Hello - Brand New Ant Keeper

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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Fayestone
Posts: 11
Joined: Sun Jul 29, 2018 5:02 am
Location: Derby, England
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Hello - Brand New Ant Keeper

Post: # 45971Post Fayestone
Sun Jul 29, 2018 5:17 am

Morning Everyone, or at least it’s morning where I am! I’m completely new to antkeeping after watching the AntsCanada YouTube. I am incredibly phobic of spiders, and at one time I’ve transfered that phobia to most small insects. I come to antkeeping with a renewed fascination in ants, and an attempt to break the transference. I don’t like the idea of them touching me but, from what I gather, my ants have no interest in this either! How did you get into ant keeping? I’d love to know 😀 I’ve joined this forum so I can better look after the ants in my care by asking questions and learning more.

I caught some Queens on nuptial flight day a few weeks ago (July, in the Midlands of England) and that’s where my journey started. There were two flight days in the same week.

I thought I had all Lasius Niger, but now I’ve had a closer look at pictures online of other Lasius speicies and I suspect that at least one is lasius umbratus with the other potentially being other Lasius. My queens are in test tube set ups, as I originally thought these were all claustral ants. My suspected umbratus ant is not thriving here, the others having laid eggs. Any help, advice or idenitifcation of my Queens would massively help this newcomer out. The link to my insta is below:

https://instagram.com/p/Blz6LAQn_dV/

Turret675A
Posts: 55
Joined: Fri Jul 13, 2018 2:16 pm
Location: Richmond BC
Contact:

Re: Hello - Brand New Ant Keeper

Post: # 46368Post Turret675A
Wed Aug 01, 2018 10:54 pm

Fayestone wrote:
Sun Jul 29, 2018 5:17 am
Morning Everyone, or at least it’s morning where I am! I’m completely new to antkeeping after watching the AntsCanada YouTube. I am incredibly phobic of spiders, and at one time I’ve transfered that phobia to most small insects. I come to antkeeping with a renewed fascination in ants, and an attempt to break the transference. I don’t like the idea of them touching me but, from what I gather, my ants have no interest in this either! How did you get into ant keeping? I’d love to know 😀 I’ve joined this forum so I can better look after the ants in my care by asking questions and learning more.

I caught some Queens on nuptial flight day a few weeks ago (July, in the Midlands of England) and that’s where my journey started. There were two flight days in the same week.

I thought I had all Lasius Niger, but now I’ve had a closer look at pictures online of other Lasius speicies and I suspect that at least one is lasius umbratus with the other potentially being other Lasius. My queens are in test tube set ups, as I originally thought these were all claustral ants. My suspected umbratus ant is not thriving here, the others having laid eggs. Any help, advice or idenitifcation of my Queens would massively help this newcomer out. The link to my insta is below:

https://instagram.com/p/Blz6LAQn_dV/
The photos on your Insta are they of the queen that is different? because to me it just looks like a lasius niger queen. They just can vary in size depending on how well fed they were as larva i think.
Ants are pretty cool

In Richmond BC currently caring for:
X1 Campontus Herculeanus
X1 Camponotus Modoc
X1 Camponotus Novaeborecensis
X2 Formica Pacifica
X1 Formica Podzolica
X1 Formica Neorufabarbis
X1 Myrmica Incompleta

Fayestone
Posts: 11
Joined: Sun Jul 29, 2018 5:02 am
Location: Derby, England
Contact:

Re: Hello - Brand New Ant Keeper

Post: # 46411Post Fayestone
Thu Aug 02, 2018 1:55 pm

Hiya, thank-you for looking. I made a collage of four ants and numbered them in the corner. The bottom right corner is the ant that I’m concerned about being Lasius umbratus (no 4).

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