Hello and please help, :D

[mapaxe]

Hi,

I was looking for a place to introduce myself, but failed to find one (sorry). Anyways, I'm from the central highlands of México and I was just hired as a biology teacher for 2 groups of 7th graders. I was introduced to the wonderful world of ants a few months ago through YouTube videos and I thought it would be a great idea to take it to the clasroom. I don't have any true experience with formicaria, just with carnivorous plants and arachnids. I was able to get two ant colonies from someone in the state university. He told me that one colony is Camponotus sp.. The other one he says could be Tetramorium sp., but he's not sure. He says that the workers are 2.5-3 mm long and the queen is 6-7 mm long. They were collected on the uni campus where the climate is between warm temperate and subtropical (frosts happen, but are rare) and it's semiarid. It's at about 2000 mASL.

I'm gonna take pics and post them ASAP, but could use some insight.

What I want to know is which 'All You Need' ant habitat I could use. I suppose one aspect is the mere size of the ants. I was suggested by the store to use the Camponotus one for that genus (which makes sense), but nothing about the other colony. Should I use that one or something else?

Thanks so much!

[idahoantgirl]

The camponotus ants definetly should go into The Camponotus Hybrid nest. They are huge so many of the other nests won't work for them. (If they truly are Camponotus)
If the others are tetramorium, then you have more options. The tetramorium hybrid nest is built specifically for this species, but the Lasius or Formica nest work basically the same for them since tetramorium is very hardy. You can also use the omni or omni nest verticle for this species without issue The only suggestion I have for Tetramorium is about the barrier for the outworld. baby powder+rubbing alcohol doesn't work for this species. They can cross it very quickly. I have found that they cannot cross plain baby powder applied with a dry cotton ball.