Are test tubes always necessary?

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Wolfsbane123
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Location: Northwest Florida Panhandle

Are test tubes always necessary?

Post: # 54406Post Wolfsbane123
Tue Dec 04, 2018 6:52 pm

So I have never kept ants before and I want to try my hand at starting from just one queen and breeding my own colony. My question is, since the whole purpose of keeping a queen in a test tube is to simulate natural underground catacombs, wouldn’t it be just as effective to keep the queen in a formicarium instead? That way, when she starts to build up a colony, I can eventually attach an outworld and they can all explore when they are ready. Instead of transporting them later on and stressing the queen and the workers out. I’m just curious if this would be an ideal plan or if not then I’m curious to find out why not.

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antnest8
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Re: Are test tubes always necessary?

Post: # 54413Post antnest8
Wed Dec 05, 2018 11:01 am

It matters the formicarium. if the formicarium is huge you should add dirt or substrate for her to slowly expand her colony. test tubes are just cheaper and easier to find. plus you can store water with out disturbing her. some people have raised queens in other items of course from plant water pickets to tic-tac containers.
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ooper01
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Re: Are test tubes always necessary?

Post: # 54422Post ooper01
Wed Dec 05, 2018 6:11 pm

The new AntsCanada Ant Tower is perfect for this. It's a soil formicarium so the new queen can excavate her own claustral chamber. As workers come along, they can forage above ground in the upper section of the Ant Tower. Expanding the setup is easy with tubing as well.
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Wolfsbane123
Posts: 8
Joined: Tue Dec 04, 2018 6:44 pm
Location: Northwest Florida Panhandle

Re: Are test tubes always necessary?

Post: # 54423Post Wolfsbane123
Wed Dec 05, 2018 7:44 pm

ooper01 wrote:
Wed Dec 05, 2018 6:11 pm
The new AntsCanada Ant Tower is perfect for this. It's a soil formicarium so the new queen can excavate her own claustral chamber. As workers come along, they can forage above ground in the upper section of the Ant Tower. Expanding the setup is easy with tubing as well.
This is a good idea. Then later when the colony gets bigger I can get a bigger outworld and try and get the queen to move to a hybrid nest for better viewing later on. Thanks for the suggestion!

Hunter36o
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Re: Are test tubes always necessary?

Post: # 54744Post Hunter36o
Thu Dec 13, 2018 4:38 am

Hi, I am adding a link to my Google drive because I have a tupperware container in there with a sand substrate, this seems to be ideal for this queen, although she is not the biggest in my ranks her colony grows the fastest by far, she was the last queen I caught and she had 12 workers before winter. Keeping in mind the queen's caught a month or two before had test tube set ups and only had 16-20 workers before winter. A good count for sure but I feel the queen in the sand would have had way more if caught at the same time.
I like this because I can keep the sand moist enough so the queen and workers can change their nest as they see fit.
If the sand gets too hard they cannot break it up and make new tunnels.
This will be a good set up while you save for the ant tower or hybrid nests.

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=17onxTZNudOUrZGNRCwWXKCMvr3xNuz-F
Research is important before during and even after you have established a colony. There is always time to learn and to listen to others experiences. Live by this and your ants will thrive. Fail to do so and your experience may be brief.

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