33 replies to this topic

[Shareallicu]

I just bought one of your (AntsCanada of course) small hybrid nests for formica sp for my queen Formica Podzolica.  I am considering moving her into it when it arrives, rather than keeping her in her test tube set up.  OR AT LEAST letting her decide which one she wants.

 

Since I am new to keeping queens, I was just wondering if that sounds like a good idea or not. thanks

[Ricardo]

How many workers? 8+ would be okay.

[Alabama Anter]

I just bought one of your (AntsCanada of course) small hybrid nests for formica sp for my queen Formica Podzolica. I am considering moving her into it when it arrives, rather than keeping her in her test tube set up. OR AT LEAST letting her decide which one she wants.

Since I am new to keeping queens, I was just wondering if that sounds like a good idea or not. thanks

Ummm... Hibernate her in the freaking tube!!! Sorry I come out snappy like but u asked and double posted this question for like centuries.

Edited by Alabama Anter, January 2 2017 - 1:01 PM.

[Alabama Anter]

How many workers? 8+ would be okay.

Mmmm no. 8 is still too small. 20-25 is a good number

[Serafine]

20-50 Workers is formicarium time - before that, TEST TUBE TIME.

Also even if they have 50+ Workers it is STILL way better to hibernate them in a large tube (as long as they fit into it) because you don't have to water it every few days (which can cause quite a disturbance).

Edited by Serafine, January 3 2017 - 2:12 AM.

[AnthonyP163]

I just bought one of your (AntsCanada of course) small hybrid nests for formica sp for my queen Formica Podzolica.  I am considering moving her into it when it arrives, rather than keeping her in her test tube set up.  OR AT LEAST letting her decide which one she wants.
 
Since I am new to keeping queens, I was just wondering if that sounds like a good idea or not. thanks

It is a bad idea, it's always tempting to move her in, but I know somebody who did that with 1 worker and the queen was dead in a week. Wait until they have roughly 20 workers at least.

[XZero38]

what i did was when my tetras had a good number of workers i used an AC test tube portal as a small outworld and left the colony in the test tube until it grew a bit larger then transfered them to an AC tetra hybrid nest. before i put them in hibernation they were doing extremely well.

[AnthonyP163]

what i did was when my tetras had a good number of workers i used an AC test tube portal as a small outworld and left the colony in the test tube until it grew a bit larger then transfered them to an AC tetra hybrid nest. before i put them in hibernation they were doing extremely well.

How many workers?

[antgenius123]

Once the colony reaches about 25+ workers it would be a good time to move them into the hybrid nest. Until then keep them in a test tube. If you give the ants too much space inside the hybrid nest they will dump their waste everywhere, and trust me you don't want that to happen.

[XZero38]

 

what i did was when my tetras had a good number of workers i used an AC test tube portal as a small outworld and left the colony in the test tube until it grew a bit larger then transfered them to an AC tetra hybrid nest. before i put them in hibernation they were doing extremely well.

How many workers?

 

When I moved them into the hybrid nest I'm guessing they had around 50 workers.

[Shareallicu]

 

I just bought one of your (AntsCanada of course) small hybrid nests for formica sp for my queen Formica Podzolica. I am considering moving her into it when it arrives, rather than keeping her in her test tube set up. OR AT LEAST letting her decide which one she wants.

Since I am new to keeping queens, I was just wondering if that sounds like a good idea or not. thanks

Ummm... Hibernate her in the freaking tube!!! Sorry I come out snappy like but u asked and double posted this question for like centuries.

 

I thought this forum was directly to AntsCanada and I bought the nest from them, so I wanted their opinion specifically.  Don't respond if you need to get rude.

[Shareallicu]

I'm fairly new to this site, so pardon me for thinking this forum, under AntsCanada, was to be used to address them directly, Or I would not have posted in here as well as on the general forums.    I DO want opinions too, but I assumed I needed to post here to hear advice from the people I bought the nest from (AntsCanada).

 

I bought their nest and really wanted their advice, so all the advice about using test tubes is irrelevant to my question anyway lol

 

 

No need to answer twice though!  LOL

Edited by Shareallicu, January 4 2017 - 4:21 PM.

[Kevin]

 

 

I just bought one of your (AntsCanada of course) small hybrid nests for formica sp for my queen Formica Podzolica. I am considering moving her into it when it arrives, rather than keeping her in her test tube set up. OR AT LEAST letting her decide which one she wants.

Since I am new to keeping queens, I was just wondering if that sounds like a good idea or not. thanks

Ummm... Hibernate her in the freaking tube!!! Sorry I come out snappy like but u asked and double posted this question for like centuries.

 

I thought this forum was directly to AntsCanada and I bought the nest from them, so I wanted their opinion specifically.  Don't respond if you need to get rude.

 

AntsCanada has their own forum and is not affiliated with Formiculture.com in any way, shape, or form. I also do not recommend putting a queen in a formicarium, especially one that size until the workers can take up a good portion of it. I also recommend you buy from someone else, because IMO AntsCanada is a bit overpriced.

[Kevin]

I'm fairly new to this site, so pardon me for thinking this forum, under AntsCanada, was to be used to address them directly, Or I would not have posted in here as well as on the general forums.    I DO want opinions too, but I assumed I needed to post here to hear advice from the people I bought the nest from (AntsCanada).

 

I bought their nest and really wanted their advice, so all the advice about using test tubes is irrelevant to my question anyway lol

 

 

No need to answer twice though!  LOL

I don't see how responding with the simple statement to use a test tube is irrelevant. It is the truth, and we were recommending to use a test tube or your colony could have some issues.

[Alabama Anter]

I couldn't agree more with Kevin :clap:

[Serafine]

AntsCanada will as well clearly tell you that for most ant species it is next to suicidal to put them into a large formicarium before they have 20-50 workers. Mikey is saying that over and over and over again in all of his tutorials. Small ant colonies have no means to sufficiently control humidity in a large formicarium so the larvae can easily dry out and die off.

 

Also some species (especially some Camponotus who don't like to walk long distances when the colony is young) will just dump their waste into all the nearby formicarium chambers which is something you definitely do not want as it can cause mold outbreaks and mite infestation.

Edited by Serafine, January 4 2017 - 5:58 PM.

[Connectimyrmex]

If you are set on using an AntsCanada nest I would say that you should use cotton to plug an area in the nest to make a claustral chamber. Put the queen in the chamber and voila! Happy queen! (I think )

 

Or you can try capturing a few workers of the same species, refrigerate it for 10 minutes, and put it with your queen. That always works with my pheidole, anoplolepis, monomorium (unfortunately died of fungus), pseudomyrmex (died of parasites), and some others. Then you can move them into your nest.

 

Also, if none of these replies are being answered by someone helpful, then try the AntsCanada forum.

I hope this helps!

[Nathant2131]

I don't think you need direct contact with AC, their formicariums are not any different than others. The simple answer is to keep the colony in a test tube until they reach at least 20 workers. Failure to do so will result in a lopsided humidity, and all of that unused space will only build mold and mites, not to mention the queen/colony will likely be dead before all this happens. There really is no reason why you'd move a small colony, let alone single queen, into a formicarium.

[Shareallicu]

 

 

 

I just bought one of your (AntsCanada of course) small hybrid nests for formica sp for my queen Formica Podzolica. I am considering moving her into it when it arrives, rather than keeping her in her test tube set up. OR AT LEAST letting her decide which one she wants.

Since I am new to keeping queens, I was just wondering if that sounds like a good idea or not. thanks

Ummm... Hibernate her in the freaking tube!!! Sorry I come out snappy like but u asked and double posted this question for like centuries.

 

I thought this forum was directly to AntsCanada and I bought the nest from them, so I wanted their opinion specifically.  Don't respond if you need to get rude.

 

AntsCanada has their own forum and is not affiliated with Formiculture.com in any way, shape, or form. I also do not recommend putting a queen in a formicarium, especially one that size until the workers can take up a good portion of it. I also recommend you buy from someone else, because IMO AntsCanada is a bit overpriced.

 

I thought this was antscanada's own forum!  I'm dumb and new lol.

 

I agree they are overpriced, but they have the nest style I like most

[Shareallicu]

 

I'm fairly new to this site, so pardon me for thinking this forum, under AntsCanada, was to be used to address them directly, Or I would not have posted in here as well as on the general forums.    I DO want opinions too, but I assumed I needed to post here to hear advice from the people I bought the nest from (AntsCanada).

 

I bought their nest and really wanted their advice, so all the advice about using test tubes is irrelevant to my question anyway lol

 

 

No need to answer twice though!  LOL

I don't see how responding with the simple statement to use a test tube is irrelevant. It is the truth, and we were recommending to use a test tube or your colony could have some issues.

 

It's irrelevant because I thought I was talking to antscanada people about my nest I bought from them.  

 

I'm dumb.  I thought this was antscanada's personal, business forum where no one else commented, so I was asking them about their nest they sold me specifically.  lol