Crazy Idea!

[AntsRule]

What if you took a large ant colony and made sure that at all the exits only the workers and not the queen could fit through the exits. Took that formicarium and took tubing and connected it outdoors so they could forage. They would make satellite colones outside, but you would always have the queen so they could never leave you. Just a crazy idea!!! Vote your opinion in the poll!

[AntsRule]

It would be sort of like a bee hive.

[ooper01]

Beekeepers do something very similar. There is metal grating that they install, usually on the bottom box, that prevents the queen from moving up to higher boxes in the hive, but still allows the workers to move through. She lays all the eggs in the lower box and then all the honey is produced in the upper boxes. Makes honey harvesting much easier and cleaner without worrying about larvae in the upper boxes.

As for ant keeping, it may work for certain species, like the ones that don't produce majors or super majors which are typically very close in size to the queen. The one thing I see that may be a problem is that the workers would not be able to bring any food into the nest that is as large or larger than the queen. Even food that is smaller than the queen may be difficult to take in since they would be carrying it and it might make the ant + food too big to get in.

I like the idea of allowing for outside foraging though. I wish it were possible/feasible to do it.

[MCWren]

That was discussed on the yuku forum: http://antfarm.yuku.com/reply/97498/My-Formicarium-With-a-Real-Outside-Out-World-Large-Pics
I think it's worth a try if someone has a lot of colonies and wants to try it. Maybe it could even have a pest control application. Market that, AntsCanada!

[HenryWong]

I'm not sure if that'll work, but I hope it does, it's a intresting idea.
Plus, you won't have to feed them.

[Martialis]

To be honest, it depends heavily on species and area.

If you're in California, argentine ants will get in and kill everything.

If it's a polymorphic or even monomorphic species, how do you ensure the queen isn't so small she can get out?

[Cale3459]

I had thought about something similar for a colony that has alates. What I wanted to do was have a large outworld outside with a fluon barrier my ants couldn't cross to escape but the winged males and females could fly out of.

[Serafine]

I know someone who did that with Pheidole megacephalia. He hid the formicarium at a dark place, the Pheidole went raiding and killed all the Argentine colonies around the building.

[Jadeninja9]

I know someone who did that with Pheidole megacephalia. He hid the formicarium at a dark place, the Pheidole went raiding and killed all the Argentine colonies around the building.

whoa that's so cool

[HypernovaRain]

Maybe, if the queen is much bigger than the workers and there aren't any aggressive ants that could invade that area I think it's worth a shot! Although I feel that some workers might start moving the brood to a new location without the queen...