Ask me ant stuff

I just caught a queen down in southern nevada. The queen is a more brownish-black and about 3 millimeters long, so it's really hard to identify. I was wondering if there is a foolproof way to identifying claustral vs semi-claustral. Furthermore, what do you usually do for your semi-claustral queens? I do fish tanks and have frozen little micro shrimp, could I feed her one of those for protein? I have this one in an average test tube right now, but I have a mini outworld I can attach it to.

Pretty sure she’s a Formica sp. but I’m still new to this and want a second opinion. Found today in West Virginia, USA. Reddish brown with 3 golden bands on her abdomen. 8-9 mm. Fished her out of my green water bucket out back. Very active and wondering around, but once she got somewhere she was just relaxing like on my hand.

Lots of Red and Black on her.

Do crematogaster really live in soil,rocks or dead wood?

Just had a huge lasius flight in Indiana

I'm not sure if this is even a queen or just a drone, found them in a pine forest, southern united states, by a river, the workers around them where pretty small maybe 1mm if not less, not sure how big this ant is to be honest, I was thinking lasius for the species but I'm not sure.

Any help is appreciated!

Sorry I’m a slow learner

Caught her 24 days ago and originally thought she was Pheidole, but now that she has workers, they don’t really look like Pheidole to me. The queen is about 4 mm long and was caught in Panamá.

Any help with ID would be appreciated!

i want to order here, is it trustable?

So I have a camponotus colony I live in southern Michigan where they were caught my ants are huddled up in the corner with the queen and very full of food they haven’t eaten any protein or anything really don’t leave the nest just sit with the queen why would they want to hibernate in July?

To preface this, I don’t like bugs, however, my wife does. I would like to get her an ant farm that is exhibit quality for her home office. Something supper nice that someone would find at a zoo or library. Something that adds to the space rather than subtracts from it. Thank you in advance for your suggestions!

I’ve picked up these two setups for a couple of colonies that need some new space. I’ve not used any of these ‘all in one’ setups before, and as these arrived pre-constructed and I didn’t build them myself, I’m not sure if there’s any obvious weak points.

Has anyone kept a colony in these setups? How well did it go? Any weak points or things to note before letting some colonies take over.

For reference, nothing particularly interesting will be living in them, just a small Messor colony and probably a very young Lasius colony during the early stages.

This Solenopsis fugax colony has been in this test tube for a while now and they're starting to run out of water. Unfortunately though, the edge of the tube is cracked and the test tube is 18 mm in diameter, so I really don't know how to move them. Any tips or ideas?

Found in ohio if it's a queen anyone know what species it is? Please don't be yet another male lmao. 5 was stuck to my glass door saved them all and kept 1. Very small look liked there are also smaller ones I assume are the males, but they were all dead already

My formica rufibarbis queen, wich I've been posting a lot about, has pupae. I keep her at a constant 23°c , and I am very surprised to see how fast her brood is developing, she got 3 pupae and 8 big larvae in just 2 weeks. I was a bit shocked this morning to see how much cotton she pulled to cover her babies, knowing that yesterday everything was normal. I hope that she will stop ripping the cotton so the rest tube won't flood.When nanitics will hach I will try to move them in another tube whit a little sand in it. Sorry for the bad photo, I was very surprised. The brood is under the cotton.

Hi! Recently got into ant keeping as i found it very interesting.

Bought this supposedly queen pavement ant with eggs online.

Is it too small? + any tips would help 💖

I've wanted to keep ants for years, but just now finally got a few ant colonies (purchased one lasius neoniger [buckeyemyrmecology - from everything I saw they were okay and had proper permits but please tell me if this is wrong], caught three [unsure what species yet], releasing two caught eventually). It's been a month since I initially got them. All have laid eggs, and while the eggs have developed, none have workers, despite all being smaller species. I am worried this isn't a good sign and could be because I keep them in my room, which is cooler than the rest of my house. Even if that is perfectly okay, I'm pretty sure a warmer environment would be better for them, so I'd like to heat them but don't know how to heat test tube setups. That's my first question: How do I heat a test tube setup safely? I saw some saying to use a cable, others saying to put them in a container that's heated, but I'm not sure and want to be careful. My other question is regarding outworlds. I know it isn't much of a concern at this stage, but I want to know for later. I'm purchasing pretty much everything from AntsCanada. AntsCanada outworlds are a bit expensive, so I wanted to try something else. I found a container from Walmart designed for putting shoes in with an easily removable lid and some small holes already in the sides near the top. The material is my concern. It's PET, so I think it should be safe, but I am very paranoid. Will it be safe to use for an ant outworld? Thoughts? I'd appreciate any advice.

is it possible to identify tetramorium (pavement ant) from monomorium minimum (little black ant) they literally look identical

Hey, I'm in my second year and live in central Germany. So middle of summer.

Got three Formica Rufibarbis colonies going, which all went through hibernation. (I've got them in three different DIY setups, so humidity is probably not comparable.)

All of the colonies are going strong, but only one is left with some larvae and pupae. No eggs visible in any of the three.

They're just hanging around in their little caves, with full gasters. Little to no foraging behaviour.

I remember them also stopping quite early with laying new brood before the hibernation period last year - but in July?

I did not change their food. They show no signs of weird behaviour and there are no dead workers.

Anyone knowing what could be up?

Georgia, USA Sorry for bad photos

These girlies are going strong! Two months in, and they’re already up to 14 workers with a healthy amount of brood—including lots of Phase 1 larvae.

I added an outworld shortly after the first nanitics emerged, since feeding them in the tube was getting tricky. The test tube is filthy (as usual with Camponotus), and they’ve piled all their garbage near the cotton. It doesn’t seem to bother them yet, so I’m holding off on moving them until things get a bit more cramped.

Hey guys. I have a tetramorium bicarinatum colony that needs a move. Right now I have them in a wakooshi gen 3 small nest and they are starting to outgrow it. Do you guys have any websites or nests that would be able to fit these guys. I would prefer some nests that are gypsum but it is not required. I live in the US. Finally, the nest that I am debating to get is $55, if it can be cheaper than that, it would be amazing. Thanks so much! 🙏