid and thought it was pretty cool. I started watching more and learning more about ants. I found out that the nuptial flights would be beginning so I got a few test tubes and cotton and had them at the ready. My wife and I like to walk and play pokemon go but now I had test tubes ready to catch "the queen". No luck, no luck, no luck and thought that I would never find one and that i'd have to buy one locally but I really wanted to start with catching one.
Things changed on May 9th. It was time to plate dinner and when opening up a cabinet, there she was. A bigger that normal ant, just sitting there. I immediately focused on the middle section of her body and it was large. I thought...REALLY! So I ran to my test tube and proceeded to heard her in to it. After dinner I setup a tube with water like I had seen in lots of vids and put her away in the basement store room. I checked on her every couple of days to see what was going on but nothing for 2 weeks. I took some pictures with my phone and tried looking for wing scares and wondering if she had mated and thought if it works it works and if not oh well.
On May 17th, I decided to move her from the cooler storage room to my room. I put her tube in a black felt bag near the cable box where it generates a little heat. On May 19th...THERE IS AN EGG! How cool is that? Finding a queen in you house. We don't have a lot of ants that come into the house, just occasionally when there is drought or a lot of extra rain will they come in and find the cats food dish.
So now I have a queen that looks like she will start a family but i'm not sure what she is. She was kind of redish when I first caught her but is more black now. She is about 1/4 to 5/8" or .6-.7cm.
I'll add a pic as soon as I look at the instructions on how to do that.
I put a pic in the gallery.
Hudson
Edited by hendicott, May 22 2017 - 8:30 AM.