The AntsCanada Ant Forum's

I found a small colony in a rotting log in the mountains in Salt Lake City Utah back in April 2015. I found two queens in the colony and have them both. Here is a dead worker from the colony. This worker, and most of the others, is about 5mm in length. The queens are about 9mm or so in length.

I am currently keeping three different Formica species in Hybrid nests. They have been in them for about four months now and are doing fine. Each of the three colonies had roughly 25 workers when I transferred them to Hybrid nests and now they have roughly 50, 75, and 100 workers. All three colonies...

Quick and dirty fix could be one of these two items. I just picked them up at Walmart for a couple of bucks each. The felt circles are just a bit thicker than the mounting tape. I did notice with the placement of the mounting tape right in the corners, even extending just a hair past the edge of the...

Cool! I just bought some. I'll try it out

@Allyoutoo : I have experienced this same issue when removing the lid to observe. If I'm not super careful, it startles the colony. Then of course other people who come in to see the ants just pull it off and put it back on very roughly, not knowing that I'd prefer it be done softly. We will look in...

An easy work around is get some red film (used in photography and cut it to the size of the lid opening. I googled "photography red film" but didn't find what I was hoping to find. What should I search for if I want to find some of this to purchase? Do you know of a vendor or web site where I could...

Gregory2455 wrote: Most Camponotus species on the western side of the US do really, really bad in test tubes, or anything that is glass or plastic at all. You should always move them out after they get workers and into grout, sand, wood, AAC, or other things like that.

Good to know. Thanks Gregory2455!

My guess would be Camponotus sp.

I have had queens in the house. I expect they flew in then landed. I had a man come in to where I work asking for directions who had a queen on his shoulder. He couldn't see it. I caught it in a cup and later transferred it into a test tube set up. The same day as I was walking home I had a queen l...

Jonathan21700 wrote:Check them once a week and they should get around 10 workers.
That's why she only has 3 pupae.

I will leave her alone for awhile here. Thanks for the advice!