Good beginner species near Cincinnati, Ohio?

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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dinoman9877
Posts: 77
Joined: Sat Sep 17, 2016 7:03 pm
Location: Covington, Kentucky

Good beginner species near Cincinnati, Ohio?

Post: # 11260Post dinoman9877
Sun Sep 18, 2016 12:31 am

Hey everyone! I'm thinking of being able to raise a colony sometime in the future, though I don't know when with lack of money and college taking precedence. However, I just wanted to know whats species there are near where I currently am that would be good for a starting ant keeper to raise.

Off the top of my head, I know of two exceptionally strange species of ants that I see all the time where I live. They're huge, maybe close to half an inch long (may be exaggerating because I've never actively measured one, but they're still REALLY big). One of them black, the other red. Not saying they'd be good to raise though, considering their size, but they're there.

I'm not entirely sure of other species near where I live because I've yet to learn the intricacies of identifying ants, so I'm looking to people who actually know what they're talking about. Hope to hear back soon!

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Batspiderfish
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Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2016 3:47 pm
Location: Maine

Re: Good beginner species near Cincinnati, Ohio?

Post: # 11289Post Batspiderfish
Sun Sep 18, 2016 9:54 am

Lasius, Tetramorium, and sometimes Camponotus (I'm guessing this might what those large ants belong to) are great genera for beginners. :)
If you enjoy my expertise and identifications, please do not put wild populations at risk of disease by releasing pet colonies. We are responsible to give our pets the best care we can manage for the rest of their lives.

dinoman9877
Posts: 77
Joined: Sat Sep 17, 2016 7:03 pm
Location: Covington, Kentucky

Re: Good beginner species near Cincinnati, Ohio?

Post: # 11293Post dinoman9877
Sun Sep 18, 2016 10:16 am

What would be, based on opinion, the 'easiest' to raise? I don't want to be overwhelmed right off the bat from being a new keeper.

As I said, it won't be anytime soon that I'm raising ants, but I wanted to get a general idea. This is also helpful because it seems these three genera of ant are found throughout North America, so no matter where I end up going, I can get an easy gateway into ant keeping! :D

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idahoantgirl
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Joined: Sat Sep 12, 2015 11:52 am
Location: Idaho, USA

Re: Good beginner species near Cincinnati, Ohio?

Post: # 11574Post idahoantgirl
Tue Sep 20, 2016 2:40 pm

dinoman9877 wrote:What would be, based on opinion, the 'easiest' to raise? I don't want to be overwhelmed right off the bat from being a new keeper.

As I said, it won't be anytime soon that I'm raising ants, but I wanted to get a general idea. This is also helpful because it seems these three genera of ant are found throughout North America, so no matter where I end up going, I can get an easy gateway into ant keeping! :D
So, here is a list of the ups and downs of each species listed.

Lasius
pros
They are easy and fun to watch, they are harmless as they have no stingers
cons
some species like lasius neoniger take all winter before laying eggs.
they can take quite a while to grow into a colony to be proud of.

Tetramorium
pros
They are in my mind the perfect beginner species, their queen is hardy, They grow extremely fast, (25 or more workers in just 3 months) even though they have stingers, they will not use them on anything other than prey and their stingers are so small that humans couldn't even feel it anyways and it would leave no bump on skin. They are amazing to watch attack their prey, they are energetic and awesome.
cons
they tend to be a little bit more difficult to contain at first. my tetramorium colony is in a hybrid nest and I found that I had to glue the glass to the formicarium because they would slither their way out. It was never a mass escape though. I would just find a few lone ants wandering around on my dresser. It would be impossible for the queen to escape. But, with all ant colonies you have to go through a tweaking phase where you have to figure out what needs glued on. It's not just tetramorium.


camponautice
pros
These are most likely the big ants you saw. they are very cool and extremely visible so that is definitely a plus because you can see everything that's happening as if it was magnified. because of their size, they are very bad at climbing and of course couldn't slither through the glass and escape. as far as I know, they don't have stingers, but they do have powerful jaws. I'm not sure how likely they are to use them on people.
cons
They take FOREVER to grow! It can be years before you have a good amount of ants.


Hope I helped!
-Idahoantgirl
Proverbs 6:6-8

Go to the ant, you sluggard;
consider its ways and be wise!
It has no commander,
no overseer or ruler,
yet it stores its provisions in summer
and gathers its food at harvest.

Keeping Tetramorium immigrans, Tapinoma Sessile

dinoman9877
Posts: 77
Joined: Sat Sep 17, 2016 7:03 pm
Location: Covington, Kentucky

Re: Good beginner species near Cincinnati, Ohio?

Post: # 11579Post dinoman9877
Tue Sep 20, 2016 3:28 pm

The Lasius sounds like all pros to me right now because I don't have a place set up for them yet, so I'd have time through the whole winter to prepare for the colony before I get the colony.

The bad news is that with each passing day I miss my chance to catch a queen, and I don't have test tubes yet, though I wanted to buy some today, my aunt had other plans by making me deal with a mouse and moving my dead car up, which required my friends coming to help, and now they want to stay, so no trip to wherever for me to get test tubes. My mother (who is kind of in charge of what I do despite me being 18 cuz she has the money and it's her house) says I should wait until next year maybe, but I told her that if I caught one next year, I'd have to wait another year for the colony to start.

It's all very annoying. What makes it worse is, if I don't get something put together by the time the queen wakes up, I can't release her, she'll probably freak out being on the surface in springtime and will probably just die, meaning I'll have to then rush to get everything ready and might not necessarily even get it done in time before the colony starts getting big.

So what do I do? :cry:

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