Queen ants are flying in Eversley & Hi everybody

[lassitude]

Hi,

I'm new to the forum but before I get started I though I would let you know the Queens are flying in Eversley, Hampshire UK. I've managed to capture two wingless queens and two winged males (just in case). It's my understanding the queens lose their wings after mating so should be ready to start a colony- correct me if I am wrong.

I am fairly new to ant keeping but I have done some reading so I think I have the basics.

Here's where I am at the moment:

I started in March with a small gel formicarium (I hope the spelling is right for that). With this I also received a Lasius Niger queen. I followed the instructions and laid the test tube in the formicarium and she promptly exited and went down the hole I drilled in the gel. After about a 2 months doing pretty much nothing I came to the conclusion she was not happy so I built a formuicarium out of two sheets of acrylic glass and some custom cut plastics to make the lid and the separator. I put her in the new habitat and left her to her own devices for a couple of months. I think she started laying but never produced any offspring.

I've been waiting for the ants to fly and finally today they have done the deed. I have thoroughly searched for my original queen in my formicarium and she's either burrowed down into the soil or she's given up the ghost. I have now placed the new queen in my formicarium- She is much much bigger than my original queen so I am hoping for more success with her. She was reasonably close to a swarming Lasius Niger nest so I am pretty sure that's what she is.

My home made Formicarium has a separate feeding chamber, a watering tube a syringe to moisten the soil and gauze covered ventilation holes in the top lid .  My mistake was using acyrlic glass that was too thin. I think the stuff I used was .4cm thick and when I loaded the soil it caused the acrylic to flex making gaps in the lid seating large enough for ants to escape (hence the clip at the top). The MK2 will have thicker glass. I'm providing the gel from my first formicarium as food and making sure there is plenty of moisture to keep the soil from caving in. I've got absorbant clay at the bottom of the soil and two different soil colours (made from sand and compost mix) layered in the formicarium

Heres a pic pf it:



I hope I will have more success with this queen. Does anybody need the second Lasius Niger queen I caught?

Thanks,

Chris

[Wood~Ant]

Hi Chris and welcome to the Ant Hill. Your thread has been moved here as I think it is a more appropriate place for an ant keeper who is fairly new to the hobby.

Love the photo of your set up, as it is always nice to see what other ant keepers are using to home their ants in. 
Newly mated queens usually remove their wings, so it is a safe bet that the ones you have are mated from the nuptial flights over the past few days. 

It is always the best thing to remove the blue gel from those awful gel ant farms, as this medium is of no use for ants to make a proper nest in, and brood will die in the stuff as well as any dead ants growing mould on them.
Your newer home made formicarium is a much better set up, as the majority of British ants prefer to dig their nests in soil.

Feel free to start a journal on any ants you keep, and we will give you all the support and help you need to enjoy the hobby. 

[lassitude]

I'm not currently using the Gel based formicarium but I've been told the gel has the food and nutrients required for ants. Is there any merit in using the gel as a foodstuff for them in my 'proper' formicarium?

Having read a little more about using gel as tunnelling medium I've subsequently discovered it's totally inappropriate for L. Niger and that would explain why I had little luck with my first queen.

My interest in ants and their social interactions goes back quite a few years. When I was a lad I used to (rather cruelly) drop black ants into the middle of a red ants nest area and watch the ensuing chaos. On one of my early computers (a good few years back) I used to play Sim Ant quite a bit and I am wondering why somebody has not brought that simulation up to date with modern computers. What finally made me go for setting up my own colony was a fantastic documentary where they filled an old ant colony with plaster and dug it up. I think in the same documentary they brought a leaf cutter colony back to the UK and set up a fantastic and very large formicarium for that colony.

Anyway that's enough from me for now. Many thanks for your welcome - I'll take a look at some of the journals on this forum and see if I can get one started.

Thanks,

Chris

[Deleted]

I have caught 11 Wingless Lasius Niger queens. They are all wingless! They are flying as well.

[Jenny]

Hi Chris, welcome to this nest   I am so glad you saw the light regarding that dreadful ant gel, it is only suitable for a few workers. The best thing to do is always dig it out and throw it away, the formicarium can always be filled with soil/sand etc........
I like your formicarium, a good set up 

[crockatt]

Hi Chris welcome to the nest, you will receive good advice here