The AntsCanada Ant Forum's

So I am a first time ant keeper and my camponotus queen is just about to have her second batch of eggs hatch (Yay!!) But I've ran into a slight problem. I was unaware AntsCanada had so much great stuff for ant keeping when I started ant hunting and placed her in a tube. Easley that tube was not from the AntsCanada store. O.o it is quite a bit larger. It measures too about an inch in diameter while the AntsCanada one is only a half inch. Any advice on moving them from this old tube to an AntsCanada one? Thx

Do not move your colony. They can relocate on their own if their tube is placed in a foraging arena/outworld.

Well that should have been obvious to me haha. You're saying I should just set the tube in the already finished outworld and just wait then?

Yes, that is what you do.

that size should be fine. No worries!

+1 for exactly what you should do, but wait until your colony is at least 20-30 strong if you can. I would assume with a test tube that large that space will not be an issue, but water available may become one. When you have enough workers just place the entire tube in the outworld with the nest attached and they will find the nest on their own. If your colony is anything like mine they will be stubborn and not want to move but just have patience and they will eventually.

Ok thx guys! Sounds like I have quite awhile to wait then. Guess that gives me time to decor her outworld and get it a little more prep

These are my Campos in their large 30x200mm tube.


It's perfectly fine and they do well.


You can buy various sizes of test tube in shops that sell crafting stuff and lab equipment, there's no need to order them online (I used the smaller ones as sugar tubes before I got the byFormica liquid feeders).
You can directly place the test tube with the ants in an outworld/arena/foraging container which also makes feeding them much easier as you don't have to "invade" their tube every time but can just place food at their front door. When the colony grows bigger you can simply attach any nest you like.

AC's Test tubes are really unnesasarily expensive (not like I'm ranting or anything though) I reccomend buying from here (16 mm x 150 are what most people use, and glass works great)

http://www.lcmlab.com/16mm_Glass_Test_Tubes_Corning_99445_16_p/41a20-w.htm

Super cheap yet nice quality.

Any 17mm test tube will work with AC products
I bought some plastic ones from amazon for about 10p each