ANTSTORE World of Ants

[LukeyG21]

Hi, I'm trying to figure out which ant colony would be good for me to start. The easiest ants to find where I live are common black ants (Monomorium minimum). However, I've read that the queens will only live about 1 year. I know mating takes place while flying, but will my colony produce new queens for themselves? The colony has to have a way to survive right?

[JimmyVe]

Well Lukey, where do you live ? (USA i pretty big )
If colonies get bigger they will produce males ore queens but they don't mate with each other.

[tail__]

Monomorium minimum is polygyn, so you can add new queens to the nest. Anyway, i wouldn't recommend such ants as first colony, they are so small that they are hard to observe. Maybe you should look for something bigger, like Formica or Pogonomyrmex, depending on where you live.

[LukeyG21]

Well we do have carpenter ants here as well. I live in southeastern Kansas, but I was trying to get a colony that was more suited to living in soil, and from what I know, carpenter ants enjoy wood. Any suggestions? Thanks for the replies.

[ducatiman]

try carpenter ants in ytong ,it works fine for me

[miszt]

Carpenter ants dig in soil aswell as into wood, usually they will have the upper section of the nest in an old tree stump, and most of hte nest underground, the tree stump is then used in the summer as an incubator for brood

[LukeyG21]

Thanks miszt, that's some really helpful info. I just might try to collect some then.

[JimmyVe]

In deed, you can keep them underground ore in a y-tong. Good luck at finding some.

[LukeyG21]

Thanks. Nuptial flights for carpenters should be starting very soon so I'm pretty excited.