My new tetramorium colony

[ANTphibian]

Hello there! I am new to the forum and my name is ANTphibian.
I am hopefully soon going to be an ant keeper! I am planning to keep a colony of tetramorium, as I've been told that they are good for newbie ant keepers. I should catch one soon, if all goes to plan (their nuptual flight begins this month as I'm sure you know). I've created a nest and an outworld, as I can't really afford the AntsCanada products. I've checked and they should be perfect, though.
I've pretty much been obsessed with ants for a couple of months, but I'm finally acting on it.
I will feed them dog food and seeds as well as different meats, then I will also give them plenty of honey too.
Is this all alright? And do any other keepers of tetramorium have any other suggestions for me?
Thanks, ANTphibian.

[idahoantgirl]

Hello there! I am new to the forum and my name is ANTphibian.
I am hopefully soon going to be an ant keeper! I am planning to keep a colony of tetramorium, as I've been told that they are good for newbie ant keepers. I should catch one soon, if all goes to plan (their nuptual flight begins this month as I'm sure you know). I've created a nest and an outworld, as I can't really afford the AntsCanada products. I've checked and they should be perfect, though.
I've pretty much been obsessed with ants for a couple of months, but I'm finally acting on it.
I will feed them dog food and seeds as well as different meats, then I will also give them plenty of honey too.
Is this all alright? And do any other keepers of tetramorium have any other suggestions for me?
Thanks, ANTphibian.

HI there! I have a colony of 150-200 tetramorium ants. They are about 10 months old. They are my first colony. a couple things you should know are as follows:
1.They grow very fast. Not so fast as solenopsis, but still really fast. Mine have even grown slower than usual, but I'm happy with the current rate. Once you have eggs workers will emerge in a month. Thats quite fast for an ant btw.

2. As they get older, they will also get "smarter". Of course, barriers are a must. Fluon is always best, but as I cant afford it, I use baby powder and rubbing alcohol. Yes, occasionally a few will walk over the border and escape, but this has not been a big problem. Currently my barrier setup is this: I took some packaging tape and stuck it around the inside brim of the outworld, with about a half inch of packaging tape sticking up over the outworld. My thinking was that any ants that get over the baby powder will get stuck on the packaging tape. I painted on some baby powder onto the packaging tape. I then thought that if an ant gets over the baby powder, crosses over the sticky ness and then finds a more suitable nesting site, I don t want him coming home with the news. My outworld is a Tupperware container, so it has a rim that the lid snaps onto. I took some more baby powder and painted it on the underside of this rim as well. I guess if you were even more worried you could put the whole outworld in a moat.

3. Your ants might be ok with dog food and meat, but there are some essential nutrients found in bugs. I would suggest going down to petco, buying a container of crickets and freezing them. Stick them all in a plastic bag (doubled up ziplocks if you like) and storing them in the freezer. when your ants get hungry, pull out a cricket, chop it into three pieces (I keep a blade near my ant stuff at all times for this purpose) and give it to them for a nutritional boost! Also you should try to give them other sugar sources as well. this is easy as you can just get anything sweet from your pantry.

4. Tetramorium are hoarders. Don't load up their outworld with food because they will take all of it back to the nest. unless you want your entire nest to be crammed full of garbage and stored food, give them just what they need and a little extra for colony growth.

5 Tetrmaorium are great pets.

So what kind of setup do you have? Im interested to see. Mine are in a Lasius Hybrid nest.

Hope I helped,
Idahoantgirl

[ANTphibian]

So what kind of setup do you have? Im interested to see. Mine are in a Lasius Hybrid nest.

I haven't actually bought a nest, but I have created one from a plastic container with the sections in it, then drilling holes in the segment walls, so that they can go in between. It's a little like a DIY ominest. I've then put in a thin layer of sand at the bottom and drilled holes for test tubes with water, and now all I have to do it make some holes in the top so I can cover them with tights or some other type of fine mesh, then drip water in there every other day, or something like that, to keep moisture at about 30-40 percent. I have also added a heating mat just to the very end of the nest to keep part of it warm and the other parts less hot, hopefully simulating a natural nest. I will keep it dark too. They cost about £3 a piece to make so as the colony grows, I can just add more. Do you think this would be alright?
Thanks for your reply, by the way. It's very helpful. No-one else that I know keeps ants, so I haven't got any advice from people about it other than YouTube really.

[idahoantgirl]

So what kind of setup do you have? Im interested to see. Mine are in a Lasius Hybrid nest.

I haven't actually bought a nest, but I have created one from a plastic container with the sections in it, then drilling holes in the segment walls, so that they can go in between. It's a little like a DIY ominest. I've then put in a thin layer of sand at the bottom and drilled holes for test tubes with water, and now all I have to do it make some holes in the top so I can cover them with tights or some other type of fine mesh, then drip water in there every other day, or something like that, to keep moisture at about 30-40 percent. I have also added a heating mat just to the very end of the nest to keep part of it warm and the other parts less hot, hopefully simulating a natural nest. I will keep it dark too. They cost about £3 a piece to make so as the colony grows, I can just add more. Do you think this would be alright?
Thanks for your reply, by the way. It's very helpful. No-one else that I know keeps ants, so I haven't got any advice from people about it other than YouTube really.

I was at first considering making the type of nest you speak of. The only reason I didn't was because I was able to buy a defected hybrid nest for about half price. Since then I made a grout nest which I might use for a lasius colony. As I haven't tried the tackle box nests, I cant really say if they will work or not, but in theory I think they would. Good luck!

[ANTphibian]

So what kind of setup do you have? Im interested to see. Mine are in a Lasius Hybrid nest.

I haven't actually bought a nest, but I have created one from a plastic container with the sections in it, then drilling holes in the segment walls, so that they can go in between. It's a little like a DIY ominest. I've then put in a thin layer of sand at the bottom and drilled holes for test tubes with water, and now all I have to do it make some holes in the top so I can cover them with tights or some other type of fine mesh, then drip water in there every other day, or something like that, to keep moisture at about 30-40 percent. I have also added a heating mat just to the very end of the nest to keep part of it warm and the other parts less hot, hopefully simulating a natural nest. I will keep it dark too. They cost about £3 a piece to make so as the colony grows, I can just add more. Do you think this would be alright?
Thanks for your reply, by the way. It's very helpful. No-one else that I know keeps ants, so I haven't got any advice from people about it other than YouTube really.

I was at first considering making the type of nest you speak of. The only reason I didn't was because I was able to buy a defected hybrid nest for about half price. Since then I made a grout nest which I might use for a lasius colony. As I haven't tried the tackle box nests, I cant really say if they will work or not, but in theory I think they would. Good luck!

Thanks
I hadn't actually thought of using grout fora nest, even though I bought a lot for my outworld. I might use a home-made ytong nest in the future. I know this works, and it fairly easy to make, so that's good.