ANTSTORE World of Ants

[Sced]

Hello all.
I was thinking about getting a new colony of ants, but I am not yet sure.
Plese can you tell me some of the advantages and disadvantages of Pheidole pallidula and Messor barbarus

Luke

[mpir]

Pheidole pallidula are very small ants, and Messors are much bigger. So if the size is an issue that should help.

[Sced]

thanks, are they both pretty easy to raise?

[HeldGoP]

Messor are much harder to keep than Pheidole.

[JimmyVe]

That is right, Pheidole adept easy'er than Messor.
Pheidole like insects allot, mine only eat meat.
Messor eat most of al grains,.
The smallest Messor barbarus worker is bigger than the largest Pheidole pallidula worker.
Pheidole can have more queens in one colony, Messor not.

This is all in my experience.

[Sced]

Thanks, I see you have a Pheidole colony, is it a colony worth buying?

[JimmyVe]

Yes sure. I like them very much. they are very active and they are not so big as Messor but they soldiers are beautiful.
And they are not so hard to keep

[Sced]

Ok, i've decided to get Pheidole pallidula when there in stock
thanks for your help everyone

[JimmyVe]

that's nice. You can buy them now but think about it that most of European ants are in hibernation now, so the first few mouths the don't do a lot. but now worry i had mine in January. (you can read my diary about them if you want, so you have an idea)

Happy ant keeping.

[Sced]

Yeah, Im buying them of a different site as they are cheaper, but they dont come in stock till febuary so ill have to wait for now.
I ready your diary, there some nice pics you have

[JimmyVe]

thanks.

Okay, maybe it is better this way, so they are immediately active when they arrive.

Happy waiting than.

[Sced]

Thanks
IS this nest suitable for them?

[mpir]

It looks ok but it is hard to say as it is not possible to determin how big it is. But I'd say it's ok.

[Sced]

It is 32x21x2,5 cm.
The arena is 13x8cm and the nesting area is 13x8cm

[mpir]

I'd say it should be ok for a few years. Don't forget that this colony can grow to a very very big number of workers. It could grow to more than 100 000 workers. But it should be ok for a while.

I have more doubts about the arena part. You will probably have lots of probems every day just to open that thing so you could feed the ants. Ants will be most likely all over that glass. Unless you put some PTFE on sides... but as there is hardly any sides there... it will be a bit hard.

Maybe with a bit of playing around with it you can change the arena part by simple puting some sort of plastinc container in it and connect it to nest part. Then you don't have to keep it covered and feading would be simple.

Good luck