Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2012 17:31:14 GMT 1
The day has arrived, the conditions are perfect and I can see ants in the sky! ;D
I got a phone call from my friend asking if I would like to go up to the local tennis club and play a match as it was a nice day. I hadn't even been outside as I was stuck on my Xbox (I recently purchased Minecraft XD). As we were talking he mentioned a lot of ants were running around the base of a tree in his garden. I had asked him to tell me if he saw any increased activity a few weeks ago and has already had 2 false calls so I was skeptical about it being the start of the flights.
However, when I finally got off my Xbox at about 2:45 and looked out the window I saw that it was such a nice day so I decided to go round and have a look at the ants. As I was walking down stairs I caught a glimpse of a flying insect out of the corner of my eye. Well what I did next is rather embarrassing...
I grabbed a net a ran after the insect. It was faster than I thought and I ended up bursting into the conservatory screaming at it with my net swinging around my head only to find my mom having a meeting with some business people
After leaving the house so as not to disturb my mom again I noticed alot of birds in the sky. I saw one swoop down to the ground snap something up with it's beak and fly off again. I went to investigate further and found to my delight an ant nest with loads of winged alates pouring out of it!
I quickly ran back home and grabbed my sister and two vaseline smeared containers and set out the catch some queens. We spend no more than an hour and we were over run with 50 queens. All but one had detached their wings which hopefully means they have mated. The one that hasn't I found with a male attached to her abdomen so I know she has.
I have been teaching my sister about the nuptial flights for weeks leading up to them and she was very excited to help me catch the queens. She is only 9 years old but when I have sorted the queens out into test tubes I will help her keep one to start her own L.niger colony
---------------------------------------
I will post pics of the queens I caught as soon as I find a battery for my camera. I hope you enjoyed reading about how I ended up with 50 queens this year and good luck to everyone else who is searching for queens in the nuptial flights! ;D
I got a phone call from my friend asking if I would like to go up to the local tennis club and play a match as it was a nice day. I hadn't even been outside as I was stuck on my Xbox (I recently purchased Minecraft XD). As we were talking he mentioned a lot of ants were running around the base of a tree in his garden. I had asked him to tell me if he saw any increased activity a few weeks ago and has already had 2 false calls so I was skeptical about it being the start of the flights.
However, when I finally got off my Xbox at about 2:45 and looked out the window I saw that it was such a nice day so I decided to go round and have a look at the ants. As I was walking down stairs I caught a glimpse of a flying insect out of the corner of my eye. Well what I did next is rather embarrassing...
I grabbed a net a ran after the insect. It was faster than I thought and I ended up bursting into the conservatory screaming at it with my net swinging around my head only to find my mom having a meeting with some business people
After leaving the house so as not to disturb my mom again I noticed alot of birds in the sky. I saw one swoop down to the ground snap something up with it's beak and fly off again. I went to investigate further and found to my delight an ant nest with loads of winged alates pouring out of it!
I quickly ran back home and grabbed my sister and two vaseline smeared containers and set out the catch some queens. We spend no more than an hour and we were over run with 50 queens. All but one had detached their wings which hopefully means they have mated. The one that hasn't I found with a male attached to her abdomen so I know she has.
I have been teaching my sister about the nuptial flights for weeks leading up to them and she was very excited to help me catch the queens. She is only 9 years old but when I have sorted the queens out into test tubes I will help her keep one to start her own L.niger colony
---------------------------------------
I will post pics of the queens I caught as soon as I find a battery for my camera. I hope you enjoyed reading about how I ended up with 50 queens this year and good luck to everyone else who is searching for queens in the nuptial flights! ;D