ANTSTORE World of Ants

[Kandg]

Hello every one,
I am new here but my journay with ants began
20 years ago...
I have a question :does any one keept Monomorium pharaonis or have it now?
Please dont tell me its risky i know exactly what species it is i was try keept them
6 times before and all those try faild.
But an year ago i prepare some new type of formicarium
Where collony i get from friend grow very fast and budding each 2-3 months.
There are three dificulity with them:
- escape ( small species easly escapes from formicariums if find good warm
Conditions and take fiew eggs or learves from mother nest it can be dificult to eradicate in place
Where You live)
- dificult climat condition. They need warm 25-30'c and low humidity. Thay have a special caste of workers which brings
Water to the nest. If you keep them humid>90%. You can be sure they start dying soon.
- budding behaviour - if you prepare good conditions for them You will need to give them new formicariums each 2-3 months they will walking on the arena and searching new place for live.
Neverless,
Those ants are one species from four invasivecspecies what can be grown at home and You can get new colony and new queens which are mated in natal nest.
Other similar species are: wasmannia auropunctata, linepthema humile and pheidole megacefalea.
I have a clone of monomorium from Katowice city and i would like to get other clones from other localisation to reserch diferences betwen diferents localisation of ants.
If any one can help me plese write to me a message or sms on:
+48 500 039770 , my whatsapp and viber number.
Please excuse me letter mistakes i write this from my mobile.

[MichaelBiermans]

Hi,

i watch the european forums, dutch, english, french and german, however I havent found a recent post or anyone who has this species.
I hope you find someone who does!

Good luck!

[Kandg]

Thank You. Some times people can find it at home as a pest when thay move from main colony to setle down another one.
Its really very interesting ant and dificult to keep at home...

Also i can share with some one my colony when budding.... In exchange way mostly and with advenced ant keepers.
If You are begginer please dont try with Monomorium You will have trouble thay die or escape.

[derameisige]

Hi Kandg,
There’s an enormous bulk of literature on Pharao’s Ant research; see this review and particularly the numerous references:
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This review doesn’t even cover all published papers, though, and I ask how much of this literature you may know.

Keeping them isn't a problem; I have reared the species for several years, for research, in a Zoological Institution. I was lucky when we had finished our studies and I could destroy the colonies (with boiling water). Fortunately they didn't escape from my particularly safe formicaries.
I strongly question that a private keeper can do any useful additional research on M. pharaonis. What remains is the extremely risky “playing with the fire” if you take them home. So, good luck!

derameisige

[Kandg]

Thank You for This link. Did You ever try selection in this species?
I need as much as possible geneticly diferentation for begining (base of genes) and i plan to prepare a quiet huge colony with many young queens after orphan the sub colonies.
After that i plan to separate those queens and prepared 100 or more colonies , each one with one queen and her descendents ,with fiew of my friends,
And note some specific feature of those colonies, and after that prepare selection as it should be corectly done.
Do You know meaby some reserch about it? I know some line of monomorium are negative phototropic ,
some of them are neutral. And this is only one example.
My reserch take around 5 years but this is my hobby and i am able to do it by correctly planing.
For now i have one colony with 100 queens but its come from single localization. To be honest colony have now
60 queens but the orphaned part of budd have another 50 pupas of queens. So totaly amount is over 100.
Luckly i live in single house so if there any escape and exodus hapen it will not so dificult to eradicate.

[Kandg]

I had read this article long time ago

[Markus]

I'm sorry, but it sounds like spreading deseases for hobby...

[Kandg]

Its only Your own opinion i think You may be wright how it sounds but ants are not desease...What is interesting in keeping ants you can not breeding i mean reproducing? Almost all ants colonies we keept(i doing it from >20 years) are steril. We can do nothing to have their descendents. They are in our prison. With four species we known situation is different. Those four species are also very interesting in behevior and comunications ,we can breeding them. Othervise look the face truth, we are not able to totaly eradicate Monomorium pharaonis ,reserch to do it lasting many decades. If it lives somewhere its means its not enaugh clean . If somewhere they cant survived there is place for other pests like cocrouch for example. And those ants are dangerous only in hospitals in other locations only burdensome. If they live in hospital its mean that hospital is not enought clean too there shouldnt be place with food source for ants! If there are hospital should be closed or should change organisation.
Meaby some reserch help us to know how eradicate momomorium, history learning that many discoveries hapend not in labolatory but at home with hobbysts. Meaby we will know how get ants looks like monomorium but bigger and not as easy able to escape? Whole europe and almost whole world have problem with monomorium so dont be naiv that one more hobyst change situation in worst keeping those ants in his own house

[Markus]

Is that all?
You said, other tryals for keeping ants failed,
now you want to keep those pest-ants because they are theoretically able to build up colonies that may live forever at home too!?

Wouldn't it be better to learn the basics first and keep ants that may not infect other homes?
How isolated are you with your home, how far away are other houses?

Is an hobby worth that risk for you and other people?

[Kandg]

Other houses are more than 80 m from my house its single hause in polish climate. The same situation is with my friends who wants investigate Monomorium as me. Its dificult for one person... Because its needed space for over 100 colonies heating room or formicarium.
All my previously try faild not because of escapes but because of heating and humid condition.
I have learned much about their biology from internet since articles. Before i was useing formicariums with source of watering and with humid air - like for other ants i was thinking. It was totaly wrong. Those ants use special caste of water foragers ants which brings water to the nest and this is toraly enaugh for colony.
And once again i have to say strongly! That its not as easy to infect some new place by this species. They have to find close to the nest food source , water source and heating. Everage budd part is around 400 workers they live less than 70 days after emagre from pupas so if thay need 42 days to get other new workers they need to be hurry up very much. Theoretically 10 workers and fiew eggs can estabilish new colony but it is extremly dificult. Because of fact i wrote above and fact to find food ,water ,heat and quiet(no disturbed) place.

In replay You question... Yes they are theoretically able to live forever in good condition at home as a pest cockroachs. But there are many pheromones and juvenil hormones that can easly eradicate them in short time from single localisation. Many of them You can buy in shops. The most dificult to eradicate monomorium is in old type blocks of flats. Because all people liveings there should act together at once time but its often not possible becase some of them are 'trollop' sorry for word.
One species in our temporare zone is meaby better to learn and keep- propably You know them : pheidole megacephalea, its not able to exists at home in temporate zone as easly as monomorium does. Workers and queens are bigger and workers have two castes . neverless colonies are huge and need much more space than monomorium.

If there would be just a shadow of chance to breeding atta or actomyrmex or messor ... It would be the best but there is no chance. You can only watch single colony grow and know that you will never get doughters of Yours queens and even if You get them There is extrimly dificult to prepare artificial insemination and even if You do that Your doughter queen will inbreed and workers weaker.

[MichaelBiermans]

Found them:

Edit Antstore - forum rules (8)

[derameisige]

Apparently this shop has moved to Germany:
Edit Antstore - Hausordnung (8)
Though no Monomorium pharaonis are on sale there.

Or the ants are lucky creatures, having a choice of several Worlds, whereas we humans are restricted to our single one, unique World.

derameisige

[asiletto]

I am keeping a similar species, Monomorium destructor.

Easy to keep after the founding period (on three queens I started with two died in the first months), except for the fact that -like Pheidole and other small ants- they tend to die on the paraffine used for escape protection.

Here's my colony:




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edit: I do not suggest this species to the average ant keeper, there are many other ants more easy to keep and interesting to watch.

[Kandg]

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Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar
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And this is my collony.
Nice destructor colony.