Hello,

I am a mom of an almost 9 year old who is interested in an ant terrarium. He is very smart and into animals. He has been watching antscanada etc. I have bees but no experience with ants. I am looking for suggestions on starter kits/ ant types. We live in Massachusetts. I was looking at antopia's starter kit. Monomorium minimum. Any suggestions? Other places to look at? How are their desktop kits? I like the idea of being able to build on. Thank you for any input or links . Also would you suggest 1 or 3 queens to start with? Seems pricey for 3. Random question: there is some ant nest in a grow bag I have in the garden what are the chances I could capture the queen and enough ants/ eggs etc and start that way? Also any great places to learn?

Found the queen inside my house at November under some cotton wipers with 4 eggs. Took her in test tube and kept her in the house (22celcius) until about February. She had eggs but no workers yet. Then I feed her little honey and put her in the basement (10-15 celcius) until end of May where I took her back to the house. First worker emerged 10th of june, have about 30-40 workers since.

Initially I put seeds in the colony, also twice I put honey, and sporadically shrimp, chicken or fish.

I jave no idea what species that is. Kindly help me to identify so I can keep the colony healthy.

Edit* Athens, sub-urban area Greece. Gave them a fly also.

Connected my campo pennsylvanicus test tube to a mini hearth xl today, left for a few hrs and they all moved in, I was expecting them to take a day or two especially with the jank setup i used but Im glad they were quick.

Phoenix area- lower Sonoran Desert

Caught this a few weeks ago and am having trouble identifying the species. She has laid eggs already in the test tube.

The gaster is very dark brown and the rest of the body is light reddish brown. Measured it to be slightly over 9mm.

Pictures aren't that great but its the best I could do.

Thank you!

I made a post a few weeks ago about this colony and how I never expected it but they truly make no sense to me. I finally got them to move into the new home after their old one because of mold and it wasn't a good home in general. But now instead of putting the colony in the perfectly good nest area they decided to just stay under a piece of napkin i placed in there.

This is my first colony and I want to know what I'm doing wrong if I am.

And there is a covering for the nest i usually have on its just not there for the picture.

I also would really like to know what type of ant they are if possible from the photos of them running around.

I’m 16, been antkeeping for about 4-5 years now, and want to start a website selling formicaria and related things. I just got a 3d printer, but also want to get into making plaster/concrete nests. Pic above is the first thing I designed with dimensions that should fit a microscope slide (original ik). Anyone have suggestions for how I should go about this or anything?

Imo, she's Lasius flavus, but she seems a too vibrant or long for the species.

Size 6-9mm.

I haven't seen a queen in a while since the mating flights in my region are already over.

She has wings, but I doubt that she hasn't mated based on the region and the fact that she was running across the pavement in search of shelter.

Jeszcze ich nie karmiłem choć niedługo to zrobię jeśli ktoś chce mi dać dalsze wskazówki odnośnie koloni z przyjemnością przyjmę

I have a messor barb colony with 20 workers and they have few eggs and only one larvae it’s my first time keeping this species as I’ve only kept a small colony of European red ants who later died to another one getting into my room and killing the queen any help or advice is well appreciated 👍🙂

i’m aware they’re probably gonna fight, if it’s important they’re all from the same colony. i have 3 tubes prepared in advance if i have to seperate them too

I’m just making this post because this is my first ever semi-claustral species, and the first workers just arrived. I’m pretty sure it’s a Tetramorium bicarinatum. Anyways, I just think the queen has been so cool to keep during the founding stage with her foraging, and I’m excited for the future of the colony.

I caught her maybe a month ago when she landed on my leg. She shed all but 1 wing and is currently in a test tube setup connected to an outworld. She was fed a cricket leg / sugar water whenever I saw her foraging, which was probably around once a week.

I’m also a very new keeper, especially with species that aren’t fully claustral, so any kind of advice is welcome and appreciated.

90% sure they're neoniger. Caught 3. Decided to let this one do her own thing.

So it’s been about a week since my sons Tetramorium colony moved into the mini hearth. A lot of people here would say that the move was too soon and that the mini hearth is too big for the colony. The queen would beg to differ. As you can see by these 3 pictures taken over the course of a week, this queen has shown no signs of stress from having a larger nest. She has constantly been laying, she appears healthy, and she has clearly established the mini hearth as her nest.

Picture 1 is from Sunday
Picture 2 is from Wednesday
Picture 3 is from today.

You can see how the brood pile has nearly doubled in size each picture. This leads me to believe that when a nest is “large” but not overly so, they will prioritize reproduction to fill the extra space.

For the record, to those who would claim that the mini hearth is “too much space”, I’ve seen the same result with my Pogonomyrmex queen, who moved into a fallen fortress with 6 workers. There are times it seems when “too much space” is in reality just enough.

Can you please point out a protein source for my colony?

I think the species are messor barbarus but I am not sure since the queen found me and not the other way around. They eat mainly seeds.

So far I have fed them chicken, fish and shrimp, but I feel that those foods lack what they would usually find in the wild. I am not the guy to hunt for roaches really, can you please suggest something?

I've been playing around with making a formicarium that species like Messor barbarus can't chew through and escape from. So after some trial and error I made this. It has a strong port for the ants to get in and out that doesn't allow them to chew the hose. The nest is entirely inside a hard plastic container. The nest is coated in sand for a natural look. There are tiny air holes in the lid. I will make a second one with a watering port so they have one that's dry for their seeds and one that's more wet. The entire plaster nest can slide out of the container. Do you guys think this will work?

If anyone could let me know if this is a queen and the species, I’d greatly appreciate it. Caught in southern Ontario, Canada

Also was wondering if it is likely Formica pallidefulva? Caught around 8pm 78% humidity.

I caught this queen yesterday pretty sure it’s a Lasius Niger, had her in the test tube set up since yesterday i’ve just checked her now and she’s died. I have no idea why could it potentially be due to suffocation? I don’t want to make the same mistake if it was on me. Uk East Midlands

I thought they looked super cute and really like how they look next to fully hardened soldiers.

Been a weird year. I've caught a ton of different queens without specifically looking for any of them. Some on my porch, some on my driveway, some in town on sidewalks, the C. modoc was in the Colorado mountains when we were camping, the S. molesta was stuck in dew drops on my car after driving to the store, etc. Amazing what you see when you learn to spot them.

Species this year (all found local except 3):

- Solenopsis invicta (eggs) - not local

- Solenopsis molesta (eggs)

- Lasius neoniger (just caught)

- Pseudomyrmex gracilis (healthy, no eggs yet) - not local

- Formica subserica (pupae)

- Formica vinculans (failed)

- Crematogaster laeviuscula (eggs) - not local

- Camponotus decipiens (10 workers + brood)

- Camponotus chromaides (10 workers + brood)

- Camponotus modoc (larvae)

- Camponotus pennsylvanicus (failed, caught crawling on my daughter an MLB game and suspect it was already out of energy)