33 replies to this topic

[jo16]

I don't know if you guys can see but their heads and jaws are very different and I live in Utah.   

[rptraut]

Hello jo16;

One word of caution when feeding mealworms or any large insect pieces to small ants. Small ants will get inside to scour the pieces clean and I know that, when I started ant keeping, I unknowingly tossed ants that were inside insect pieces into the garbage. This proved to be detrimental to small founding colonies, they can’t afford to lose any nanitics. Today I move insect pieces to a corner when I replace them and give the ants time to evacuate the carcass.

Another alternative is to start feeding your young colony meat products. Cooked chicken (dark meat) and cooked chicken liver are favourites. Raw ground pork and cooked egg yolk are also popular. Feeding meats means less trash and it’s easy to see when they stop taking it and it needs to be replaced. Small ants will tunnel into meat products, so the above caution still applies.

Search “Feeding Time at the Zoo” for info about presentation of meat products and other helpful information.
RPT

Edited by rptraut, February 15 2025 - 8:00 PM.

[RushmoreAnts]

I unknowingly tossed ants that were inside insect pieces in the garbage. This proved to be detrimental to small founding colonies, they can’t afford to lose any nanitics. Today I move insect pieces to a corner when I replace them and give the ants time to evacuate the carcass.

I used to have this issue as well, yet I resolved it by breaking the insect husks apart and letting the workers crawl out before discarding them. If exposed, the ants usually run.

[jo16]

today I noticed that a few of my ants were bigger then my other ones! Which makes cense because the next generation should be bigger right? 

[jo16]

will normal sponges work for ants?

[AntBoi3030]

Yes. You can also just use small pieces of cotton.

[rptraut]

Hello jo16;

I use fine-grained sponge that’s made for removing makeup, I think. I get them at the Dollar store and cut them into small pieces. Details are in my Journal and other posts. I started out using small cotton balls. They worked okay but sponge pieces were easier to handle and cut to whatever size I needed.
RPT

[Ants_Dakota]

will normal sponges work for ants?

You have to be quite careful when selecting sponges. Many of the commercial ones in the kitchen section contain soap right out of the package, so try to select ones that are natural. They may be more expensive, but don't have the chemicals on them that could risk killing your ants.

[Martin.dean1981]

I'm a newbie also and just got my enclosure and ants. Maybe I'm lucky but I had a queen and 10 workers in a test tube delivered, I left them dark and warm for a day and them left the test tube in the enclosure, I'm 3 days in and they are working hard I can see great progress and the queen is nicely buried and in the dark.... I left a tiny hole in the top of sand test was done by the ants 👌

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[Martin.dean1981]

I'm a newbie also and just got my enclosure and ants. Maybe I'm lucky but I had a queen and 10 workers in a test tube delivered, I left them dark and warm for a day and them left the test tube in the enclosure, I'm 3 days in and they are working hard I can see great progress and the queen is nicely buried and in the dark.... I left a tiny hole in the top of sand test was done by the ants 👌

Can see the progress over 3 days from the mound... I had to remove the decor as it wasn't getting used and will be added once the colony are more established, currently they are moving sand and caring to the next generation, they have no interest in exploring the outworld yet

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[Stubyvast]

Nice! I like the formicarium/Outworld style, reminds me of how Tetramorium immigrans make their piles of sand on the sidewalks. What species are they?

[Martin.dean1981]

Messor Barbarus - Harvester ants

[Ernteameise]

Hi there, I am also keeping Messor barbarus.

I started out like you, with the same cheap AntHouse formicarium you have here and it just did not work out.

So be warned.

It is not very good quality, it will warp sooner or later due to the humidity and since it is made from acrylic. This is just what acrylic does after a while.

Humidity control and air-flow are also not very good.

So you will have to re-home the colony to something more sturdy and long-term sooner or later.

Just have a look at my Messor barbarus journal for some inspiration (however, the failed colony that had been on that formicarium you are having is NOT part of the journal, since this happened before I joined the forum, just as a warning, it did not work for me and I started new with better materials).

 

AntHouse is good at marketing, and these nests are built that they hold up for a few months. That is all that is needed- most of these will go out to kids who will lose interest after a few months anyway, so it matters not if the colony fails after that time.

Sad, but hey, this is capitalism.

 

As I myself learned after joining this forum, it would have been better to keep the ants in a tubs and tubes setup- just a plain small plastic box in the glass tube they came in.

But now you have the ants in there, so the discussion is moot.

Humidity is a problem. I honestly do not know how to really beat this problem in that thing. This is the big negative issue with it.

I know, AntHouse sells these things cheap for beginners, however, I cannot recommend them with a good conscience, especially for harvesters like Messor.

They need a dry and a moist area in their nest, otherwise, they cannot store grain, and the grain that gets moist will sprout and spoil.

It is a MASSIVE pain in the butt and very likely the reason my first colony failed.

So maybe only moisten one half of the nest and let the other side dry? But as I said, hard to do with that thing.

Edited by Ernteameise, Yesterday, 12:40 AM.

[MyrmecologyMaven]

Hi there, I am also keeping Messor barbarus.

I started out like you, with the same cheap AntHouse formicarium you have here and it just did not work out.

So be warned.

It is not very good quality, it will warp sooner or later due to the humidity and since it is made from acrylic. This is just what acrylic does after a while.

Humidity control and air-flow are also not very good.

So you will have to re-home the colony to something more sturdy and long-term sooner or later.

Just have a look at my Messor barbarus journal for some inspiration (however, the failed colony that had been on that formicarium you are having is NOT part of the journal, since this happened before I joined the forum, just as a warning, it did not work for me and I started new with better materials).

 

AntHouse is good at marketing, and these nests are built that they hold up for a few months. That is all that is needed- most of these will go out to kids who will lose interest after a few months anyway, so it matters not if the colony fails after that time.

Sad, but hey, this is capitalism.

 

As I myself learned after joining this forum, it would have been better to keep the ants in a tubs and tubes setup- just a plain small plastic box in the glass tube they came in.

But now you have the ants in there, so the discussion is moot.

Humidity is a problem. I honestly do not know how to really beat this problem in that thing. This is the big negative issue with it.

I know, AntHouse sells these things cheap for beginners, however, I cannot recommend them with a good conscience, especially for harvesters like Messor.

They need a dry and a moist area in their nest, otherwise, they cannot store grain, and the grain that gets moist will sprout and spoil.

It is a MASSIVE pain in the butt and very likely the reason my first colony failed.

So maybe only moisten one half of the nest and let the other side dry? But as I said, hard to do with that thing.

Nice write up! It's a common problem I see with many new ant keepers. Keeping seed-harvesters too moist making them unable to store grain properly.