3 replies to this topic

[CreeperUniverse]

I just went out and collected a colony of Aphaenogaster cf. piecea. I have a bunch of soil and other ground litter along with 95% of the ants in a plastic bag. The queen and a few workers are in a small container. What would be the best way of moving this colony into a setup? I'm not even sure how big the colony is, although I assume somewhere between 50-200 workers. Would simply placing a test tube in the bag work, or would they refuse to move because of the soil? I could dump it all into a bin, but keeping them from climbing out would be hard along with getting them to move into some tubes in the first place. I could also do a naturalistic setup, but that is more of a last option thing for me considering that I would like to eventually get them in a normal formicarium.

[Canadant]

I would set it all up - outworld, formicarium and tubing. don't forget your barrier.

If the formicarium is heated moist and dark it will be a very enticing place to go. then dump the bag in the outworld and place the queen in there too. They should make for the formicarium in a few hours. If there is not enough workers for a formicarium yet perhaps a covered test tube would be good refuge. Place the covered tube in the outworld and they'll most likely go there.

Best of luck. I'm sure others have more experienced opinions but that's what I would do.

[CreeperUniverse]

I would set it all up - outworld, formicarium and tubing. don't forget your barrier.

If the formicarium is heated moist and dark it will be a very enticing place to go. then dump the bag in the outworld and place the queen in there too. They should make for the formicarium in a few hours. If there is not enough workers for a formicarium yet perhaps a covered test tube would be good refuge. Place the covered tube in the outworld and they'll most likely go there.

Best of luck. I'm sure others have more experienced opinions but that's what I would do.

I couldn't get all of the workers, but I definitely got a decent chunk out of the soil. Right now I'm waiting for them to move into a tube. Thanks for the help!

[RushmoreAnts]

I have a colony of these. Their collector, Ants4fun, moved them into an old ByFormica nest after he collected them, seemingly without problems. It seems these ants will move readily in these circumstances.