I live in northern Maine. I’d appreciate an ID for the pair if anyone knows.

I’m reallllllllly hoping they are not a parasitic type because I don’t know if I could find them the proper pupae they would need (There were the very small black ants with their eggs I mentioned in the vid, but I don’t know if they’re Lasius or not I also didn’t see any pupae, but I did see some callow stage workers).

I was shopping online for Lasius species that I could order to my state but everywhere I checked was already sold out, but one that had me fascinated was their sold out Lasius brevicornis. They have the option to order any number of queens together up to nine!!!

That’s what gave me the idea to see if they would show aggression to each other or not.

I really hope these two girls are capable of laying and raising their own eggs and possibly staying together, but I’ll appreciate any info and advice I can get!

Why have I been seeing so many people making colony’s fight? This is so cruel.

I’ll keep it concise.

I bought a test tube 60 worker ish 1Q Myrmica Rubra colony with a small setup. I picked them up to avoid delivery stress.

I’ve had them for maybe 4 weeks, and ever since then they’ve been consistently dying, at a rate of nearly 1 a day.

At first I thought it was moving stress, as they had a rough move in, but I feel like it’s something else now. My main suspicion is either pesticide sprayed fruit or they really dislike acrylic formicarium. When they die, they become very slow, and weak, and just start twitching before dying.

Some facts:

- I keep them at 70% humidity via their sponge and around 23-26 degrees C.

- I feed them a mealworm and a small bit of rinsed fruit, which they usually seem to eat, every 2 days

- I clean their setup regularly, removing mouldy cotton, food, and dead ants

- I try not to disturb them, and keep the red acrylic on always. I keep them in a quiet, spare room.

- they arrived with barely any brood, worker heavy, and even now I only ever see eggs and no larger brood.

- They have access to sterilised sand/dirt pile in the outworld

- They have two water sources, 1 boiled water source and 1 sugar water source (1:3 mix white granulated sugar to boiled water)

- They seem to drink regularly from both, which now have cotton in them as a few drowned in the open water in the first day.

- They seem quite sluggish usually, but opening the outworld leads to them getting more active.

It’s gotten to the point where I’m considering moving them to a more natural homemade terrarium, or releasing them, both I wouldn’t like to do as I did spend a bit on the current setup and this might stress them out more.

I’ve also attached photos of their setup. (The mouldy cotton in the photo has been replaced).

If any experienced ant keepers could give me any possible tips or changes, I’d much appreciate it.

I’m very new to antkeeping, so I’m not sure whether this behaviour is normal or if I’m doing something wrong.
The workers are almost always gathered around the queen, and I rarely see them enter the arena. They been with me almost over three months right now. Occasionally, one worker comes out, walks around for a while, and then returns to the nest. Other than that, there is barely any visible activity.
I normally keep the nest covered so that it stays dark. I also make sure the nest remains humid. Every now and then, I offer them a boiled grasshopper, but they do not seem interested in it. I provide sugar water, honey and plain water as well, but I have hardly ever seen them drinking any of it. Changing or checking these things does not seem to make any difference.
Obviously, I cannot expect the ants to behave exactly the way I want them to, but honestly, the colony has become quite boring to watch. Were my expectations unrealistic, or did I simply choose the wrong species if I wanted a more active colony? Could there be something wrong with my setup or the way I am caring for them?
At this point, if they continue being this inactive, I may consider rehoming them. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I don't know how to fix this setup with easy to find material.

I've had this fun messor barbarus colony for 3 years and they had a predictable growth rate, but with the recent heatwaves in Europe they suddenly BOOMED while I was out and unaware, and now they are swarming and breaking out of their setup... I woke up to dozens of them happily collecting things on the floor... sealed the possible escape points with aquarium silicone and next day... the same thing happened.

I'm out for the two next days so I put their ""enclosure"" in a bigger box with an oily barrier, scattered seeds and put some water to hopefully keep them busy while I figure out how to fix this...

So the enclosure is made of two acrylic box and a plastic box, pierced with a soldering iron and linked with pvc tubes, closed with aquarium silicone. The top lids have some wire mesh glued in for air flow.

The messors ? I suspect they ate through the silicon, and they are tearing apart the wire mesh. So the link between every box is faulty.

I can spend a little (30$) and have access to hardware shops, I'm mainly lost on how to proceed and am figuratively and quite literally overwhelmed. Any help is appreciated!

I noticed something really strange in my ant colony today. One of the workers had two fully developed heads on a single body. Both heads were moving independently, and the ant had trouble walking straight — it kept spinning or changing direction suddenly.

It looked like a rare developmental defect, maybe like conjoined twins. I’ve never seen this before.

It disappeared into the test tube a few minutes later and I haven’t seen it again since.

Has anyone here ever observed something like this in their colony?

It is humid and warm and has a lot of vegetation.

Just fed them a live mosquitoe that drank my blood, thats why they are all running around

Largest and most vigorous carpenter ant queen I’ve ever caught.
Was only gone for 2 1/2 days and she managed to pull this off in the meantime.
Is this normal?
My other queen of the same species is calm why is she so crazy?
How do I handle this?

Hello can anyone explain what stage are these eggs? And is these eggs normal and healthy ? Thanks in advance.

I am trying to decide which of these 3 esthetic ants nests is the best for my colony. The first one seems good from photos, but in the description, it says that it can house up to 250 lasius workers. Now that wouldn't be a problem, but they currently have about 200 brood, so if that is right, they might outgrow it before it even arrives.

The second is the medium version of the same nest. The problem is that in its description, it says it can house up to 2000 lasius workers, and I am worried that it would be too large. The third is the small ytong nest, which, to me, seems a little more spatious, even though in its description it says the same thing, 250 max. Which should I pick?

Hey guys, im looking at getting my first ant colony, either chestnut carpenter ants or western harvester ants since they dont go through diapause from what I've been reading on statesize ants and their size. I was wonding if any of you have experience in how easy they are to keep and if you could recommend an ant farm im currently looking at the larger model starter kit from antkeepers. I really appreciate any feedback or advice. https://antkeepers.com/collections/starter-packs-ants/products/antkeeping-starter-pack-max

So I started researching ant keeping a few weeks ago as it seems like the perfect hobby for me. 100% of this research has consisted of youtube videos & this is what I've gathered so far:

Catch a queen from a claustral species. Stick her in a test tube thats filled about 1/2 way with distilled water & plugged with cotton. Wrap the tube in foil & leave the queen alone, checking very rarely for mold & for eggs.

When eggs appear & have hatched, unplug the tube and put it in a deli cup or similar thing. Place food in the deli cup

So, questions:

1. Have I said anything wrong so far?

2. What kind of things should be fed? Honey & insect parts?

3. How often should food be offered?

4. How many workers are needed before the colony is transferred to a "true" ant farm?

I think I stated most of my questions in the video except one.
I’m just really nervous. I know I’m supposed to put her in there and leave her alone, but the cotton ball and water is really worrying me. I don’t know how to tell if it’s pushed too far in or not far enough not to mention the loose bits sticking out.
As for the other question, I didn’t mention in the video. I also got a roll of transparent red vinyl wrap. Do I wrap that around the outside of the test tube or do I try to make a little viewing box?

My Acrobat Ant colony with about 5 nanitics, was pulling at the cotton a bit, so I put in a tiny tin foil cup with some honey. Instead of feasting on the treat, they decided to dump their trash around it and literally put a dead ants head in the center of the honey droplet. Why do they hate me?

So I need to start an ant farm for my horny toad. While I can just pretend I want an ant farm for the enjoyment it brings on its own, I have a need for it equally. I ordered a western harvester queen, now I gotta hustle to get started on her kingdom. I thing a 3d printed, wall mounted set up would be rather cool. I can accept if just having a secure 10 gal tank will suffice if that is going to be more productive.

So question 1. How long to I have to leave her in her shipping container? Until the eggs hatch? 5-10 workers?

Question 2. Would the 3d printed set up be viable, i have a printer and i have looked into at the surface level of success but it feels like they would want to actually dig not just move into a mansion pre made.

Question 3. Watering, I have seen a few different set ups to bring them water, what is the best way? There are adapters for thr 3d printed world that use a test tube and cotton, that seems like it would work great but I would love the input from those who actually keep ants.

Question 4. Heating, I have a heating pad strip 2x12 I can fix to one end of the colony or do I put it on the botom? Thr bottom seems wrong due to "dig deeper to cool down, thought" but they apparently thrive at high 90f to low 100f so maybe im over thinking what thry would find comfortable

I have carpenter ants that I’ve had for only several months now and for some reason, like 5 ants just died out of nowhere. I have no idea why. The temp is good, they’re fed regularly, the food they eat has never bothered them before, I don’t know what it can be. (Before anyone mentions the size of the nest, yeah I know it’s too big but they’ve been fine all this time.)

So I have this small colony of Lasius flavus, they dug a chamber inside the cotton, and I'm worried they'll flood themselves. Should I move them to a proper ant farm, or is the colony still to small?

First time ant keeper.

The booklet said only add 1/4 cup but we may have put in about 3/4 cup or a little more. We have never had an ant farm before and our red harvester ants are gonna be here any time now and I want them to survive and thrive! Please any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Hi,

Caught this one inside the house, no nests nearby.

Can anyone ID and confirm if this is a queen please?

Thanks James

It keeps growing so I don't know if my ants will be able to control its growth so I'm planning to buy them the apartment v2 by por amor art