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  1. Comment on Florida carpenter ant in ~hobbies

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    These ants are the fastest growing species of carpenter ant (camponotus) in the US! In a few months they could teach 200-300 workers, while normal carpenter ants take over 3 years. Their bites are...

    These ants are the fastest growing species of carpenter ant (camponotus) in the US! In a few months they could teach 200-300 workers, while normal carpenter ants take over 3 years. Their bites are more painful than the sting of a fire ant, and if you get swarmed you will be bleeding.

    4 votes

  3. Comment on Lasius americanus is one of the easiest ants you can keep in ~hobbies

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    It is pretty common among queens in captivity and in the wild. If a queen is infertile in the wild she usually dies pretty quickly.

    It is pretty common among queens in captivity and in the wild. If a queen is infertile in the wild she usually dies pretty quickly.

    2 votes

  4. Comment on Lasius americanus is one of the easiest ants you can keep in ~hobbies

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    No not really. It’s very fun to look at the colony, see how much brood they have, and make sure they are healthy.

    No not really. It’s very fun to look at the colony, see how much brood they have, and make sure they are healthy.

    2 votes

  5. Comment on Lasius americanus is one of the easiest ants you can keep in ~hobbies

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    Sadly I think that queen is infertile. She has not laid eggs and is trying to escape.

    Sadly I think that queen is infertile. She has not laid eggs and is trying to escape.

    4 votes

  6. Comment on Lasius americanus is one of the easiest ants you can keep in ~hobbies

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    You mostly keep ants in a test tube filled with 3/4 water blocked off with cotton. There are many aggressive ant species which always try to escape their setups when you give them food. It’s just...

    You mostly keep ants in a test tube filled with 3/4 water blocked off with cotton. There are many aggressive ant species which always try to escape their setups when you give them food. It’s just easier to care for chill ant because they move slowly and don’t want to attack you.

    5 votes

  8. Comment on My brand new Aphaenogaster picea queen! I can’t wait for her to start a colony! in ~hobbies

    Planet
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    So for starting an ant colony you do not need to give them a terrarium, buy $10 worth of test tubes and cotton from Amazon and make a test tube set up. When the queen get workers feed her in the...

    So for starting an ant colony you do not need to give them a terrarium, buy $10 worth of test tubes and cotton from Amazon and make a test tube set up. When the queen get workers feed her in the tube. I would recommend watching ants Australia tutorial videos, because recently antscanada has not had any good tutorials.

    1 vote

  9. Comment on What do you collect? in ~hobbies

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    I collect ants!

    I collect ants!

    10 votes

  10. Comment on My brand new Aphaenogaster picea queen! I can’t wait for her to start a colony! in ~hobbies

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    When you put the live mealworms in the fridge, it extends their lifespan and makes it so they can’t pupate into beetles. Personally my colonies have not been big enough to produce virgin winged...

    When you put the live mealworms in the fridge, it extends their lifespan and makes it so they can’t pupate into beetles.

    Personally my colonies have not been big enough to produce virgin winged queens and males, but if your ants get to the thousands of workers they will produce them. Usually the virgin queens will act like worker ants and the males will die. I’m also pretty sure the ants need to be flying to mate.

    3 votes

  11. Comment on My brand new Aphaenogaster picea queen! I can’t wait for her to start a colony! in ~hobbies

  12. Comment on My brand new Aphaenogaster picea queen! I can’t wait for her to start a colony! in ~hobbies

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    I started out by buying a set of around 50 test tubes for like 10 dollars on Amazon, and when they arrived I took one and went on a walk during a warm summer day. I watched some ants Canada...

    I started out by buying a set of around 50 test tubes for like 10 dollars on Amazon, and when they arrived I took one and went on a walk during a warm summer day. I watched some ants Canada tutorials on how to set up a test tube setup, and I was good to go.

    After you put the queen in a test tube leave her in the dark for a few days and check if she has eggs. Then leave her in the dark for another month.

    For feeding you could just buy some mealworms from the petstore and give them some carrots before putting them in the fridge.

    3 votes

  13. Comment on My brand new Aphaenogaster picea queen! I can’t wait for her to start a colony! in ~hobbies

  14. Comment on My brand new Aphaenogaster picea queen! I can’t wait for her to start a colony! in ~hobbies

    Planet
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    These materials are chosen because they provide very good humidity for the ants, the material is magnetic so you can attach another mini hearth very easily by just setting it next to the one you...
    • Exemplary

    1. These materials are chosen because they provide very good humidity for the ants, the material is magnetic so you can attach another mini hearth very easily by just setting it next to the one you house your ants in. The ants will move into the cave no problem, because it reminds them of their chambers in the wild. You can also choose to give the ants one of those nests with sand and two glass panes, but it’s harder to see into their nest, and it’s harder to control the humidity.

    2. Usually yes, the ants will just accept them. At first they may notice the pupae smells different, but they don’t care after a few minutes.

    3. I personally really like the Big headed ants, Red harvester ants, and false honey pot ants the most. The harvester ants and the Big headed ants eat seeds, which I think is cool, and the false honey pot ants fill their gaster “butts” up with sugar and act sort of like an ant refrigerator, storing the sugars for later. My least favorite ants are the Labor Day ants. They are slow growing, small, and just really boring. They mostly just sit around in their nest and only forage when they need too. Carpenter ants are also some of my least favorite ants, only because they take months to get new workers, and unlike other species, the queen takes breaks from egg laying.

    4. I do 3D print my own ant nests, and later today I will upload some pictures of my colonies. As of right now they don’t have enough workers to be in one of my 3D printed nests, so you will see them in test tube setups.

    5. The ant nests smell like ammonia, I’m pretty sure it’s because they take food back to their nests, and when it decomposes it gives off ammonia.

    9 votes

  15. Comment on My brand new Aphaenogaster picea queen! I can’t wait for her to start a colony! in ~hobbies

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    The material Tar Heel Ants uses is called type 3. They have not released the formula for it, but I’m pretty sure it is a mix of ytong, hydro stone, and some magnetic material. Brood boosting is...

    1. The material Tar Heel Ants uses is called type 3. They have not released the formula for it, but I’m pretty sure it is a mix of ytong, hydro stone, and some magnetic material.

    2. Brood boosting is when you steal brood from a wild colony, such as pupae (it has to be the same species as your ant colony.)

    3. I have kept Carpenter ants (three colonies,) Big headed ants (three colonies,) Wood ants (one colony,) Labor day ants (five colonies,) False honeypot ants (four colonies,) Red harvester ants (one colony) and Red imported fire ants (one colony.)

    4. One day I got this YouTube video in my recommended. I watched the entire thing and decided that day I was going to keep ants. Another YouTube channel that got me hooked on ant keeping was Ants Australia

    Ant keeping can be a very fun and rewarding hobby, and I would recommend anyone reading this to try it out!

    5 votes

  16. Comment on <deleted topic> in ~enviro

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    Wow. That’s terrible.

    Wow. That’s terrible.

  17. Comment on My brand new Aphaenogaster picea queen! I can’t wait for her to start a colony! in ~hobbies

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    Basically, most species of ants have something called a social stomach. They use it to transport sugars, and the guts of insects back to the colony, where they puke it up into the queens, workers,...

    Basically, most species of ants have something called a social stomach. They use it to transport sugars, and the guts of insects back to the colony, where they puke it up into the queens, workers, and larvae’s mouths. But because this species of ant does not have a social stomach, they can’t easily transport sugars back to the colony. So they soak up the sugar with dirt, sand, etc. Tar Heel Ants is an ant nest manufacturer who makes amazing nests out of a special material. The mini hearth is a cave like ant nest with sand inside.

    13 votes

  18. Comment on My brand new Aphaenogaster picea queen! I can’t wait for her to start a colony! in ~hobbies

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    This species of ant is a slow growing species, usually taking 40-55 days to go from egg to worker! But if heated it should cut that time down by a third. When the queen gets workers, they usually...

    This species of ant is a slow growing species, usually taking 40-55 days to go from egg to worker! But if heated it should cut that time down by a third. When the queen gets workers, they usually eat honey, termites, mealworms, roaches, etc. I have never kept this species of ant before, but apparently they can be hard to raise. But because I have been raising ants for ~5 years, it shouldn’t be too hard. Surprisingly they do not have a social stomach, so to transport sugars to the rest of the colony they pile substrate on it! In my opinion the Tar Heel ants mini hearth would be a really good founding formicarium for this species, because it has a lot of loose substrate.

    10 votes