Adding wild ants to ant colony

Discussions about the care and keeping of ants

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Mudcat
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Jan 22, 2019 2:04 am
Location: Sydney

Adding wild ants to ant colony

Post: # 55584Post Mudcat
Wed Jan 30, 2019 11:07 pm

Hello ant friends,

I have a small colony of phiedole ants queen + 15 workers and have noticed that outside I have wild phiedole ants doing there thing, Can I add wild phiedole workers to the colony or will it be a war til death?

It seems logical to me but I am inexperienced and potentially naive to this.

DontSquishTheAnt
Posts: 79
Joined: Wed Jun 20, 2018 1:00 pm
Location: Connecticut

Re: Adding wild ants to ant colony

Post: # 55605Post DontSquishTheAnt
Thu Jan 31, 2019 8:48 pm

It will most likely result in war and the death of your colony (the latter depending on how many wild ants you put in).
First year and already enjoying it!

Founding:
1 Solenopsis molesta colony with ~10 nanitic workers and lots of brood

Genesis 1:24

TriumphAnt
Posts: 12
Joined: Tue Jan 22, 2019 2:16 pm
Location: West Virginia

Re: Adding wild ants to ant colony

Post: # 55608Post TriumphAnt
Fri Feb 01, 2019 1:04 am

Yes unfortunately as is with many and likely most ant species, adding a foreign wild ant into your captive nest is probably a no-no.
( Not that I overly recommend anyone do this unless they have an idea of what they are doing already, or are using a certain species of ant.) If you are absolutely SURE that the wild colony is the SAME species of Pheidole ant that you’re keeping then you could look into brood boosting. Thats only if you already decided to add foreign ants, do NOT try adding adult workers that have already acquired their colony marker, try it with their brood whose marker may not yet be reinforced. Only add a few in at a time until you’re confident it will work, since if it’s a different species your ants will more than likely chew all the foreign brood up or at least probably attack and kill them. However if both nests contain the same species, and if your nest adopts the brood, it could create many loyal workers for your queen. This has potential to drastically increasing your workforce, depending on the amount of brood you find and introduce to your colony and also **given that the whole thing was successful.

Remember... in most cases this needs done using the SAME species! lol
Keeping:
•Camponotus
- pennsylvanicus, subbarbatus, castaneous, chromaiodes, nearcticus
•Aphaenogaster tennesseensis, rudis
•Crematogaster sp
•Lasius
-claviger, neoniger, umbratus
•Tapinoma sessile
•Temnothorax sp.
•Strumigenys reflexa
And more

Mudcat
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Jan 22, 2019 2:04 am
Location: Sydney

Re: Adding wild ants to ant colony

Post: # 55627Post Mudcat
Fri Feb 01, 2019 5:00 pm

Thanks for the input and advice ants friends. I am not 100% sure they are the same. But they look identical. Unfortunately the question wasn’t hypothetical because I am hasty in my approach to most things. So far everyone is still alive. That I can see above ground, I have not a clue what is happening below the surface. It will be an experiment to say the least. Fingers crossed that everyone loves each other and the brood is boosted. Only time will tell.

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