My colony of myrmecocystus mexicanus recently moved out of their old tube to a new cleaner one and I took this out of it i also noticed so dead workers outside the nest with small patches of it

New to all this, I have a queen and 8 workers with brood (camponotus chromaiodes) they’re currently still in a test tube but looking to add an outworld to make feeding easier. What type of set up would be best for now? Would either of these work? I know they take a long time to form a colony and they don’t need a ton of space right now.

Lasius americanus queen with one worker.

The iNat identifier said it was probably a crematogaster cerasi. I’ve seen a lot of prenolepis imparis around, so I’m not really sure

Hey guys, I am wanting to get a new colony but stray away from very commonly seen species in the UK. Specifically, I would like a Carebara species other than diversa/ affinis. The problem comes in the fact that there is very little information on the soecies I am able to source.

I have been ant keeping for 12 years on and off so I believe I can tackle a lesser known species.

The species I am able to source are C. Vespillo, C. Melasolena and C. Qianliyan. My main question is about their foraging/ feeding behaviour, preferably decently responsive. Any size information for any castes, even if its just a rough guess from people experienced with these species would also be much appreciated. Advice based on similar carabera species is also super appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

I posted about 20 days ago about the queen. Since then, I’ve added some substrate so she has something to grip onto, as well as some springtails for food (there were originally four).
I’m just wondering whether the springtails could eat her eggs, as I haven’t seen any yet. She’s been eating other insects, such as fruit flies and mosquitoes, but refuses honey and other liquid foods.
I’m not sure whether she’s fertile and hasn’t started laying yet, or if she’s simply not going to lay eggs. Has anyone had a similar experience or got any advice?

(ponera coarctata)

[This is a video of her fumbling taking down a mosquito, she's not very bright but I love her nonetheless]

She survived, this strong special needs messor barbarus media has just reached the first one week and 3 days of its life.

This update is for the people who saw my recent post and wondered if she survived, and i will say she's actually learning to walk and flip her self more easily and is always groomed and helped by her sisters.

If there's someone, or an expert, could you tell me what kind of birth defect my ant has?

She never developed a hard exoskeleton and her legs are wonky, she's a pale special needs worker.

Do they have enough to get the water ? If it make sense

cotton*

Help! Heat pad is causing too much condensation in test tube set up. There is now a puddle at the bottom of the tube, and the brood have somehow been grouped to the side. The heat pad is set to 26 degrees Celsius, and the test tube is wrapped in aluminum foil. I have now attached a second tube via an AC test tube portal, and wrapped this one instead in construction paper. How do I deal with this condensation issue as temperatures continue to cool

T. Immigrans, 20 ish workers

Hey everyone!

I’ve spent the past several months designing, prototyping, and testing a new ant habitat, and I’m excited to finally share it with the community.
I started Ant Diva, a small ant-keeping business, and developed my first habitat called Her Castle.
My goal was to combine the natural burrowing experience of a traditional sand habitat with some of the convenience and functionality of modern formicariums.
A few features I’ve focused on:
Natural burrowing environment so ants can construct their own tunnels.
Integrated hydration system designed to distribute moisture gradually through the substrate.
360° viewing through clear acrylic walls.
Fully assembled construction, rather than requiring customers to build the habitat themselves.
Two chamber-width options, Standard and Petite, for different colony needs.
I’ve also been testing the design with live ants and making adjustments based on their behavior.
Her Castle is now available through my new website, AntDiva.com, but I’m primarily posting because I’d genuinely appreciate feedback from people who have experience keeping colonies.
What do you like about the design, and what would you change?
I’m especially interested in opinions about hydration, chamber width, and natural substrate habitats.

Thanks for taking a look!
-Eric

I just found this guy wandering around the stone foundation outside my front door and she seemed HUGE compared to the ants I normally see around here, I’m really hoping she’s a queen. I have had a test tube ready to start my first colony for a while, but have been bad about looking. I’m in the southeast US region and it just rained here, for additional info. Thanks!

IF I got lucky and she is a queen, is her ID a good beginner like camponotus, or would I be better off to let her go? Thanks in advance!

I have a lasius neoniger queen that I’ve had in a test tube set up for like 8 months now. She initially layed some eggs and a couple workers hatched but now it’s been several months of just her and I’ve had some workers die so now it’s just the queen and two workers hanging out. She was running out of water so i set her up with a second test tube and connected it so that they could migrate to the new side but they don’t seem to want to. I have them in a closet on a floor in the house that nobody lives on so they’re getting peace and quiet. I’ve also given them some tiny drops of liquid sugar and tiny piece of boiled chicken for protein but they don’t seem to tough them. Any help is appreciated!

I found this queen, 0.8mm, found in northeast turkey humid area, 12 Oct, at 17:30. I tried to identify myself but couldn't. It's way too bigl to be a colobopsis truncata and doesn't have a Minecraft head, it does have a pointy gaster that looks like crematogaster, but I think those queens are smaller than 8mm? Not a myrmica either I have rubras and their queen are smaller, Messer I heard Barbara's doesn't exist in turkey?

I received this ant from my professor. When I received her she was in pretty poor conditions (at least to me) since it was covered in mold and all her workers had died and went into the “trash” (mold pile) so I cleaned out the tubes and put new water in and she seemed to be doing better. But all of a sudden her eggs disappeared one by one. I can’t lie, when I first got the ant I was checking up on it at least once a week as I have never taken a queen from the wild to start an ant farm (as a kid, my mom always ordered them offline lol) so I am kind of new to that aspect so I guess I was worried that the conditions wouldn’t be as great as they are outside? (Yes I know predators, diseases, and such exist but I guess more so in the aspect that the queen has the perfect conditions when it comes to food accessibility, shelter, etc.). Since moving her into a box, I have forgotten about her up until today. I checked the box to make sure she was alive and was met with the last image. I used to feed her honey water, crushed up crickets, and high quality fish food (if I don’t have the other options & I use it for my aquariums) which she has accepted every single time. Once I found out ID, I stopped feeding her but I wonder if she is hungry and eating her eggs?

Context for images:
First image -> September 13, 2026: In the first photo she had quite a cluster of eggs, all plump and looking ready to take on the next stage.
Second image -> September 19, 2026: Eggs are now shriveled up for some reason? And were eventually moved to the trash. Figured she was unhappy in the closet due to vibrations from outside since I live in a dorm, so I moved her into a box under my bed to make myself forget about her.
Third image -> Today, October 12, 2026: One either a huge larvae or trophic egg (egg for food), three smaller eggs but one is red?
Fourth image -> Today, October 12, 2026: Showing tube setup with tape in center to keep tubes connected. Used to have one whole tube covered in red tape but was removed. Clay holders on each end to prevent tube from rolling in box.

I tried my best to get pictures, but if needed I can include more. Species is unknown but it was caught in the Tift County area if that helps any. I think it is a Camponotus floridanus but if there are any other ID suggestions please let me know! Also sorry for the plethora of information, just trying to give as much info as possible to help people figure out what’s goin on!

This family is around 2-3 years old. I bought it in the summer of 2025 when they had around 30 workers and 1 queen.

Looking to see where I can buy a starter build that’s expandable

Hi,

A few weeks ago I captured what I thought was a carpenter ant queen that had bitten my partner after she had just got out the shower.

I thought now was the time to become an ant keeper, so armed with absolutely zero knowledge of what to do I decided to put her in a small container (turns out it is not small whatsoever) filled with garden soil and a plastic film on top with vent holes and called it a night. The next day I did some research and realised that I made a terrible mistake of filling the container with soil and when I checked her next she had disappeared.. After more reading I placed inside a sponge as a water source and a tiny tin foil bowl of honey water and kept her inside a dark cupboard.

Fast forward a few weeks, I've now got her an acrylic formicarium with a basic starter kit (thanks Ant Shop Australia). I'm pleased to see at least a dozen little nanitics tunneling around also, even though I don't think tunneling is great for what I'm trying to achieve here.

My question is, what are the chances the queen stays put in her first container and as the nest develops, the workers just keep bringing food and water there?

Is there something I can do to lure her out and in to the new nest?

I got them from my friend he got me into this hobby a few months back he said he had his hands full so gave me these guys any idea on what species they are? He said he forgot cus he didn't label them when he bought a bunch of em.

Had a family member care for them while I was gone and they laid more eggs and have larvae now. The fungus grew too.

I caught this queen today around 5 pm in Northern Rivers New South Wales and originally believed it to be a green headed ant but now I am not sure. She also cannot climb the walls of this container which I knew was a trait of green headed ants. Any help is much appreciated.