ANTSTORE World of Ants

[magick81]

Hello from Australia,

I am a newbie and have wanted to get into keeping ants for quite some time but was never sure how to start.
Anyways, my GF bought me a small ant farm kit. Not your typical ant farm, it actually looks like a proper one for kids.
It is the Wild Science Ant Mine Underworld.

Its a kit so you can make your own ant habitat out of plaster.
I know it it like a childs toy, but I figured that this would be OK for newbie.
I like it so much I've actually ordered another one for my Godson to give him on his birthday, hahaha

Any feedback on these kits guys? Some in depth instructional videos posted below.

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The area I live in was all nothing but bushland just 20 or so years ago before they turned part of it into a nice housing estate. We are still surrounded by bush on one side and get all kinds of wildlife. I've identified 2 species that have nests in my front and backyard

The are the giant bull ant's which are over an inch in size and look very mean! I even noticed a couple alate's milling around the nest entrance. Because they have a nasty sting they are not the kind of ants I want.

The other kind are not aggressive and much prettier in my opinion. Golden Tailed Spiny Ants (Polyrhachis ammon). The have metallic golden sheen from the gaster and around the shoulders. Have yet to find a queen, but I'm keeping an eye out. I caught one for photos the other day and released. Sorry for the poor quality, I do not have a Macro lens for my DSLR and it seems my iPhone5 took better pictures than my DSLR could with just the twin lens kit lol.

Anyways, I hope to make my ant keeping online home here, as I haven't found and Aussie forums dedicated to just ants.

Nice to meet you all

Cheers
Kevin

[magick81]

Unfortunately these photos do not do them any justice.
Here are photos i stole from google, haha

[baumarkthammer]

Polyrhachis ammon is one of the ants I always wanted to have.
Just an unfair amount of awsome ants live in Australia!
Wish you luck in finding a queen of Polyrhachis ammon, as far as I know the queens look an awful lot like the workers.
About the nest; You can make a better one out of gypsum, with a plasticine mold. But I would rather let queens in the testing tube until the first workers hetch, you have better possibilities of access and observation that way, though that is my own preference.

Regards
Kaj

[MichaelBiermans]

Hi Magick81,

Polyrhachis ammon is a beautiful species wich I wich had native here in holland!
Regarding your question it's a yes and no awnser I think.

Yes, Technically speaking the theory of making the ant underworld is similar to the method antkeepers use to create a plaster nest for their species.
So technically speaking when hooked up to an outworld and provided the propper humidity, this should be an issue to raise your colony in.

The 'no' side to it is that you will not easily find someone who actually uses the underworld.
Thereby I think that atleast for the first 2-3 years of your colony this will be unsuited due to the size of the underworld.
I would recommend to transfer your colony in to a larger nest from upwards 80-100 workers.
This makes sure your colony is large and stable enough.
Before reaching this size depending on the species it will take 2-3 years.
Until they have 80-100 workers I would advise to keep them in a tube.

Hope this helps,

Kind regards and good luck!

[magick81]

Thanks for the tips guys.

Its 12:15am here and I was just awoken by the sound of rain!! Going for a Queen hunt tomorrow morning!!!

I have been told that the Queen of Polyrhachis ammon looks just like the workers, but larger.
Have you guys ever seen a queen?
Sounds like it makes my task even more difficult to find a queen

Too bad we don't really have anywhere to buy live queens from within Australia

[magick81]

Oh hey guys,

Just wondering what do you guys recommend for taking great pictures of your ants without breaking the budget?

I have a Canon D600 with the twin lens kit, but all the macro lenses I have seen are quite expensive. One person recommended these to me, has anyone ever used them before?

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Some sample photos taken by user on another forum with DSLR and this lens upgrade

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Anyways, sounds like the rain has stopped and I can hear crickets chirping. Will try going back to bed. Goodnight everyone

[magick81]

So this morning I went on a hunt and found this girl. I don't know if she's a queen, but she is bigger than usual, especially her abdomen.

What do you guys think? Is she a queen? Or just a fatty lol



Sorry for the poor quality pics. It's cloudy today, not enough light for the iPhone to focus properly on something that small. I really need to get something for macro shots.

Cheers
Kev

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[baumarkthammer]

Very hard to tell. However I assume that Polyrhachis ammon just like most species have alates, winged females.
So if you could find the point in which the wings were attatched you would know whether or not it is a queen.
Normally you can tell by the structure of the thorax alone but some Polyrhachis queens just look like winged workers. But I have never read of a Polyrhachis species that does not have wings.
Impossible to tell by the pictures, sorry.

Regards
Kaj

[GvG]

Young queens don't only look different, they also act different. Maybe that can help in finding one. It takes a little experience, but you can see that a queen walks with another goal than a worker. A worker walks looking for food (most of the time). A queen is looking for a place to live.

Workers look around, stop, change direction, check out potential food items, turn back, etc. Young queens walk faster and more in one direction. More straight, and (this i got from google translate) rectilinear. They don't checkout potential food items, but potential nest locations, like spaces between rocks or tiles (pavement).

Keep an eye out, you will learn soon enough. Put a magnifying glass and a tube or little plastic container in your bag or pocket and take it with you every day. Like Kaj said, queen have wings, wich they shed (pull out). There for they have a bigger thorax with wing-muscles. Also you can see the "scars" where the wings used to be.

Check out this video on youtube, totally different ants, but it might help.
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[magick81]

Hi guys,

Just a little update, still not much luck in finding a queen
I have however got some new stuff from the Australian Entomology Supplies shop.
I recently purchased an Aspirator, do you guys use those? Has a couple hoses that lead to a jar, and you suck on one hose (the hose with the filter) and use the other hose to collect the insects, kinda like a vacuum cleaner.

I plan to test it out very soon. Also got the glass tubes with plastic caps on top, and the cap has a window cut out and has a fine metal mesh, to allow lots of air.

They got some other cool stuff there too that I will have to grab from them on my next order.

I am going on Holidays soon to the Philippines next month. My cousin is also into keeping ants and knows of a place where we can buy live queens. He is offering to get me some to bring back home with me, lol, he doesn't realise how strict Australian quarantine laws are lol.

Anyways, the queen hunting continues. We've had a fair bit of rain the last few days so i am optimistic!

Cheers
Kev

[baumarkthammer]

Be careful on what you use the exhaustor.
After using it on a Tapinoma sp. I had to sit down for some time because you suck in any acids and defensefluids the ants have and use.
Since Polyrhachis belong to the Formicinae they spray venom, try it in small steps.^^
After using one of these on Formica fusca I had a voice like Lemmy for a day or two.
For collecting big quantities of ants rather use a brush.

[magick81]

Damn! Thats good to know!!!
I should have sprung for the battery operated aspirator. Will be sure to grab one of those on my next order

[Nicojiao]

Hi,

I'm really interested in this place in the Philippines you're talking about. Do you by any chance know the name or the adress? I go to the Philippines almost every year. Last year I spotted many colonies of weaver ants but never had the chance to see a mating flight...

Nico