buy an ant queen w/ workers

N

Neurozool

Arachnopeon
Joined
Oct 14, 2007
Messages
37
ok..I am addicted. Got a gel habitat from italy and got tiny ants from outside. After weeks I have built up my tiny colony from the same base colony and just today coxed about 20 eggs and caretakers to the surfice. I want to build a huge plexiglass box and fill with sed gel (bought on Ebay) and start a colony I hope could last years if extra care is taken in managing the size. Does anyone have a swarm and if you see one, how would I go about buying a queen? I would most likly want 2 or 3 to see which one would be the best and is fertilized. I am in Missouri. Thanks!
 
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W

What

Arachnoprince
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Messages
1,150
Make sure you only buy queens from Missouri. It is against federal regulations to ship reproductive ants across state lines.
 
A

apidaeman

Arachnoknight
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Apr 10, 2008
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276
I have a colony of black fire ants the native kind. Anyway found a fresh queen, in a concrete parking lot. I captured her and started her out in a 2oz suffle cup. With damp eco-earth substrate. I watched her as she raised her own eggs. Soon after her first workers hatched, she settled into life as a full time queen. I have since moved them into a much larger container.
I use the colony to consume the crickets that die before they are fed to the T's. They are good for me so I have a really cool ant colony and a excellent outlet to dispose of my dead crickets. They get the benefit of a perfect environment and free food, so I doubt they are complaining about their lot in life.
The colony is now several thousand strong. I guess in the 3000-4000 range. Yes I have alot of dead crickets and a colony that size needs alot of food. I also have a bottle cap which I put honey in once a week. I am curious to see how large the colony will get.

You might want to wait til the queens go on their mating flights next year and catch a few and watch to see which ones start laying eggs and go from there.
I'll see if I can't locate a queen there are some colonies still putting out reproductives. I saw one yesterday and considered picking it up but didn't. Now I wish I had.
 
H

H. laoticus

Arachnoprince
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1,017
apidaeman said:
I have a colony of black fire ants the native kind. Anyway found a fresh queen, in a concrete parking lot. I captured her and started her out in a 2oz suffle cup. With damp eco-earth substrate. I watched her as she raised her own eggs. Soon after her first workers hatched, she settled into life as a full time queen. I have since moved them into a much larger container.
I use the colony to consume the crickets that die before they are fed to the T's. They are good for me so I have a really cool ant colony and a excellent outlet to dispose of my dead crickets. They get the benefit of a perfect environment and free food, so I doubt they are complaining about their lot in life.
The colony is now several thousand strong. I guess in the 3000-4000 range. Yes I have alot of dead crickets and a colony that size needs alot of food. I also have a bottle cap which I put honey in once a week. I am curious to see how large the colony will get.

You might want to wait til the queens go on their mating flights next year and catch a few and watch to see which ones start laying eggs and go from there.
I'll see if I can't locate a queen there are some colonies still putting out reproductives. I saw one yesterday and considered picking it up but didn't. Now I wish I had.
Click to expand...
Do you have any pics?
 
W

What

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 13, 2006
Messages
1,150
What said:
Make sure you only buy queens from <insert state>. It is against federal regulations to ship reproductive ants across state lines.
Click to expand...
Modified to make it more relevant across the board... but really, tigeri69, you know the USDA/APHIS has people that read the boards, right? This is a public forum where your offer is clearly visible to anyone who happens to stumble past it.
 
S

Sarcastro

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
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May 28, 2009
Messages
308
catch your own queen.they'll be flying soon just wait and catch your own
 
K

koolkid98

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
May 9, 2009
Messages
159
Yeah i'd agree you can catch 1000's of queens in a matter of hours.Trust me i did once and let 9998 go lol.In my neighors yard :p
 
T

tigeri69

Arachnopeon
Joined
Apr 26, 2010
Messages
5
oh i kno--im not talking about sending them across state lines--im talking about anyone who lives in pa---but sorry if it offended anyone--im new to this--ive actually been out late nites for the past 2 weeks str8 and im not even really sure when and where to look--i cant find anything flying around but moths and mosquitos!---im getting soooo frustrated so id rather pay someone to do it 4 me so at least i kno 4 sure its a fertile queen cause really i would have no idea!---can someone give me some tips on like the best time of day and where would be the best types of places to find one cause i cant seem to find anything around like other people r explaining-oh yea i live in philadelphia --pretty much all city area--thanks
 
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K

koolkid98

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
May 9, 2009
Messages
159
Meh wait till june/july then you'll find them during the day works well.
 
H

H. laoticus

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Mar 11, 2009
Messages
1,017
koolkid98 said:
Yeah i'd agree you can catch 1000's of queens in a matter of hours.Trust me i did once and let 9998 go lol.In my neighors yard :p
Click to expand...
lol nice

btw, is it worth starting a fire ant colony? sorry for the common name as I don't really know what species they are, but I've been stung several times and it is an annoying pain.

And I've read that catching queens is best around spring and summer, when they go on their flights. I found the info on google.
 
K

koolkid98

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
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May 9, 2009
Messages
159
Yeah but there is a lot of diffrent types mine are myrmica rubras they breed in their nests.
 
M

myrmecophile

Arachnolord
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Dec 22, 2006
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655
It is generally illegal to ship reproductive ants and most other insects across county lines as well as state lines.
 
E

echostatic

Arachnosquire
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Aug 14, 2007
Messages
129
Wait for a warm, sunny day following rain. That is generally a good time to find newly mated queens. This is a good time of year too. It's not worth trying to buy one.
 
Bunyan van Asten

Bunyan van Asten

Arachnoknight
Joined
Oct 5, 2016
Messages
271
Neurozool said:
ok..I am addicted. Got a gel habitat from italy and got tiny ants from outside. After weeks I have built up my tiny colony from the same base colony and just today coxed about 20 eggs and caretakers to the surfice. I want to build a huge plexiglass box and fill with sed gel (bought on Ebay) and start a colony I hope could last years if extra care is taken in managing the size. Does anyone have a swarm and if you see one, how would I go about buying a queen? I would most likly want 2 or 3 to see which one would be the best and is fertilized. I am in Missouri. Thanks!
Click to expand...
NO ON NO NO NO NO ON NO NO NO NO ON NO NO NO NO ON NO NO NO NO ON NO NO NO NO ON NO NO NO NO ON NO NO NO NO ON NO NO NO NO ON NO NO NO NO ON NO NO NO, don't use gel! Look up tutorials before you do that to ants (putting them in a gel formicarium!)
 
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