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ben_bd: Small Ant farms (27. Mai 2004 16:19)

Hello

I am a relative beginner at keeping ants, howevr am very keen to establish my a colony.

I have a few questions first. Firstly, my main constriction is size. I intend to build my own ant farm, something similar to the basic AntFarm sold here. I plan to make it 20 mm thick, and 250x350 height and width. This is quite small as I do not have the room for a large one!

i have read a forgaing area is required...i have kept common garden ants before in a similar setup, but this time i would like to keep a proper colony with a queen. my question is, is an ant farm of this size ok to keep a colony in? I simply dont have enough room for a forgaing tub. what species would be suitable for this? i was thinking of lasius niger?

also, do you colonoies come with the queen or does a queen have to be purchased separately?

any help would be much appreciated!

thank you
ben

Scàth-Siorrai: (27. Mai 2004 22:40)

20mm is a bit large to see the galleries.
ants will need a foraging area to feed them and they will need it to dump their waste

JNet: (8. Aug 2004 17:57)

First of all YES 20 mm is a bit thick, I would go with something less then 15. Second of all, the ant farm would be large enough for Lasius Niger but will need to be expanded so you'll need holes to connect another ant farm. You will also need long tweezers to get the food out when it goes bad. Last of all, ALL colonies come with a queen otherwise it wouldn't really be a colony.