Caring for a Queen

[Aaronpenrs]

I’m planning to start an ant colony from the very start, catching a queen. I just have on question, what about waste? An ant queen must produce some sort of waste when it’s in it’s test tube setup, right? If she does produce waste, then how am I supposed to clean it without stressing her out, and her eating her eggs?

[DontSquishTheAnt]

Ants do produce waste, and you do need to clean that waste up. The waste that they produce is mainly uneaten food and dead workers after a while, though ants do defecate. The best way to keep an ant setup clean is to not let it get dirty in the first place, everything is much, much easier that way. For example, try not to feed your ants in their nest, instead try and get an outworld or put the food on a small, removable, paper tray to make cleanup easier. Doing that will help reduce stress for the ants when removing food or dead ants. Dealing with ant poop is very straightforward and easy, every once in a while you will have to move the ants into a new test tube or nest because the water source, hydration medium, or other parts of the nest are visibly dirty.

I hope that helped,
Mark

[Aaronpenrs]

Thank you so much. This helped a lot, I appreciate you taking the time out of your day to answer me. Can’t wait for the ant keeping journey! Happy ant keeping!

[Antscannabis]

Hello. Im not new to ant keeping. However until this year, when i stumbled across the a. c. community while researching an odd behavior from a wild tetramorium colony, i didnt realize there are SO many other ant enthusiasts. When i researched so many years ago. Very little support was offered, in contrast to irratication. So im thrilled to see not only the access to accurate species info and formicariums. But the education on PROPER ant care. ! Go mikey
Im most excited about branching out w my species. I already have a caught a cant. queen this year. And in addition to another of the camponautolis queens, I plan to catch red harvester queens. However i believe i heard mikey mention ,( in a video i cant seem to find now ), that harvester queens must be able to forage while waiting on initial brood development. Is this accurate ? Will i need to place her tube, open and inside of an outworld, where i place fresh small bits of insects,and grain ? Also,assuming she is non-colostial, can i leave a tube of sugar water in the outworld ? Or is there a risk she may attempt to relocate to it ? Any info on that would help me be better prepared, and extremely appreciated.

[Rowan123]

Hi I am new to ant keeping and I wonder does anyone have any tips on keeping Labor Day ants and would they eat freeze dried crickets

Thanks