Mr Fire Ant's Colony Journals

07/13/08
Found a Crematogaster sp queen crawling on the edge of my house around 6pm at night. There was a light rain the night before. I put her in a test tube.

07/16/08
She finally laid her eggs. It's hard to tell but she has laid about 5 to 8 eggs.

08/17/08
3 new babies have arrived. These acrobat ants are very cool looking

06/12/08
Found Monomorium pharaonis queen floating in my swimming pool along with 3 drones. I put her in a tube. I hope she lays some eggs.

06/14/08
She has laid her first eggs .

07/09/08
There is a giant pile of eggs now. The queen is doing well.

07/15/08
Her first 4 workers have arrived

07/23/09
There are about 8 workers. Tiny little guys The queen is doing well.

06-10-08
Found a Dorymyrmex flavus queen floating in my swimming pool. I put her in a test tube with plenty of water. I hope she's fertile. pic below

06/12/08
She has laid her first eggs!!!!! Looks like about 3 or 4 eggs.

06/13/08
Looks like there is about 8 eggs now .

07/09/08
It's been about a month a the queen is looking good . She has a giant pile of eggs, larva and pupua. She sits on top of the eggs all day.

07/15/09
Her first 2 workers have arrived.

07/23/09
There are about 10 workers now. The queen is doing well.

04-26-08
Found Solenopsis Invicta (red Imported Fire Ant) Queens:
It was a 4 hour period of nothing but drones and queens in post nuptial flight landing. It rained hard last night. This afternoon there were wingless queens (some had pieces of wing) all over the dirt and drones being killed by other fire ants. My brother's back yard is FULL of fire ants. My brother and I found 28 queens starting new holes and wondering the ground (yes, i grabbed 28, I just coundn't stop). Pics are below and the video of the drone getting attacked is here:
http://www.easysitecreator.net/1.mpg

04-30-08
First Eggs:
Most of the queens have laid their first eggs. There are around 15 eggs in each tube. 2 queens have died .

05-08-08
Most of the time the queens are crawling over their eggs. I'm guessing they're just cleaning them over and over. ???? Here are a few videos:
http://www.easysitecreator.net/Queen-with-1st-Eggs.wmv
http://www.easysitecreator.net/Fire-Ant-Queen-with-1st-Eggs.wmv

05-21-08
Her first batch of eggs are 3 weeks old and a lot bigger now. Her first workers are coming soon . Pic below. I better start building their new home this weekend.

04-04-2008
Found Ghost Ant Queen:
I dug up my brother's back yard and found a ghost ant queen. My first queen . I also captured about 15 workers and 10 eggs. I put them in a small cup with a small amount of dirt. I added a wet piece of cotton and a drop of honey.

04-07-2008
Built Panoramic Basin Formicarium:
I just finished building a panoramic basin formicarium using a 10 gallon aquarium, plastic sheets and aquarium glue. I put a small dent in the dirt and put a leaf over it. I dropped my ghost ant queen and workers into the formicarium. I used a q-tip to scare the queen into the dent. It worked perfectly. She's settle in and the worker ants are bringing all eggs to her under the leaf.

04-10-2008
1st tunnel and queens chamber:
They have built their first tunnel and queens chamber. They keep all th eggs in her chamber at night and in the entrance area during the day. Here is a pic:

04-20-2008
More tunnels and nursery chamber:
They have gone farther down and built an extra nursery chamber. Pic attached.

04-27-2008
Ventilation tunnels: