The week or 2 after I posted these pictures I went to Yellowstone for a week. Amazing place. That said, I didn't do any research about keeping ants and decided a 20 gallon tank with a lot of native soil was good enough, with a big chunk of wood in the middle. As those of you reading might imagine, I have no idea what happened to that queen but can tell you after several hours of meticulous digging I never found her. I did happen to see in the dark with only the light of a monitor what looked like a very large ant walk behind my monitor but I never checked to see what it was. Maybe it was her? Who knows. Pretty sure she took off, or possibly killed by anything that might have been in the soil. I am quite disappointed I missed this opportunity given what my reading has taught me about this species since I returned from Yellowstone. Clearly its too late to snag a queen from my area with it currently being 41 degrees outside. Nuptial flights are over. Either way I am not ready to house whatever might show up even if there was any chance to catch any queen. Moving forward...and sort of backwards.
This queen wasn't the only queen I saw during this month. For many months, and every year since we purchased our house, there have been ants in it. I am going to share what photos I still have in the hopes that I might be able to determine who is who around here as next year I would really like to take a shot at ant keeping. FYI everything I share below except for the last ones are around the same time in July. Probably within a week or 2 of each other. The final ants are still here right now and active. FYI I have never witnessed any of these ants fighting with each other and yet they all foraged in the same space, my kitchen, peacefully.
Below is one of the newer species that finds its way inside, typically liking to hide under the toaster and not thrilled when revealed. Loved honey.
The pose I happened to get her in was pretty interesting. I believe she was grooming herself at the time. Also I am POSITIVE I found a queen belonging to this species but felt I already had enough with the other one from earlier in this thread and so let her go. Likely one of many missed opportunities for me this year.
I would say that we have red harvester ants here that build the large mounds and she was nearly the same in size as them, though I have no measurements of any kind to supply. Apologies for that. I also realize how generic a description "red harvester ant" is.....but its the best I can do for the sake of size reference and what I am familiar with in my area.
Again around the same week or 2 I had come home and noticed a swarm of insects flying around above my house just above the roof, and within a foot of its edge. While standing ON my back porch I was having ants falling on me. All winged. When I inspected I noticed what I am now certain was queens with attached males. Every large ant that fell had a much smaller winged ant attached to them, somewhere on her body. Sometimes 2 or 3. I assume males for sure. I did try to get a closer look at the swarm for photos but my daughter and I noticed that when we did, they seemed to notice us too and the "swarm" if that description fits, moved towards us. Having no idea of their intent we simply moved back, but had to move a good 10 feet away before they disregarded us again. I ended up seeing I believe 4-6 of these swarms all around the house, so I would say within 60 feet of each other. Pretty amazing. Either way image of queen below if anyone can guess at her species. Certainly smaller than the ocreatus in this thread. I would say roughly similiar in size to the currently unknown yellow ant above. Again apologies for no size reference but I simply did not know that at the time.
Finally, the last one I have images of. There was another, and I had footage of it eating honey off the counter, but if I can find the photos later I will share those.
This one I have recently noticed, as of a few hours of typing this, I noticed these ants both inside and outside. I think they have a colony in the concrete around my downspout. Despite the fact that it is currently 40 degrees out and concrete temps measure 46 degrees, they are actively gorging on the honey drop I stuck out there, with an unfortunate few not appreciating its powerful stick factor. As of right now they are actually foraging on my kitchen floor and counter, in case that info is revealing in any way shape or form. So with these I notice 2 types of ants. Ones with what most consider typical ant appearance, and one with a larger head. Hope that info helps with a potential ID. The one in the second photo, well I can only guess how long she was stuck in honey but that was what was wrong with the right side of her head if anyone is curious. 3rd photo is an atrocious shot whose only relevance is in displaying their activity despite the current weather, which seems to be enough to stop all but them and a small colony of harvester ants I saw by my daughters school yesterday. Slow, sluggish, and steady! Probably relevant is the fact that the ants in these first 2 photos were all together in the 3rd shot so I assume they are all of the same colony/species.
Finally, thank you to anyone who takes the time to review this and offer advice as I know there is a lot here. I try to be as thorough as I can with the info I have which is probably why I have spent 3 hours putting this post together instead of sleeping.
One final question in preparation for next year. My wife works at a Dr.'s office and on hearing my interest in possibly starting an ant colony, she found out that her Dr's got some "vials" that they weren't going to use because they were just ever so slightly too opaque to use. So I have a box of 100 of these new "vials", centrifugal tubes new in the box.
https://www.globesci...30_488_500.html
I looked them up and they are item#6266. Are these a good option for a new queen? Noone seems to use a tapered vial or tube so I wasn't sure if that would be an issue though I can't imagine why it would be. Not sure of length or diameter etc either and I am sure usability is directly related to the species I intend to put inside. And what goes inside depends on who is who. I am not interested in fire ants. I mean I am, but I don't want to deal with a species that is so aggressive etc etc.
Also, if these aren't viable, what about in the link below? Essentially a link to varying sizes of them.
https://www.globesci...s-c-30_487.html
Edited by Dukagora, October 16 2018 - 11:12 PM.
