Ant Colonies

[Spike]

For those that have or have had ant colonies would you share what you had and your experinces. Also I was interested in getting a colony but have not seen any dealers online about them. Species suggestions would be good too if possible. I found leaf cutters, bulldog, and carpenters to be interesting any others? ty in advance

 

[da_illest]

hey, i've been thinking about asking that too, i just forgot.. where would i get one??

 

[DarkRAM]

Have you guys tried searching on google for "ant farm" or something similar? You should be able to find some sites. I did awhile back but never saved the links. You wont get any queens through the mail, so your best bet is to dig then up from your backyard.

Stores like toys-r-us sell the ant farm containers last I remember.

 

[sansoucie]

Yeah, you can get some pretty elaborate ones from toys r us. Not just the dinky ol greem framed ones there used to be.

 

[Wade]

The USDA considers all exotic ants to be potential pests, so you're not likely to find bulldog or leafcutter ants for sale in this country (although there is a species of native leaf cutter). Carpener ants would be interesting, as some species are quite large, but you will probably have to collect them yourself. As others have mentioned, the ant farm kits don't include queens. There was an article in Reptiles Magazine to to long ago about keeping carprenter ants.

Wade

 

[Iowa T Keeper]

I have tried more than once unsuccessfully to get a queen for an ant farm. I have tried carpenter ants as well as ants in the ground. Is there any secret to finding the queen?

 

[Buspirone]

Here's a ant board:

http://p211.ezboard.com/bantfarm

 

[krtrman]

as a kid i used to a have one of those Uncle Milts ant farm things. when the ants would die i would put honey on a piece of bread near an ant hill and wait for the ants to come and get it. then i would take the ants on the bread and dump them into the ant farm. i did this for a few summers until i did it with fire ants and got into some serious trouble. i would sit and watch the ants for hours at a time. i had a queen once trapped her by accident. they are very cool to watch. esp when the cart off pieces of food. one time i had 3 ant farms hooked together and they used one of them for a grave yard for the dead ants. it was way wicked. just wanted to share.

 

[Malhavoc's]

I've had two different types of queens to no succes but luv ant farms. I've tried catching the queens in flight and adding the flying males.. they mated over and over and over again the queen would shed her wings but never dig orlay eggs.. my gueses was usootable nestarea.. then I tried an ant queen that was relocating. sometimes in the summer the queen will upmoove its newly found next and you fidn them walking accross the side walk. .so I picked it and its workes up and threw it in.. the ants would dig a nest but no eggs [damn] I still like ant farms so if anyone could give me some hitns aswell that would be great!

 

[luther]

Is this the kind of thing you're thinking of?

http://www.easyinsects.co.uk/ants/index.html

I'd love a tank of these, but the price is just a bit too steep for me.

 

[Dessicata]

Hey luther, I was going to post that link. I always wondered what would happen when they start going though, when there's too many little ants, how would you get rid of some??

 

[luther]

Population could be a problem I guess. You could probably control the numbers by limiting food. I would also be worried about escapes. I'm not sure my wife would like to find a few hundred leaf cutters had taken up residence in her house plants.

If I had a couple of hundred quid spare I'd buy one of these setups for my kid's school. They'd make a great classroom display.

 

[Shapedoctor]

If you're looking for carpenter ant queens this is the time of year to start looking. The nuptials should be taking place any time now depending on your weather.

I have a colony of 30+ ants that I started last year with just a couple of queens.

 

[Ant Worker]

Hi! I'm an ant enthusiest much like some here have many T's I have many ant colonies. Consisting of
4 Pogonomyrmex occidentalis colonies 2 large 2 small (harvester ants)
2 Monomorium minimum colonies (little black ant about 1mm long for workers)
2 Camponotus sp. (one black and red, one orange, "carpeneter ants")
Phiedole sp. (big headed ants)
4 Formica sp. (black ants)
2 Lasius neoniger (no real common name, small brown ant)
1 Formica neorufibarbis (orange and black, very common here)
1 Dorymyrmex insanus (black ants smell like lemons)
1 Myrmica sp ("smaller harvester ants")
1 Solenopsis molesta (theif ants)

Thats what I'm keeping right now in my collection. I have personally found that the best beginer ants are Formica, Camponotus, or Myrmica. The others take a bit more expierence, all 3 are hardy ants that eat well although it varies upon species on dietary issues and hardieness. One thing is DONT GET LEAF CUTTERS OR BULLDOG ANTS as a starter ant. Leaf cutters get colonies of 3 million ants, not something you want to deal with when you have little expierience. You have to keep their fungus warm, provide enough plants etc. Bulldog ants are MEAN ants, they will attack you viciously and if you allergic they can kill you. The sting hurts incredibally bad. Not to mention both species are expensive comming from LC: SA, BD=Australia. Importing ants into the country or transporting them across state lines is ILLEGAL! So remember that before you buy anything.

"I have tried more than once unsuccessfully to get a queen for an ant farm. I have tried carpenter ants as well as ants in the ground. Is there any secret to finding the queen?"
One thing I do is look around, just walk around in an empty lot and look for queens. Queens have a thorax that is big and blocky with wing scars from where the wings were, also, look under stones for ant colonies, queens are usually bigger than the workers so if u see ants, look for a queen scrambling for cover. Then you capture her, grab workers an you have a colony. Watch for ant colonies in you area having flying ants, when these ants (alates) begin to fly, walk around and look for queens that have fallen and shed their wings. If you wish to dig them up I would say dont dig too far. Look for a nice active nest on a nice day and dig down about 6 inches, gather all the dirt from the nest area in a bucket and spread it out and look for a queen. If she isn't there, return the workers to the nest and try another day, this way u dont ruin the nest completly and they will recover faster.

Malhavoc:
"I've had two different types of queens to no succes but luv ant farms."
For one you need to have a high level of humidity and moisit soil, second did you give them a good ammount of food? Feel the colony a crushed cricket or some syrup or something.

Luther: No try a few million instead of a few hundred, and you cant control the population, they will eat their dead and starve themselves to death, only way to go is up!

I got to say I hate uncle milton style farms, they are extremely hard to keep humid, I had a colony of very hardy ants in them and they died overnight because humidity couldn't stay up, not to mention they cant hold a decent size colony of any sorts..

Feel free to continue asking questions im always glad when more people join the hobby, drop me a PM if you want or post here.

 

[Tleilaxu]

Ok so assuming you find a queen how would induce egg laying, I have always wanted an ant colony and i currently have a 55 gallon tank empty *wink wink* How would you go about setting this up? I would prefer the large black ants native to the state of Minnesota but I don't know their scientific names. Nor how to snag their queens come to think of it I have NEVER seen a queen ant in my life....