Not directly ant related, but ant adjacent and I figured an ant group would appreciate this. Was flipping rocks and found some strange crickets living right near an ant colony. I’ve heard of some insects that live adjacent to, or inside ant colonies but actually finding some was extremely cool. I believe they are apart of the genus Myrmecophilus.

Antlaboratory.com for all details on the game creation and features. I’m asking for anyone serious about ants to inbox me for a free promo code. Thank you for taking a look.

Hi Hi, i got super new Into the hobby and i’m currently looking into getting everything for my first colony. I got an Antcube from Antstore, and now i’m looking at options to fill it. I found that they have multiple color options of the substrate, and I think the white one would look really cool with the black ants :V though I don't want to accidentally buy some that could harm them. (I haven't bought the actual ants yet, since I first want to set everything up.)

So my question, does the color itself matter? I checked that it isn't bleached and anything.

Soil description:

Natural diggable substrate white for ants – perfect for ant farms, ant arenas, and other formicariums

Material: sand, lime, lime bond

Color: white

Mixing ratio: diggable

Description: This finished sand-clay mixture is a pure natural product. The coloring comes from white lime sand. The strength comes from a binding lime mixture, which is harmless to the animals.

Use: Digging soil, can be used for nest and arena areas! Has increased strength in comparison with the soil-beige, even when wet.

I was curious I know this isn’t a guarantee or a thing that can be done but I was curious if I had 2 of these queens from separate colonies one has workers and the other just has eggs is there a way to merge the 2 colonies? And if so how? Thankyou

Hey guys I have acromyrmex versicolor and where I live there's no leaves over the winter to feed them. I was wondering if harvesting some now and freezing them would be a good alternative?

So i caught 4 Messor semirufus queens 14 days ago, They are all being kept in the same area and their test tubes set ups are identical but they ALL have not laid eggs at all. Its my first time keeping this species so I wanna ask if this is normal and if theres something i can do?

P.S: I fed them maple syrup a few days after i caught them.

Im based in Singapore and recently caught this queen. It is smaller than a C. Albasparus queen and slightly leaner? Was thinking it may be a Colobopsis species. But looking for second opinions on this.

Hey,I've recently gotten really interested in antkeeping, and for the past few days, I've had this massive urge to start my own little ant colony in sm testtubes Im having.

The thing is, I'm a complete beginner and know pretty much nothing about antkeeping yet. I currently have two test tubes.

So, I have a few questions for the more experienced antkeepers here:

1. Where and how do I find queen ants?
2. How do I identify a queen?
3. Where should I search?
4. What should I do after catching one?
5. How do I know if a queen is fertile?

For context, I'm from India, so advice about queen-finding seasons and species common here would be especially helpful!

Any tips, beginner mistakes to avoid, or resources you'd recommend would be greatly appreciated. Thanks..!

Found in test tube of Camponotus Queen

I've been interested in antkeeping for awhile now and decided to try my hand in it. I've got my first bull ant queen and I've done my research on it a lot but I just need opinions and guides from people apart from just reading and watching videos on it.

This morning I noticed that my ants were carrying eggs to the entrance. The test tube is not soaked at all, the cotton wool is also properly wet. So I can't feed them because they run away immediately. Why is this possible?

Hello,

I want to ask that what stage of eggs are those and when are they going to hatch. I’m looking at this specie for the first time.

It's quite joyful to see how every ant in a 20 ant colony are involved with the delivery process.

I can never really find a video of things like this, so i recorded my own.

Tetramorium bicarinatum Colony is about 60q ,6k+ w 2k+ brood

Did I get scammed or is something wrong with her? The tube also came nasty and I'm in the middle of trying to transfer them to a new tube. I got them from Buckeye Myrmecology.

I was recording a timelapse of my young Camponotus colony because I noticed that one of the cocoons looked like it was about to eclose.

While reviewing the footage, I noticed a few extremely tiny, white, slow-moving creatures crawling around inside the test tube. I hadn't noticed them before watching the timelapse.

I'm wondering if these could be mites, and whether they're harmless or potentially dangerous to my queen, workers, and brood.

Has anyone experienced something similar? Should I be concerned or take any action?

I bought a queen honeypot ant and a few workers. They arrived three weeks ago and the refuse to leave the test tube. I know I’m supposed to leave them in the tube, but it’s hard to feed them and keep the tube clean. So I bought a tiny outworld (connected to a vertical nest) and connected it to the tube. I left the tube in bright sunlight, the rest of the setup is in dark. It’s been two weeks and no one wants to leave. Any ideas how to manage the situation.

I have about 15 workers now, but I'm a bit scared that when I remove the cotton they leave, of course I fed them multiples times already but now there is always 1 or 2 ants at the cotton who block the tube, so I feel like if I remove the cotton to feed them 1-2 ants will just leaves.
(I'm getting a hunting ground in a few days once it's delivered)

Roberta was found near her sisters immobile and with very little life left and no front legs, she sadly then died in my hand.

She may have been born a little different but she had a big impact on me, even if she's "just an ant".

She managed to live almost two weeks, i was very excited about her surviving this long but i guess things didn't go as well as i thought.

I would like to know if yall had some empathy towards some of your workers in particular like in this case, if you had any similar story.

But overall

She will be missed, but rest assured her colony will live on in her memory.

Rest in piece

My lasius niger queen(I assume that’s what she is). Has finally laid her eggs some time ago, hard to say when exactly, sometime around a week ago max. I was shocked to see that she had done so and thought that she was intending to start her colony after hibernating.

So now I am left in an unusual situation, we are in northern europe and the weather is getting quite chilly, and while there still are bugs here and there she should be hibernating very soon if not already. So I am left wondering if I should let her raise them or “force” a hibernation. I also have the issue of water being depleted in her tube.

I had previously made post about the her here and the consensus seemed to be that she was a lasius niger intending to hibernate early. But now that there is quite a batch of eggs, I am left wondering what to do.

I at the moment gravitate towards letting her do her thing and raise the eggs, and possibly giving her sugarwater or normal water on parchment/folio etc to supplement the lack of water in the tube