10 replies to this topic

[AntsACF]

Please tell me, someone. what the Easiest type of ant to keep is.

 

Thanks ant community 

[Serafine]

Formica fusca is really easy. It is:

- basically like Lasius niger (the most indestructible ant you can keep)

- but a bigger (twice as large) which means

- it is much easier to watch and contain

- doesn't grow to such ridiculous colony size (Lasius niger can grow to 50000 workers, Formica fusca tops out at 3000-4000 workers max).

- really cheap to buy (one of the most abundant ants)

- is polygynous and can found with multiple queens (colony merging doesn't work though, as soon as they have workers they will fight)

 

Literally one of the easiest ants to keep, very affordable and remains manageable even as an adult colony. Likes to run around a lot too, which is nice to watch - however it means these ants need a lot of tubing and more than a single outworld (you can just circle the tubing around the outworlds two times to make it appear longer to the ants).

 

 

 

 

Messor barbarus

- A seed-eating harvester ant (so you can give them a large pile of seed and as long as they have enough water they can go unsupervised for months, in fact Messor does actually best when mostly left undisturbed)

- Technically can live without insect food although the benefit from an occasional insect meal (but you don't need to store masses of them, a pack of mealworms or green bottle flies will last you for months)

- Rather bad climbers which means they're easier to contain than most ants

 

However Messor barbarus (and Messor in general) has a few drawbacks. They LOVE to dig and shape their surrounding to their needs. They can chew through grout, gypsum and plaster and occasionally start chewing on vinyl tubing when they're able to grab a free-ending part of it. They can easily remove all the substrate from one outworld (even if it's grout) and transport it to another outworld to build hills and tunnels. They can combine different materials to form building material (like sand, dirt and artificial moss). They occasionally can completely wreck your decorations (cutting artificial plants into pieces), cause feeders to leak (by either chewing trough them or piling tons of dirt on them) and generally have a very destructive approach towards their environment.

At the core they are incredibly easy to keep but you need to be wary of surprises and find creative ways to handle them (and always give them more than one water source in case they manage to cause one to leak). However this inherent creativity also makes them really interesting and fascinating ants that can always surprise you with something new (not always to your liking though).

[FeedTheAnts]

Crematogaster are very easy. They are pretty fast growing, have a nice success rate, eat just about anything, live a good long life... if you have them in your area, these are what you need.

[ultraex2]

Where are you located at?  We can recommend all the basic/beginning species we want but if you don't have them where you are then it's kind of pointless.

 

Otherwise, at least in temperate NA, Lasius Neoniger, Tetramorium, and Camponotus Pennsylvanicus are 3 of the most common ants here and are pretty easy to keep.  

[Goldsystem]

P.imparis basically only need to be fed for a month or two because they store everything, they don't need to be fed again until the repleats run out or until spring comes around. Some people have trouble with them around their second year though.

[XZero38]

Tetramorium sp. E. is pretty easy to keep. They will eat pretty much anything you give them.

[sgheaton]

Tetramorium sp. E. is pretty easy to keep. They will eat pretty much anything you give them.

I've forgotten about mine a couple times and they are still around. 

[MegaMyrmex]

Tetramorium, lasius, crematogaster, formica, but if you're looking for things in terms of willingness to accept food, few escapees, unpicky about humidity, easily adaptable to new environment changes, abundant, good display pets, hardy, low maintenance, and lots of informationa bout taking care of, the best is Tetramorium sp. E or Tetramorium caespitum if you live in Europe.

[Canadian anter]

I think Formica are too sensitive to light to be easy. I've found Myrmica to be easy though

[Russell]

Camponotus -Tetramorium are small and tend to drown and are hard to get to move to a new test tube. Formica are common but I lose queens for no apparent reason. I have never cost a Camponotus queen, they are large and easy to move, hard to lose if one escapes and eat well. Oh and they never drown in honey due to size. 

[FeedTheAnts]

I think Formica are too sensitive to light to be easy. I've found Myrmica to be easy though

that is true, they are sensitive. Just don't bug them though.

Edited by TennesseeAnts, October 9 2017 - 6:24 AM.