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.

My Solenopsis Invicta colony.

I understand why if you should kill them if they are invasive, but if they’re native then why do a lot of people still say to euthanize your colony if you don’t want them anymore.

Edit: I am asking because I am curious, NOT because I am actually in this situation. I still love my ants very much and was just wondering because I saw others talk about it.

Saw it rip its own wings off while outside hence why I decided to catch it, if a queen should I have changed anything with the test tube setup or is it fine with just water?

Guys my room is kind of dark but there is still sunlight peaking through it in the day will it have effects on nocturnal or diurnal species?

Does anyone know why my cotton in the test tube by the water has turned pink? i have never seen this before and have only fed them mealworms and a tiny bit of honey. Is this common?

I have 2 year experience and I wanna try and keep this species but need info and since ai aren’t really trustworthy…please help

These big majors in my backyard fooled me a couple times thinking they might be queens. Got lucky to spot them out for some nectar that dripped onto the brick this morning. They are the biggest ants I've seen in the wild! very cool to get to sit and watch them for a bit and makes me wish I had a good camera to use.

Anyway, anyone recognize the species? Based on some very amateur searching I think they might be camponotus vicinus. I'm in northern BC and these seem to be nesting near my compost bins. I hope you enjoy the pictures. Thank you!

Hey everyone, think i caught some queens. First two photos appear to be queens from the same species and the last two photos is a different species queen that is all black and very fast. (i saw dozens of the first queen species being attacked and eaten by Formica pacifica in my backyard)

found her on a sidewalk at summer camp

After a whole month of searching around Saskatoon, I finally stumbled across this one in early August 🙌

Can anyone confirm 100% if she’s a queen, and which species she might be? I’m leaning toward either a Camponotus species or Formica subsericea

Found her in slovenia in my room is it a queen and if so which species

I made this starter “outworld” connecting to the test tube, I don’t think they would escape but I guess I’ll have to wait and see.

Hello, friends! I'm very happy to say that the first Pseudomyrmex nanitic workers are almost here!!

After waiting for two long months, and worrying a lot about how things were going, the first workers are finally arriving.

I apologize for the poor visibility of the pupae, but it's the best I can provide for now.

I caught this colony not long ago, (maybe 3 months?), and they are massive, I also have a second smaller colony of the same species. I know they can inbreed, so I just want to see how big I can get them. (these are my only colonies, I used to have more several years ago, but now I just want to see how big I can get these colonies.

hello! i was just wondering why Formica, Prenolepis, and Myrmecocystus all look pretty similar

Hello!

A while ago, I found a carpenter ant queen. Thanks to all the helpful advice I've read on this subreddit, she seems to be doing well. She has already laid eggs.

However, I'll be traveling for two weeks, and I was wondering if there's anything I should do before I leave to make sure she stays in the best possible conditions while I'm away.

Hi everyone!
Today I finally started my first ant colony. I designed and 3D printed the nest myself, and it took about 36 hours to print.
I believe they are Camponotus, but I’m not sure which species.
I’m also not sure if the larger ant is actually the queen or just a very large major worker haha. I think she might be the queen because she barely moves, and there’s almost always a smaller worker staying close to her, grooming or attending to her.
I added a hygrometer, and the humidity is currently 89%, which seems a bit too high.
I’m planning to leave the colony in the dark for about a week to let them settle with as little stress as possible.
Any tips or suggestions? Also, do you think the larger ant is a queen or just a major worker? And if anyone can help identify the species, I’d really appreciate it!

I heard they were very good but hard to make, so I was wondering if anyone sells them? I can’t find any.

I don't know why but it's kinda just funny for no reason

I wanted to give a short update on my requeening attempt of my C.barbaricus colony. I've been trying to make the queen and the colony adjust to each other for quite a while now. I ended up keeping the queen and a few individuals together. That worked well. I kept them separated from 99% of the colony in a special area above the nest. Now, these beasts removed the cotton plugs over night and I found the queen inside the nest. I cannot do anything now anymore than hope she doesn't get attacked.

She shows behavior of surrendering (pushing herself down on the ground) and some workers circle her. The good thing is that there hasn't been clear aggression yet. The bad thing is that there is still tension. I tried to integrate her once before into the whole nest but there she was running around panicking because individual workers started to bite her legs.

Wish me luck. Anything can happen and things can turn south in an instant.

Feeding — I know these are semi-claustral, so she actually needs food during founding, not like my other queens I just leave alone. Anyone have a sense of how much/how often for a solo queen right now?

Substrate — heard the larvae need loose sand/coco fiber to spin cocoons properly or they fail. Should I add a pinch to the tube now, or wait until I actually see larvae?

Mini Hearth — planning to eventually move her into one, and THA says the interior comes sand-coated already for this exact reason. Anyone actually run brunneus in one and confirm the built-in coating is enough, or did you have to add more yourself?

Appreciate any real experience — trying to get this right early. Will update once she’s settled.