Playing With Fire (Ants) - Drip floatation and other research techniques

Video montage of my lab work on fire ants (Solenopsis invicta).
"Ant Music" by Hyper.

Read more about this here: http://6legs2many.wordpress.com/tag/fire-ants/

Ants mounds are dug up in the field and stored in buckets lined with baby powder. The fire ants are separated from the dirt via drip floatation: water is dripped slowly into the tub, and the ants rescue brood and queens and form a floating 'raft' of living ants.

This is strained off, and moved to a plaster lined tub. I then sort the ants into standardized colonies and run my experiments. Currently, I am studying variation in foraging behavior.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• fire ants
• ants
• solenopsis
• invicta
• research
• drip floatation
• 6legs2many
• solenopsis invicta

[7mean7bunny7]

Alison, I am currently doing a project on Solenopsis Invicta Fire Ants and I am having trouble finding any Alates. I live in the Middle Georgia area and it seems all the area around where I live has been treated. If you have any tips about where and when I can run into a nuptial flight, let me know. It has been raining the past 2 days, but still no sign of Alates flying in the sky.

[AlisonB13th]

@7mean7bunny7 Fire ants tend to have mating flights in the afternoon immediately following a rain, after it has cleared up. You'll have the very best luck after a long dry spell in the summer or fall. The queens shed their wings quickly so look for either type wandering the ground in areas near water or reflective surfaces. It's best if you find somewhere where the queens can't easily go to ground (hard packed gravel, paved walk ways, edges of sidewalks). Queens are shiny and trundle along.

[AlisonB13th]

@7mean7bunny7 (cont'd): I find newly mated queens on the ground, but hardly ever see them flying. Signs of a mating flight is a colony that has workers swarming around on the ground (with alates) and the nest entrances are opened up into large holes. They mate very high in the air, so you won't see swarms like with some other genera. If you are just looking for queens, you can consider digging up colonies and sorting out queens, workers, brood. (See link in description.) Hope this helps!

[ZevN47]

Why don't they climb out of the orange buckets?

[AlisonB13th]

@ZevN47 We coat the sides with baby powder. It is too slippery and they can't climb on it. They can, however, gradually wash it away with their damp bodies if you're not careful!

[delldimensionX]

Somewhat I hate ants, probobly because I just dont like the feeling of having em on my body and making me paranoid. This video made me shiver like scooby doo and panic! Yet, somehow you made this quite a beautiful video mate. Cheers.

// Someone that hates ants!

[AlisonB13th]

@delldimensionX - Thanks! I spend too much time around them. I think of them as cuddly. ;)

[mrxcal123]

some how i think this is like doing tests on humans ants are smater then us it takes us what 5 months to make a house maby a year if lazy workers ants around 4 days i know but there more smarter than us soo its like keeing humans in a chemical lock down area then saying you cant see your family CAUSE WE FUCKING KILLED THEM

[monalfre]

are all the orange buckets filled with fire ants?

[JasmineNicoleFlores]

I would kill them....

[7mean7bunny7]

@AlisonB13th Thanks a bunch for the tips Alison. Since the area around where I live has been treated, I guess I'll have to go look in a local park or on the side of the highway. Unfortunately, more and more people are treating for Fire Ants in the South. Hopefully I'll get lucky and come across an infested area. Its been raining 3 days straight now on and off, and havent seen a single Alate, but I set up a tinfoil trap inside a bin in my front yard, hopefully I might just get lucky this time! :3

[dudamota]

Why the ants do not climb on top of a bucket ?? it has some substance that puts the bucket so they do not climb ??