ANTSTORE World of Ants

[JimmyVe]

you can disturb the ecosystem. and that is not what we want. Not so long ago there was something about it on the news. (from an Egypt ant - Farao ant ore something)
but not only ants from other country's hurt our ecosystem, also if you get them from another region of your own country.
There is a hole article from it but it is in dutch.

[Fabian]

Yes your are right of course, but Myrmica rubra is an ant that is far spread in our region, as far as Lasius niger eg. so i saw no problem letting them out to freedom, its even better than killing them

[JimmyVe]

I'm not found of killing them nether so i prefer giving them away. (not that I'm planning to )

[sithmaster676]

i agree killing a whole colony is wrong just because we don't want them anymore, like Fabian said i have a lasius niger colony and this species is very populates in our region i have at least 10 colonies in my garden:D
Sithmaster676

[sithmaster676]

but i still dont understand how it would harm the region in anyway.
Sithmaster676

[Fabian]

One example perhaps, in a few days, i will get a Pheidole pallidula colony, Pp normaly doesnt exist in Germany, perhaps in the south, but not here in the north, if you put them to freedom they might get used to the weather etc. and do damage to the ecosystem if they establish here.

[Sced]

Yes, they could threaten other local colonies of ants and within years could spread to all of europe

very similar to the fire ants in america

[earlant]

@ sithmaster676 :

In 2004 I published a paper on this subject in a journal of the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature). Maybe the text is helpful for you to understand the problems that arise from releasing non-native ants somewhere into the environment.

Regards,
Earlant

Aliens Newsletter # 19&20, 2004, p. 24-26
INTERNATIONAL PET ANT TRADE
INCREASING RISK AND DANGER IN EUROPE - (HYMENOPTERA, FORMICIDAE)

Summary

In Europe, Austria, France, Germany, Spain and UK, for the past few years an ever-increasing trade in pet ants has been observed. Internet companies provide formicaries, accessories and living ants of European origin, as well as from overseas (South America, Indonesia, Australia).
In this article I discuss various risks of this trade: escaping ants may establish and cause economic or biodiversity impacts, carry diseases that switch over to indigenous species and bastardise local faunas. Even "intraspecific" faunal bastardisation may occur.
I suggest urging governments of all nations to ban the trade of invertebrate species, in particular ants and exotic species, for commercial and non-scientific purposes. Exceptional permits should only be granted when escape proof keeping can be guaranteed.

Introduction
During the past 2-3 years, there has been an ever-increasing interest in keeping various ant species as pets at home. In the US it is illegal to trade ant queens, however, in Europe, where restrictions are mostly lacking, a couple of Internet-shops have established where the ant keepers can order living ant colonies, formicaries and accessories. Since these shops advertise and sell ants from nearly all over the world, there is some cause for concern. Information on the amount of this trade can be obtained from a number of Internet forums (URLs given below). From the forums it is also clearly recognizable that the species in question are usually not identified, often sold under wrong names or just with a genus name, e.g. "Pheidole sp.", this being a genus with 900 species worldwide, among them several already known as major pests.

I - The risk of bastardisation of faunas
As with any intended or casual release of foreign organisms in a given ecosystem, the exotic species in a few instances may establish viable populations and thus bastardise the local faunas. Even known invasive ant species may be released in countries where they have not been found as yet, because the dealers and customers as laymen are unable to differentiate between hazardous and (perhaps) harmless congeners.
Ants in particular are a greater risk to local faunas than
other exotic organisms: They are generally highly dominant members in most terrestrial ecosystems. And, if released, it is usually not one or a few single specimens that may die before having the chance to reproduce (as for example the numerous spiders, millipedes, scorpions, mantids etc coming free every year). A complete ant colony, whether escaped or set free by the keeper may find and reorganize itself in a suitable place and, provided that favourable ecological conditions are given, begin to reproduce. Potential inbreeding among the progeny of a
single queen is not a serious problem in ants, as is often erroneously believed. In any case most (potentially) invasive species are polygynous and have several reproducing queens in a colony. Pet ant keepers prefer polygynous ant species because they are believed to survive longer in captivity. In addition, "spectacular" species are sought after, such as the Australian bull ants (Myrmecia sp.), or leafcutter ants (Atta and Acromyrmex spp.) and weaver ants (Oecophylla sp.) - all offered for sale in Germany and other European countries.

II - The risk of developing additional pest and/or invasive ant species

Germany presently is plagued by about a dozen introduced ant species. Most of them are confined to hot houses, green houses of Botanical gardens, zoos etc. A few are invading homes, hospitals, restaurants etc., among them the Pharaoh's ant, but also a few Pheidole species. Others surviving in the open are the Argentine Ant (Linepithema humile) and Lasius neglectus (Dekoninck et al 2002; see also Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar
Lasius/Ingles/ index.htm). Both have the potential of eradicating numerous native ant species.
Most pest ants probably have arisen from widespread synanthropic species that have been carried around the world through traditional commerce. Pet ant keepers and dealers are always demanding "new", "interesting" species. Ant collectors and dealers will hence try to bring ever more species from nature that never had the "chance" to be distributed by man. Among the numerous Pheidole species that are very popular because of their big-headed soldier caste, there may be dozens of potential pest ants.

Since both dealers and customers are laymen, they are unable to correctly identify the ant species in question. Many are sold with evidently incorrect (nonexisting) names, or only identified up to the genus (Pheidole, Messor and others). Ant taxonomy is very difficult, even for the few contemporary professional myrmecologists, and many groups (genera) are taxonomically unsettled as yet, so it is absolutely impossible both for dealers and customers to assess whether or not a given species may be an actual, or possibly future, pest.

III - The risk of ant parasites switching over to native species
All animals carry parasites, which, if released in a foreign habitat, may switch over to native species, threatening them, even if the original host species cannot survive in the new environment. These parasites may be mites, nematodes, protozoans, fungi, bacteria etc. Some ant species are known to be intermediate hosts of tapeworms. In southern France a Tetramorium species is known to carry a tapeworm infesting domestic fowl (genus Raillietina; Nadakal et al 1971).

As yet, extremely little has been known on the parasite fauna of ants, but I have done some studies on tapeworms (Buschinger 1973), on fungi (Sanchez-Peña et al. 1993), and on gregarines, all found in ants (Kleespies et al 1997), so I have good reason to infer that many more ant species may carry one or other potentially dangerous parasite species. A gregarine species found in North American Leptothorax ants from Montana, were able to infest European Leptothorax in laboratory experiments, and even the Pharaoh's ant. Unfortunately it did not affect this species to an extent where its use for biological control would be justified (Buschinger & Kleespies 1999). Though apparently no incidence of such a parasite transfer among foreign and native ants has been recorded as yet, it nevertheless appears a real possibility.

IV - "Intraspecific bastardisation of fauna" - a neglected risk
With "intraspecific bastardisation of fauna" I mean that not only the introduction of a foreign species into a native fauna or ecosystem may become hazardous, but also the introduction of members of a species into distant populations of the same species. In Europe there are numerous species with a very wide range, from Mediterranean through subarctic habitats. We may assume that their local populations usually have developed special adaptations to the local c1imatic conditions etc. If transferred to a sufficiently distant place they may either disappear (if they do not tolerate the local conditions - the best case), or hybridise with the resident population, which might weaken the adaptiveness of the local population. A further problem in this context is that expensive studies on biogeography and phylogeography may be jeopardized.
One frequently studied question in Europe is whether a given species has arrived from the Mediterranean refugia, after the ice age, to the North of the Alps via the eastern or western route. With modern DNA techniques it is possible to reconstruct such routes, but if (for example) an ant species from France escapes in eastern Austria and by chance establishes a population there, this may invalidate a lot of research efforts.
.
V - URLs of Internet ant-sellers and forums
German "antstore" http://www.antstore.de (238 members as at 15 January 2004)
German Ameisenforum Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar with a lot of discussions on the topic of introduction of exotic ants. (559 members, many of them also in the antstore forum).
France Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar (in French; forum but also trading ants) (274 members)
Spain Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar phpbb2/index.php (forum which doesn't advertise ants, but the owner sells ants on demand by e-mail) (258 members). .
Great Britain Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar presently does not advertise ants, but has formerly sold many colonies, e.g. leafcutter ants. Not all of the registered forum members are ant keepers, but quite a high number are.
The German antstore in particular is importing ants from Australia, SE-Asia, and Central America to Europe, and also distributes ants from southern Europe in central and northern Europe. In Germany and most European countries there is no legal restriction on the trade with exotic animals, except for those endangered in their countries of origin.
As yet, there is no ant species known which would be endangered by taking them from the field in their countries of origin. I do know only about restrictions in the USA where trading ant queens (not workers) across borders is illegal. The American Forum for ant enthusiasts, where these restrictions are frequently discussed is: Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar (608 members on 15 January 2004).

VI - Conc1usion
Of course, ants are not only imported by those specialised companies, but as yet mainly by ordinary trade (with plants, fruit, wood etc.), and also many colonies are taken home by tourists. However, trading pet ant colonies may considerably increase the numbers of imported colonies and also of additional species, handed over to private customers who can be as young as 12-13 years old.
I think it would be worthwhile for IUCN (and others) to inform the governments of all nations on this quite recent development, suggesting legal restrictions on exotic arthropode trade, both because of dangers for their native faunas and of additional invasive species whose eradication is always very expensive and nevertheless usually fails (see fire Ants, Pharao's ant, Argentine ant etc.; VANDER MEER et al. 1990).

References
Buschinger, A., 1973: Ameisen des Tribus Leptothoracini
(Hym., Formicidae) als Zwischenwirte von Cestoden. Zool. Anz. 191, 369-380, 1973
Buschinger, A., Kleespies, R. 1999: Host range and host specificity of an ant-pathogenic gregarine parasite, Mattesia geminata (Neogregarinida: Lipotrophidae). Entomol. Gener. 24, 93-104.
Dekoninck, W., C. De Baere, J. Mertens & J-P. Maelfait, 2002. On the arrival of the Asian invader ant Lasius neglectus in Belgium (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Bull. Soc. roy. be1g. Ent. 138: 45-48.
Kleespies, R.G., Huger, A.M., Buschinger, A., Nähring, S., Schumann, R.D., 1997: Studies on the life history of a neogregarine parasite found in Leptothorax ants from North America. Biocontrol Science and Technology 7, 117-129.
Nadakal, A.M., A. Mohandas, K.G. John, and K. Muraleedharan, 1971. Resistance potential of certain breeds of domestic fowl exposed to Raillietina tetragona infections. 3. species of ants as intermediate hosts for certain fowl cestodes. Pou1try Sci. 50: 115-118.
Sanchez-Peña, S.R.; Buschinger, A., Humber, R.A. 1993: Myrmicinosporidium durum, an enigmatic fungal parasite of ants. J. Invertebrate Pathol. 61, 90-96.

A. Buschinger
Zoological Institute,
Darmstadt University of Technology, Schnittspahnstrasse 3, .
D-64287 Darmstadt,
Germany,
Member of the IUCN SSC, Social Insect Specialist Group

[sithmaster676]

k thanks i think i understand now about realizing foreign ants to outside but ants of the UKs own species i wouldn't have thought would be a problem
Sithmaster676

[Fabian]

It depends, may be in some region is a very high Formica (Serviformica) fusca population, and you put a great Lasius niger colony out, they might damage the ants, who live there natrually, you should check what kind of ants live at the place where you want to release your colony and not putting them out 1 meter away from another colony.

[JimmyVe]

That is way there is the 10 km rule (around here, on the Belgium forum) if you capture a queen inside 10 km from your home you can release them back in to nature after a while.

[sithmaster676]

ok cool but my region the lasius niger species dominants over every other species it must be because it is so rich in food for them.
Sithmaster676

[JimmyVe]

probably
@ earlant: maybe you can open a new subject for your reply, i think it is nice that everyone can read that, here it is hard to find.

[sithmaster676]

good idea jimmyve if it has its own topic people will find it easier and quicker
Sithmaster676

[AntsNational]

Mother nature ALWAYS finds a solution.

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Vasile