r/ants

I have come back to my house after a month and found these black things scattered throughout my laundry room. Could they possibly be dead ants since it was near a spider web.

Additionally found some pile of just stuff littered across the door in the same room that seems to have dead bugs and other stuff in it. What could that be and should I be worried.

Are there any further steps I need to take?

Any help would be appreciated! :)

The ants got into the raisin bran.

I live in Northern Maine, but more coastal. I was digging in my garden beds when I accidentally disrupted a couple of ant nests with active brood. From one of the nests out ran what I believe to be a queen. I thought she would be okay but I was also curious so I googled it and it said she wouldn’t find her way back.

I tried to take all of the larger pupae and put them in the nest with the tiny ones so the workers could take them, but when I tried to put the queen over there (only 4 inches from where the large pupae were and where she popped out from), hoping they would lead her back underground.

They attacked her instead. I have now taken the larger pupae back because I don’t even know if they’re the same species anymore and I have her separated.

In the garden bed I only see light red/yellow ants, which I believe to be citronella ants and some even smaller than them black ants or maybe they’re very dark red variety? It’s a bit confusing, figuring out who belongs to what especially since I’ve seen some of the super tiny black ants run off with the citronella ants eggs.

I usually have two types of small black ants in my garden beds either ones that have a faint reddish to their center abdomen (really hard to see though because they’re so tiny) or the also equally extremely tiny black ants that have the pointy butts I think they’re the ones that spray formic acid or sting?

How do I handle this now that I have her? I don’t want to risk putting her near any ants in case they attack again. Is that the only way to see if an ant recognizes her or not is to put it near her and see if it tries to attack? Should I give up on finding her original colony? I would assume some of these ants in this bed have to recognize her as their queen if this is where she came from, but I’m surprised how many different colonies can live in a single raised garden bed.

I did see online something called brood boosting and I think that might be a safer method if I can get some help with an accurate species ID for her. I also have the larger Pupae currently because no ants have claimed them after the past 30 minutes and I was worried I made a mistake and mixed up their species by giving them to the citronella ants (if that’s what they are). Would she have better chances if I set her up with a brood?

TLDR: Found a queen ant and a couple of different broods. I need ID as I cannot find her original colony, but would like to try brood boosting her. Pupae are still being collected by workers so I have another 45 minutes at most before they’re back under ground.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

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I caught this queen early morning in the Midwest, specifically southern indiana, shorter than the length of my fingernail

Fotos are bad I am sorry. Doesn't look like Lasius Niger to me at all, too big and muscular looking

Tonnes of queen ants in my garden, thought I would share! They were absolutely everywhere lol. Based in England.

I caught this very tiny orange queen this morning in southern Indiana

If it is a queen what type

Any insights? I have no idea what kind of ants these are or what the plant is. Also no idea what they want with the plant. Didn't seem to be eating it. Just curious. In upstate NY.

Anyone know why I’d find a little green spider and a bunch of dead spiders inside a cocoon? The ants enjoyed it

Lmao I moved a piece of wood. Are those eggs? I’ve never seen that before 🤣 ants are normally underground not under logs. Why are the eggs bigger than the ants?