ANTSTORE World of Ants

[Captain Chickenpants]

Hi guys, a complete newbie here with some questions about setting up a new colony.

I will be going for one of the easy central european breeds , probably Lasius niger, as they are starting to wind down for hibernation about now I will wait until March time before actually getting the ants. This at least gives me plenty of time to prepare the formicarium to my satisfaction.

1) Choice of formicarium. I quite like the look of the Apartment style setup which looks to basically be a foraging area on top of a display case. Is that correct?

2) A major concern is ant escape (I am sure my house mates would not be happy with ants running around the house). Looking on the forums here the generally accepted prevention methods seem to be a combination of ptfe/vaseline, lid and sometimes a water island. I have seen recommendations of vegetable oil and washing up liquid in the water, do the both work on the principle of breaking the surface tension? Is one better than the other? How often do you need to replenish the oil/soap (presumably water needs to be replaced as it evaporates).

3) Hydration. When I kept a Tarantula (many years ago as a kid) a number of books suggested using sphagnum moss as a method of providing drinking water would this be suitable for ants?

For keeping the nest moist I see that it is recommended to have a straw down to the ceramic medium at the bottom, what is to stop the ants entering the straw at the top? PTFE/vaseline again?

4) Colony size, I don't have space to expand a colony beyond the initial setup I will buy, will a colony regulate it's size to match it's living space?

5) Fun stuff, one thing that interests me is macro photography of the ants, anyone any suggestions on setting up the formicarium such that it is well setup for macro shots i.e. in terms of food placement etc? Anyone tried a webcam in the formicarium?


The PDF that has been posted at the top of this forum on care of the ants is excellent, if someone could produce something similar for setting up the habitat it would be very handy. E.g. describing the different types of enclosures and their pros and cons.

Lastly any good books with this info?

Cheers,
CC

[sithmaster676]

hi i will try and help as best i can.

1) the apartment setup is the foraging area on top and there is a small space down the sides where that colony actually digs.

2) Vaseline is a very effective form of stopping lasius niger workers from escaping as i use it for both of my lasius niger colonies and they seem to avoid walking on it, but it has to be replaced every 3 months of so. you can use an island technique but this can cause death of workers and sometimes by accident the ant finds a way across. the combination of a lid and Vaseline is the best solution.

3) the method you suggest would be fine for this setup or you could also buy yourself a fine mist sprayer from most garden centers to spray the surface every other day, to keep it moist.

4) Lasius niger colonies with the right care can grow very large, usually around 1000 on average the colony will generally continue to grow even if the setup becomes to small this is when the workers begin to try and escape to find more suitable areas, so the best way to control this is to expand the nest or if totally necessary get rid of the colony.

5)i personally haven't tried to use a web cam on my colonies but there have been places that do this like the natural history musium in London, the best way is to take pictures of your ants with a good camera.

i hope this has helped
Sithmaster676

[Captain Chickenpants]

Thanks your reply is very helpful!

Just to check, for the hydration did you mean sphagnum moss would be ok, or were you referring to the straw+ceramic method for keeping the nest moist.


As I said my space for this is limited, so expanding the nest is not very practical. How long could I expect to keep the colony before having to get rid of it?

I see that the store here sells air pumps and heat mats etc, am I right in thinking that these are for the more exotic species as the Lasius niger should be quite comfortable in a normal uk house environment.?

Thanks again,
CC

[miszt]

1) choice is upto you, lasius niger grow fast, so get the biggest you can afford, even better is the panoramic tank

2) vaseline is my favorite, with an ant-store lid you shouldnt have any problems with escape anyway, make sure you get plugs, and also have a look at the 'fitting strips' for lids to fill the gaps in the edge, if the lid is placed exactly in the middle you shouldnt have any problems, but its easy to know the lid a few mm one direction and you will then get sum escapes, hard to describe, but you'll see when you get it

3) you can fill a test tube with water and bung it up with cotton wool to provide drinking water

4) no, they wont do that, but adding more farms is easy enough, and doesnt take very much space, you can use tubing to join them up even upto a length of a few meters for Lasius niger

5) learn to speak ant

The type of habitat is mainly down to personal prefrence, there are no real pros and cons as long as you take into account the stuff that will keep your ants healthy

[JimmyVe]

Hi Captain Chickenpants and welcome.

Looks like you already had all the help you need, if you have other questions, feel free to ask.