Ant Keeping - ask me anything about the hobby!

pannaking22

Arachnoemperor
Old Timer
Joined
Nov 25, 2011
Messages
4,226
Those are test tube setups! Queens need 95%~ humidity and a small space to found a colony, test tube setups are a cheap and elegant solution to the problem.
I saw that! I've been spending a good amount of time on formiculture.com and learning tons about ant keeping!
 

Bob Lee

Arachnobaron
Joined
Sep 10, 2018
Messages
498
Are ant colonies doomed to eventually die out? There doesn't seem to be enough room for a mating flight... or am I misunderstanding how ants make their colonies?
Some colony die with their queen, but any specie with a "Gamergate" will have a new gamergate after the old one die. And species like black crazy ants have actual immortal colony.
 

Bob Lee

Arachnobaron
Joined
Sep 10, 2018
Messages
498
I haven't had a ton of time to poke around on those sites yet, but I've seen people keeping what look like whole colonies in a glass or plastic vial. Was that a permanent solution, or just something temporary until they could be moved to a new enclosure?
These are test tube setups for a new colony, after they reach around 50-200 workers they can usually be exposed to a "Outworld" or maybe to their setup(It's better to let them sit in the outworld for a while before introducing them to the real setup, because they might fail to adopt to such a big space.)
 

Mini8leggedfreak

Arachnoknight
Joined
Dec 21, 2017
Messages
270
Hey I know California prices are gonna be different than here in Canada but I was just wondering how much it would cost to start keeping ants.
I have watched some videos on ant keeping and have considered the fire ant species that we have, scared of them getting loose in the house though.
Also how do u control the population?
 

Bob Lee

Arachnobaron
Joined
Sep 10, 2018
Messages
498
Hey I know California prices are gonna be different than here in Canada but I was just wondering how much it would cost to start keeping ants.
I have watched some videos on ant keeping and have considered the fire ant species that we have, scared of them getting loose in the house though.
Also how do u control the population?
Depending on the specie a queen is around 15-50 dollars.(Generally, some rare or speical specie might just sky rocket into the thousands) Then you would have to make them a setup and a outworld, together that's probably around the $100 range(Couple hundred if you have a massive colony). Fire ants are harder to house because how smart they are, these guys literally make submarines with their body. Defintely do something else first, a "hard" ant specie is very different from a "hard" tarantula specie. With tarantula, if you do it wrong you get a dead spider, with ants you do something wrong you got a infested house. And fire ants is NOT something you want in your house :rolleyes:.
And the population thing, that's usually not a problem, keepers usually hope for more workers everyday. But if you want a small colony and keep the numbers low you can add some type of natural selection, like predators or something else that kills ants. Be warned, ants are the most powerful pets you can have and will not hesitate to kill whatever you put in there. You can also limit the food supply but I feel like that's going to have some negative effects. You can raise two colonys and collect workers to start small wars between them to keep the number down or feed you ants assassin bugs(Because these things are too easy to breed):angelic:. The best chocie is to just sell your bigger colony and get a smaller one.... Keeping a colony of ants and NOT wanting them to expand simply doesn't work that well. (And if you accidentally kill your queen, the colony is basiclly dead)
 

dragonfire1577

Arachnodemon
Joined
Oct 7, 2015
Messages
697
Carpenter ants, I literally would shove food down their throat and pull the baby out myself if I can :angelic:
I have a Camponotus chromaiodes colony with around 50 workers and it seems to always have a brood pile but no new adults lol.
 

Mirandarachnid

Arachnobaron
Joined
Nov 11, 2017
Messages
532
I have a Crematogaster sp. queen that hasn't laid eggs yet. I caught her on the 4th of July. I have her in a test tube set-up, but I'm wondering if she's not laying eggs because there's too much air space in the tube? I would say there's about three inches of air, to two inches of water behind the cotton ball. The cotton ball is starting to mold a bit (I know it's not a huge issue unless there's tons of mold), so I was thinking of moving her into a different tube with more water. Would heat encourage her? Or should I hibernate her and see if she'll lay after that, since winter is coming up? I only check on her once every couple weeks, the tube is wrapped in foil and nestled into a cubby on top of soft things to minimize vibrations.
 

dragonfire1577

Arachnodemon
Joined
Oct 7, 2015
Messages
697
?... That doesn't sound right, is there a growing "graveyard" in your outworld?
Nope, I have workers that are like 7 plus months old and the increase in worker numbers is a slow crawling increase.The brood piles kinda happen in waves it seems and each one is a little bigger than the last leading to a wave of pupae every few months and then a burst of workers.
 

Bob Lee

Arachnobaron
Joined
Sep 10, 2018
Messages
498
I have a Crematogaster sp. queen that hasn't laid eggs yet. I caught her on the 4th of July. I have her in a test tube set-up, but I'm wondering if she's not laying eggs because there's too much air space in the tube? I would say there's about three inches of air, to two inches of water behind the cotton ball. The cotton ball is starting to mold a bit (I know it's not a huge issue unless there's tons of mold), so I was thinking of moving her into a different tube with more water. Would heat encourage her? Or should I hibernate her and see if she'll lay after that, since winter is coming up? I only check on her once every couple weeks, the tube is wrapped in foil and nestled into a cubby on top of soft things to minimize vibrations.
Are you sure you caught a fertile queen?
 

Bob Lee

Arachnobaron
Joined
Sep 10, 2018
Messages
498
Nope, I have workers that are like 7 plus months old and the increase in worker numbers is a slow crawling increase.The brood piles kinda happen in waves it seems and each one is a little bigger than the last leading to a wave of pupae every few months and then a burst of workers.
Sounds like you jut have one of these very slow colony :rolleyes:. Higher heat MIGHT(If you already have optimal heat then this won't work) help.
 

Mirandarachnid

Arachnobaron
Joined
Nov 11, 2017
Messages
532
Are you sure you caught a fertile queen?
Definitely a queen, she had wings when I caught her and shed them shortly after. I'm not sure if she's fertile or not. This is the lady in question, she was IDed as Crematogaster laeviuscula on formiculture.

ant.jpg ant2.jpg ant3.jpg
 

Bob Lee

Arachnobaron
Joined
Sep 10, 2018
Messages
498

Mirandarachnid

Arachnobaron
Joined
Nov 11, 2017
Messages
532
Might not be a fertile queen then, but there is still chance that she is just slow :rolleyes:. Make sure don't strees her too much and maybe you would have workers rolling in next year.
That's what I'm hoping for. I need more legs in my home.
 

bean man

Arachnopeon
Joined
Sep 6, 2018
Messages
23
yes I have one, how does an ant become worker (minor) or soldier (major). does it happen like in the bees, does it change by the food they eat, or does the queen lay them as one?
 

Potatatas

Arachnoknight
Joined
Aug 31, 2018
Messages
182
[QUOTE="soul, post: 2834050, member: 132154"Some pics!

[/QUOTE]

Never realised ants looked so brutal! If insects were human sized that would be absolutely teriffying. They look so alien
 

Bob Lee

Arachnobaron
Joined
Sep 10, 2018
Messages
498
yes I have one, how does an ant become worker (minor) or soldier (major). does it happen like in the bees, does it change by the food they eat, or does the queen lay them as one?
The queen is in charge of the sex/role of her children. She can choose to have a male child or a female alate when she want to.
 

Bob Lee

Arachnobaron
Joined
Sep 10, 2018
Messages
498
[QUOTE="soul, post: 2834050, member: 132154"Some pics!

Never realised ants looked so brutal! If insects were human sized that would be absolutely teriffying. They look so alien[/QUOTE]
You should take a loot at black crazy ants lol. These guys literaly tear up their enemy, they are beating fire ants all over murica.
 
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