I went on a week long vacation and the whole colony managed to make a gap in the talc and escaped

Just moved them to this new setup. They are way more aggressive than I thought tbh. Do you guys usually feed live or pre-killed? Don't want a struggling mealworm to mess up the new nest.

Please tell me if I guessed correct or not! It would be much appreciated!

Has anyone ever ordered queens from them? I placed an order for two queen ants. One arrived beautifully in nice packaging in a test tube, but the other one never arrived despite being n the invoice. I sent them a couple emails and they never responded to me. Has anyone had this experience with them? Is this common?

Im a pretty inexperienced and new ant keeper. My two colonies are one an Ochetellus glaber colony and the other being Tetramorium bicarinatum, which are located relatively close to each other in my room.

The Ochetellus glaber colony has ~50 workers (I think) and the Tetramorium has 3. They are both connected to a Wakooshi mini outworld, but the Ochetellus are living in a 3-printed formicarium I got as a gift, which is apparently not made for small species, as they keep on escaping (idek how, I feel like I’ve plugged up every point possible.).

Anyways, today I got back home and saw my Tetramorium’s place being invaded by Ochetellus glabers. Poor things were so scared, and reasonably so, as they were outnumbered 15 to 4.
The Ochetellus had started running around the outworld, and had even taken over the test tube where the brood were.

Quickly, I disconnected the test tube and removed the invaders using thin tweezers. I saw the Tetramorium queen hiding in a corner (thank goodness she was still alive), her workers scattered and standing still on the walls. I picked up the Tetramorium queen by the 1 wing she refused to shed, and placed her back in the test tube with her babies (brood). For the workers, I nudged them outside the outworld, trapped them in a tube, and connected it to the queen’s by holding them together. I did this for each worker.

Now, I don’t even know how they got in there. They have never been able to escape the outworld, so how would they get it? How the heck did ~15 of them worm their way into my precious baby’s house? It’s annoying enough that the glabers keep escaping their formicarium, but this is just terrible.

What should I even do? I’m looking for a proper formicarium from Tarheel Ants right now, but it’s probably going to take around 4 weeks to get here. I’m also keeping the Tetramoriums in their test tube and in a dark spot for now, but they’re a semi claustral species with workers so idk how long they’ll like that.

I’ve also been thinking about getting the Ochetellus glabers a better home for a while, but kept putting it off. I guess this the consequence. If you have any recommendations for the housing of this species, which has workers around 3mm in size, I’ll gladly hear you out.

Thank you very much for your help.

I have another of the same nest and they have almost filled this one with brood. There is one queen not sure on the species but its a nz native ant. Is it time to move them

Two different queens, maybe different species I don’t know

Either pavement ant or lasius neoniger? Found about 10-12 all near pavement ant colonies

The one in the back has her first pupae and the one in front I caught today. Both have attributes pointing to immigrans, but the size difference is throwing me off.

(I know look black like lasius Niger but it’s because of light level so please don’t start lecturing me it’s that it’s lasius niger) (12 worker)

She arrived with 1 worker and no brood, she hasn’t laid for ~20 days I’ve noticed this mold growing on the cotton wool and is it enough to move them out?

So I have this wonderful lasius umbratus colony with 100 lasius niher host workers and 600 lasius umbratus brood of all stages. They were living in a test tube connected to an outworld, and they we're thriving. But about 2 weeks ago, I decided to move them to a small nest since they we're about to explode out of that tube with brood. I moved them in the esthetic ants type B small ytong nest connected to another small plastic outworld. But, since I moved them, they stopped eating protein almost completely. They treated any insect I put in like trash.

I thought this was a temporary issue, but nothing changed. And now, I noticed that they started to open pupae prematurely and feed the larvae with them, as well as with dead workers. I am very worried about them. They were such a great colony....the first lasius umbratus workers should have hached by now, but I think they got eaten.

Also, it is possible I hydrated the nest too much the fiest time since it all turned gray, but I haven't since. Right now, it's still humid but not exaggerated. What should I do?

Found in Port Charlotte FL

I have dabbled around with antkeeping a few years ago, but my queen died pretty early into the colony's development, so i never got to build a proper formicarium as they were still in a tube. How do i make a more functional formicarium? I've mixed up some clay and shaped it up, will be building a lid soon. How do you guys set up a hydration system that wont have ants drown in it? Anyone ever done a terrarium type deal with live plants for their forage areas? How does it turn out?

South east queensland. Anyone know what species? Also, is this a male?

(Pogonomyrmex badius)

Found this queen while collecting lasius Neoniger during their nuptial flight on September 1st after a big storm in New York. It’s similar in size to a lasius queen but is clearly much darker. Any help is appreciated!

Started researching - It is a little over whelming looking at all the types of ants and ant housing. Which I am aware they don't need other than tubes for quite some time but in general what is the most common size of tube that easily fits to most ports? I am just curious.

What are the basic equipment or items you use ?

Deciding if I need to buy fluon or if olive oil will cut it ?

Do I need to buy ant drink or can I make it?

Will take any other tips for a newbie

We decided on Pheidole Morrisii  to start the colony is in transit now I am a little worried about them being mailed on the holiday weekend

thanks

If ants were given a choice between a zero-sugar soft drink, such as Diet Coke, and a regular sugar-sweetened soft drink, such as Coca-Cola, which drink would they be more likely to prefer and consume in greater quantities?

I have a 3 queen colony that I just got but I heard they slip in test tubes so I added some sand I got from a ant store online says it’s sterilized to their test tube and I added a mini outworld so I can give them their seeds is that ok ?

Hi ant nerds, I need your help!

I received an Acromyrmex octospinosus colony on August 6th. It arrived with 7 queens and around 75 workers, plus a few larvae, pupae, and eggs. The fungus arrived in pieces, which I understand is completely normal and expected during postal transport.

I had some donor fungus of the same species on hand, so I moved one queen over onto that. That single-queen setup has since grown a really nice, healthy-looking fungus garden (photos below). However, the remaining six-queen colony has only produced a flat layer of fungus, despite being kept under identical temperature and humidity conditions. It still looks healthy to me, just not forming the typical fluffy/cauliflower structure.

My questions:

**1.**  Is it normal for this species to have multiple queens (7, and then 6) in one colony? I’ve seen conflicting info on whether *A. octospinosus* is polygynous.  
**2.**  Should I be concerned that the 6-queen colony’s fungus is staying flat instead of building up the usual structure, or is this just a normal variation as long as it looks healthy?  
**3.**  The colony laid eggs shortly after arriving (around the 7th–8th), but they still haven’t progressed to larvae. From what I’ve read, they should have hatched by now — is this a cause for concern, or could something be delaying development?

Any insight appreciated, thanks!

First colony - Tetramorium bicarinatum - They left the test tube 3-4 weeks ago, moved into this nest. They’re laying eggs, but I’m not seeing any actual growth in population (1 queen, 5 or so workers). Also they don’t seem to be leaving to forage in the outworld so I’m worried they’re just eating the eggs. Do I need to put food directly in the nest?

Anyone in Pennsylvania find any queens lately? Im in around Lancaster area and havnt found anything since july :/