The AntsCanada Ant Forum's

My colony is a Lasius niger colony, and it is very small, consisting of around 12 workers and one queen. They eat unpredictably, sometimes taking or leaving food.

Thank you for your help.

I have heard of the problem of overfeeding ant colonies, and I have an ant colony that I feed a lot. Will everything be okay if I remove all the uneaten food from the outworld after the ants have eaten, or is it still worth limiting the amount of food that I give the ants? Will the amount of food th...

I have never kept Camponotus Pennsylvanicus, but ants do not require aphids to survive. Many species tend to aphids but most do not rely on them for survival. You do not have to add aphids to your setup, but the ants will need a sugar source, which could be honey, fruit or simply water mixed with su...

I have caught what I think is a queen, and have taken some pictures. Which species is it? Is it a queen?

Here is a link to the photos, I hope they are clear enough. Let me know if they are not.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1MiBnB1Z-Eue-XsH8Zc0KmP7xf-_rk7n5?usp=sharing

To post pictures, send a link to a dropbox that contains the images, and try to send several clear images of the queens.

I have never used this setup before, but it seems that it is designed to keep Lasius ants, and is then probably mostly escape proof. Nearly all ant-keepers have escapees, and you can always leave the lids closed to prevent them, but I would still recommend using certain barriers, such as baby powder...

You will be unlikely to find a mated queen in your house because there would probably be no Lasius niger males there, they will most likely have to go to a specific field or place to mate. I have never experienced problems with visibility when keeping Lasius niger ants, even though they are small. I...

It is hard to tell from the image, but it looks like a queen. Calling pest control is unnecessary, I think there are other ways of dealing with this. If you think that you have a colony, the presence of a queen does not prove that, the queen was planning to start a colony, but did not get the chance...

Congratulations, I hope you enjoy antkeeping.

Ants prefer damp soil, so try to dampen the soil so that the ants can dig tunnels in it. You can encourage ants to move by using bright light, as long as you do not burn them. I was in exactly the same situation, and tipped my Messor barbarus colony out of the test tube, and they had dug a nest in a...