86 replies to this topic

[Ants.co]

So I recently caught a full colony of Myrmecia Nigrocincta (complete with a queen, 50+ workers and eggs), in my backyard. And as you guys know from my last post I am but a noob. So does anyone have any idea on how to keep them? Any suggestions at all will be appreciated on anything. My main concern is my ants haven't been eating much and their workers have been dying off at a rate on 1 worker every 2 days. Thanks in advance! 

Here are some of my videos on them:

 

 

 

 

 

And in case any of you were wondering, yes their outworld is a bit too small. I have a larger outworld already on it's way.

[Kaelwizard]

Um.. if you are a noob I don’t understand why you would take a wild colony of such a difficult to keep species. Myrmecia in general are notoriously hard to raise.

[ponerinecat]

Um.. if you are a noob I don’t understand why you would take a wild colony of such a difficult to keep species. Myrmecia in general are notoriously hard to raise.

Well, they're actually very simple. Founding colonies are the hard part, this is not one of them. What I don't get is digging out a mature colony of Myrmecia. Everything about that screams unethical and impractical.

[Froggy]

 

Um.. if you are a noob I don’t understand why you would take a wild colony of such a difficult to keep species. Myrmecia in general are notoriously hard to raise.

Well, they're actually very simple. Founding colonies are the hard part, this is not one of them. What I don't get is digging out a mature colony of Myrmecia. Everything about that screams unethical and impractical.

 

Digging out any mature colony for that matter

[ponerinecat]

 

 

Um.. if you are a noob I don’t understand why you would take a wild colony of such a difficult to keep species. Myrmecia in general are notoriously hard to raise.

Well, they're actually very simple. Founding colonies are the hard part, this is not one of them. What I don't get is digging out a mature colony of Myrmecia. Everything about that screams unethical and impractical.

 

Digging out any mature colony for that matter

 

Arguable, some ants can't really be raised otherwise, and if you're tediously careful with collection and rehabilitation it can be fine, but yeah Myrmecia likely have a lot of workers out foraging, large nests so its easy to miss parts of it, and they're rather sensitive ants.

[Manitobant]

Id give them an aus ants ytong nest.

[Spazmops]

Um.. if you are a noob I don’t understand why you would take a wild colony of such a difficult to keep species. Myrmecia in general are notoriously hard to raise.

Well, they're actually very simple. Founding colonies are the hard part, this is not one of them. What I don't get is digging out a mature colony of Myrmecia. Everything about that screams unethical and impractical.

I agree, but making mistakes is a part of the hobby. Live and learn, right?

[TechAnt]

Um.. if you are a noob I don’t understand why you would take a wild colony of such a difficult to keep species. Myrmecia in general are notoriously hard to raise.

Well, they're actually very simple. Founding colonies are the hard part, this is not one of them. What I don't get is digging out a mature colony of Myrmecia. Everything about that screams unethical and impractical.

I agree, but making mistakes is a part of the hobby. Live and learn, right?

Not exactly. Taking a colony away from its natural habitat, and then not knowing how to care for them, then possibly killing them all so even if you wanted to return them back to their native ecosystem. Which said ecosystem they were keeping stable, they may not be as big as they used to or they may be dead.

(To the keeper) I’d suggest you release them back to where you dug them up, if you really have no idea how to care for them.

Also, I strongly have a suspicion that some of the workers and/or Queen May die of stress. As stated above, they are highly sensitive gentle giants. Please read up on how to care for them if you really want to keep them. I’d hate to see a colony of these precious ants die or something.

Edited by TechAnt, July 23 2020 - 8:38 PM.

[Spazmops]

Oh dang, I kinda skimmed the genus of ant, sorry about that. For some reason I was thinking of myrmecia as Argentine ants. Yeah that’s not a ‘live and learn’ scenario, that’s a ‘put those awesome ants back right now’ scenario. Don’t listen to my previous advice, it was terrible, please return those ants as best you can.

[ponerinecat]

Aus flights are starting up soon, it'd be best in my opinion to catch some Myrmecia queens then and raise them in captive conditions they know how to deal with, as opposed to suddenly forcing a wild colony with many years under their belt into a restricted environment with very different resources than they're used to.

[Zeiss]

It is never a good idea to get any type of pet without doing your research on it beforehand.  Digging up a whole colony is even worse without any research.

 

If you left them there, there is a better chance to get queens in the long run from mature colonies.

 

With that aside, if you insist on keeping them, go with an Aus Ants formicarium.  Bull ants seem to do very well in those.

[Ants.co]

It is never a good idea to get any type of pet without doing your research on it beforehand.  Digging up a whole colony is even worse without any research.

 

If you left them there, there is a better chance to get queens in the long run from mature colonies.

 

With that aside, if you insist on keeping them, go with an Aus Ants formicarium.  Bull ants seem to do very well in those.

Ok, so I actually came across this colony by accident. I was bushwaking at the time (looking for Linepithema) when I flipped this rock and accidentally found the whole colony. I have some experience with Linepithema, Crematogaster, Iridomyrmex and Pheidole.

[Ants.co]

And I did a lot of research, which included scrolling through forum articles for hours on end. I resorted to asking for advice after I couldn't find any good advice. Thing is, I really don't want to get rid of this colony...

[Ants.co]

I bought them a massive outworld and good food, and they now seem ok. I am feeding them Rhino Beetle jelly and procarb powder with sunburst ant nectar. I already spent over $1000 aud on them...

[Ants.co]

Id give them an aus ants ytong nest.

Thanks for the advice. I bought a Tar Heel Ants custom designed Traditions nest that will be coming in a few months. 

 

It is never a good idea to get any type of pet without doing your research on it beforehand.  Digging up a whole colony is even worse without any research.

 

If you left them there, there is a better chance to get queens in the long run from mature colonies.

 

With that aside, if you insist on keeping them, go with an Aus Ants formicarium.  Bull ants seem to do very well in those.

And no I did a ton of research (after I caught them) and I didn't dig them up on purpose. I was not expecting the catch and at the time I thought that, with the queen exposed, the colony would do better with me than try to rebuild their nest, especially in a place full of spiders, centipedes, birds, and other predators. Thanks for the advice by the way.

[Ants.co]

 

 

 

Um.. if you are a noob I don’t understand why you would take a wild colony of such a difficult to keep species. Myrmecia in general are notoriously hard to raise.

Well, they're actually very simple. Founding colonies are the hard part, this is not one of them. What I don't get is digging out a mature colony of Myrmecia. Everything about that screams unethical and impractical.

I agree, but making mistakes is a part of the hobby. Live and learn, right?

Not exactly. Taking a colony away from its natural habitat, and then not knowing how to care for them, then possibly killing them all so even if you wanted to return them back to their native ecosystem. Which said ecosystem they were keeping stable, they may not be as big as they used to or they may be dead.

(To the keeper) I’d suggest you release them back to where you dug them up, if you really have no idea how to care for them.

Also, I strongly have a suspicion that some of the workers and/or Queen May die of stress. As stated above, they are highly sensitive gentle giants. Please read up on how to care for them if you really want to keep them. I’d hate to see a colony of these precious ants die or something.

 

Thanks for the advice mate. I don't want them to die either. That was the reason why I spent all my free time the past few days non stop searching about how to care for them. I can't release them back where I found them as that was a few centimeters away from a bush trail. If I did then the formicarium would either get stolen before they moved out or the ants would get run over by bikes and humans before they get the chance to dig. I think releasing them would not really be a good choice, especially on a trail where lots of curious little kids go. 

[Ants.co]

By the way, my backyard is a bush 

[Zeiss]

the colony would do better with me than try to rebuild their nest, especially in a place full of spiders, centipedes, birds, and other predators.

 

The colony would have been fine on their own.  I've moved rocks with whole colonies before and you just put the rock back down and they'll rebuild shortly after.  

 

Also, if you were to release them, dumping them would be fine, you don't have to leave a formicarium the whole time for them to move on their own.

 

Anyways, I've never seen people keep bull ants in a THA nest, so it will be interesting to see how they'll take to it.

[Ants.co]

Thanks mate. So I guess I'll keep them. The problem turned out to be that the outworld was too small, and now that I upgraded their outworld it seems like they are doing fine. I have all the equipment and facts (after reading this article:http://australian-an...depth of 15 cm.), so I guess I'm up for the challenge. 

[Ants.co]

And just to clarify, I mean noob as in noob with bull ants. I am an experienced keeper of other ants, but I just never received enough birthday money to keep them. I recently got a massive boom in business, and so I could take a dive into professional keeping. I currently keep Pheidole, Iridomyrmex (Bicknelli and Purpureus), Aphaenogaster, Linepithema, Camponotus (3 different colonies), Rhytidoponera and more.