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Hi Guys and Girls if there are any,
I'm in the process of researching the hobby of keeping Ants, mainly from this forum, before I take the leap and buy the equipment and queen of my choice, which will be the begining of next year.
I'm 43 year old and live in Scotland.
When I was 9 I built an Ant farm from perspex and some wood but was unsuccessful at keeping them mainly because I didn't have a clue as to what i was doing.
Anyways resently I bought an Antworld, I know its for kids but I'm not frightened to admit I'm a big kid.
Anyways it got me googling about Ant keeping and found all you people and this forum which is a wealth of knowledge.
I'v been looking at which Ant spieces to keep and the one that ticks most of the boxes for me is Messor barbarus.
It lives in a dry climate.
It's Monogyne and Polymorph
It harvests seeds and makes Ant bread
It lives in a soil nest.
It' a decent size.
However the thing that concerns me about this speices is that I'm learnt to beleave the colony can grow very large and I would need a very big farm.
Using a Ytong block how long would it be before I would need to expand it by adding another block?
Is there another spieces thats simular to Messor barbarus that doesn't have such a large colony?
I think Messor barbarus are a fantastic ant.
The colony will grow large though and they will tunnel through ytong. You will probably be ok for a year or so though.
What kind of antworld did you bought, if its the one with the jelly in you cant use that one. :)
Ytong farms ore the best way to keep ants, the biggest problem is that some species can dig through it, like Messor barbarus . If the colony is bigger they can chew through it in one day. You still can use ytong but than you need to put it iside a glass farm or so.
Yes. No the Antworld I have is really just for children I suppose to see workers digging corridors.
Thin Perspex with sand in between
You send for about 40 Lasius niger workers and you see them dig there corridors.
I'm not convinced this is such a good idea.
The workers without there queen dos not seem right, they go into automatic and live a kinda fruitless life.
Although I'v not seen a Jelly farm, from what I'v read on the forum there just as bad.
I don't have a problem setting up a Ytong farm with glass siliconed on all sides, quite like doing stuff like that anyway.
The biggest Ytong I can get here is 610mm * 270mm by 150mm thick.
How long would that last before I would need to expand the farm? Get another block.
And how big will this colony get to how many blocks of Ytong will it get to?
The other spieces I'v been considering are Camponotus, Camponotus ligniperda, Camponotus aethiops or Camponotus herculeanus.
However would I be right in saying they require a damper habitat that might be harder to maintain?
What colony size do these spieses get to?
Al.
The biggest Ytong I can get here is 610mm * 270mm by 150mm thick.
How long would that last before I would need to expand the farm? Get another block.
And how big will this colony get to how many blocks of Ytong will it get to?
The other spieces I'v been considering are Camponotus, Camponotus ligniperda, Camponotus aethiops or Camponotus herculeanus.
However would I be right in saying they require a damper habitat that might be harder to maintain?
What colony size do these spieses get to?
Al.
M. barbarus can get huge numbers (10.000+ as far as I know), if you take good care of them, but as they are relatively small, they can be in 1 Ytong block. The worst thing you can do when you start, though, is to get an Ytong that is too big. Like that, your ants will not keep the Ytong clean and you will get mold, this is bad for your ants. Though, there is less risk with a species that prefers a dry environment, obviously.
I have no idea how long such an Ytong would last, it depends on how you design the nest, how many chambers, how big, how well you take care of your ants etc.
Camponotus species grow very slowly, this is their trademark. You are right in thinking they need a slighty more damp environment, this really is not so hard to maintain, just check the stickies in the Building a formicarium section. I think C. ligniperda can grow up 6000 members (no idea about the others but I believe the same amount of ants), but as I said, they grow slowly. If you start by a sole queen, you will probably have 3 worker ants and a couple of pupae after 1 year.
Another species that is relatively easy to keep and is polymorph is Pheidole pallidula (though they are VERY small and good at escaping, no personal experience but I have read enough blogs about this sorts of 'accidents' ;)).
Perhaps you could also try Formica sanguinea, I find them very easy to keep, as well as a nice growth rate and quite big ants as well. They do not have 'soldiers' but they do have different sizes.
Those 2 species are nice European species I can think of, you could also go with something exotic but seeing as you are a beginner it really is not recommended.
Have you considered Myrimica rubra?? They are a lovely european ant, very easy to keep and very aggressive great to watch. You can easily keep them in a ytong for a long time.. mine have been in there block now for 2 years.
Hi Steve,
Yes they are one on my list.
My reasoning amoungst one or two other criteia is looking for a spieces that likes a dry warm habitat which i think might be easer to maintain than a damp habitat.
Would I be right in thinking Myrimica rubra likes a very damp habitat.
Has it been difficult to maintain a damp habitat without complications such as mold etc.?
Al.
You are right and they do like it damp, I have had no problems at all. I use a ytong with a leg that is always in some water.. never had ny problems.. the outside of the ytong will go a little white.. but this never goes inside.. and can easily be gotten rid of. Myrimica are definatly one of my fav spec. of ant.
I think the white stuff on the outside of the ytong is mineral salts from the water, left after the water evaporates. I wonder if it occurs in soft water areas. I also had it on my plaster nests, and there it quite clearly formed crystals.
Ohh ive not seen crystals.. that would be cool :)