Should I Keep Ants?

Questions from those who are just starting or considering getting into the ant keeping hobby. If you’re intimidated or confused by the in-depth posts of the other sections of this forum, feel free to post here, and we'll start from square one!

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Serafine

Re: Should I Keep Ants?

Post: # 16530Post Serafine
Sat Jan 28, 2017 9:20 pm

I have a Camponotus barbaricus colony with 4 workers and some brood and my current required maintenance is about 5 minutes every 2-3 days (basically just adding some fruit flies) and replacing the sugar water tube every 2 weeks or so which takes about 5-10 minutes.
Even if i had to feed them 6-8 fruit flies and/or a cricket daily it would hardly require more than ten minutes per day.

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SamuelMamuel
Posts: 187
Joined: Thu Jan 19, 2017 10:24 pm

Re: Should I Keep Ants?

Post: # 16534Post SamuelMamuel
Sun Jan 29, 2017 12:02 am

Serafine wrote:
SamuelMamuel wrote:What nest do y'all recommend for a beginner, hybrid or omni? I setup a poll on another post if you wanna vote there
Depends on the species you want.

Fire ants literally burst into existence with a speed that forces you to add a new formicarium or outworld every 2-4 weeks as their queens can lay up to 11000 eggs per week.

Camponotus on the other end of the spectrum are very slow-growing and will only reach 100-200 workers after two years (in year 3 they sort of explode into the thousands) which means they can perfectly live in test tubes placed in an outworld for two years before they need more space (additional outworlds or formicariums).
They are also rather dry-loving which makes them perfect candidates for omninests (same goes for harvester ants which need a dry place to store their seeds) while ants that prefer more moist breeding grounds might do better in a hybrid.
I want Tetramorium I think
Colonies:
--Tetramorium Caespitum
--Camponotus pennsylvanicus
--Formica Sp.

Serafine

Re: Should I Keep Ants?

Post: # 16536Post Serafine
Sun Jan 29, 2017 5:59 am

Tetramorium are very adaptable and can accept a broad range of environment conditions. They multiply rather fast (definitely faster than Lasius but not as ridiculous as Solenopsis). The AC channel has a very good tutorial about them.

I'd get an omninest or any of the hybrid nests except the Myrmica one (that one is probably too moist) and an outworld. Note however that the hybrid nest is rather small and once they have moved into it they might need additional nesting space relatively quickly (like in about 3-4 months).

For the first 2-4 months they should be fine in a test tube placed in an outworld (put a straw between the front cotton plug and the glass so they can go out and forage but still have a relatively moist atmosphere within the tube) then when they have 50+ workers you can add the nest.

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SamuelMamuel
Posts: 187
Joined: Thu Jan 19, 2017 10:24 pm

Re: Should I Keep Ants?

Post: # 16550Post SamuelMamuel
Sun Jan 29, 2017 10:25 am

Serafine wrote:Tetramorium are very adaptable and can accept a broad range of environment conditions. They multiply rather fast (definitely faster than Lasius but not as ridiculous as Solenopsis). The AC channel has a very good tutorial about them.

I'd get an omninest or any of the hybrid nests except the Myrmica one (that one is probably too moist) and an outworld. Note however that the hybrid nest is rather small and once they have moved into it they might need additional nesting space relatively quickly (like in about 3-4 months).

For the first 2-4 months they should be fine in a test tube placed in an outworld (put a straw between the front cotton plug and the glass so they can go out and forage but still have a relatively moist atmosphere within the tube) then when they have 50+ workers you can add the nest.
Great! Thank you so much
Colonies:
--Tetramorium Caespitum
--Camponotus pennsylvanicus
--Formica Sp.

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