ANTSTORE World of Ants

[methuselah]

Hi, I am new to ants keeping and I have ordered my first ant colony Pheidole pallidula from Antstore sometimes around mid April 2007. The colony consists of 1 Queen, 1 soldier and about 5 workers (two of them look like major ones). There was no brood or larvae.
I placed the test tube in a formicarium with sand/loam mixture as the nesting ground. All the ants came out in six hours and started to build nest from a small depression I had earlier made.

Since then I feed them flies, spiders and even 'dirty long leg' (all dead). I have noticed that the ants tend to carry the insect corpes back to their nest, whenever possible. They leave the left overs outside the nest. They also eat sunflower seed.

However, ever since the migration from the test tube to the nest, I have never seen the queen, neither any new ants/broods/larvae. The nest tunnel they have made does not progress since the first few days of moving into the formicarium.

My questions are:

(1) Is this normal?

(2) I wonder how long does it take for the queen to lay eggs and how long does it take for an egg to turn to an adult ant?

(3) What other food does Pheidole palidula take? I notice they can be quite choosy (they don't take orange or berries for instance).

I am a bit worry there is not much of an activity. Only one or two ants will occasionally come out for a while and then go back to nest. Any advice will be mostly appreciated.

Thanks.

[fernando_regio]

That is normal. Probably there are new ants in the nest but you cant see them. Only one or two come out for the food and, food hunting. My Lasius niger are in a ant farm and they too dont make any new tunnels since the beggining, and i dont see the queen cause she is in the midle of the farm and out of sight. But try tu put some bigger food there, something that they cant carrie back to the nest, and has a bit of size, like a medium or big cricket, they will have to call more workers to transport pieces of the food to the nest, normaly there are some workers that only get out the nests in that cases, otherwise they will stay in the nests taking care of the brood and the queen.

[hypervelocity]

Hi all,

All of the infomation thet Fernando_regio said is accurate. Also you will probaly never see the queen again.

[JimmyVe]

Hi methuselah and welcome.

Pheidole pallidula are very nice ants to keep but you need to be patient. (like with al species) I keep them myself, you can read my diary here at the site, maybe that helps you.
Make sure to keep the nest moist, if it is to dry they quickly die. Don't make it to wet nether.

[methuselah]

Thanks for the reassurance.

By the way, does Pheidole pallidula require to hibernate? The database and information from ant database seems to be a bit vague on these details.

[JimmyVe]

Well it is like this:

In nature they do about 2-3 months, but there are keepers that do not let them keep a hibernation. And it seems like there are no symptoms that it is bad for them.
But like other species that normally keep a hibernation the queen needs the time to get back on strength. If you keep them out of hibernation the queen will probably not live as long as she would normally do.

In my opine let them keep the hibernation (i do with mine)

[methuselah]

Thanks for your information JimmyVe. But how long can a Pheidole pallidula queen live? And what is the colony size? I am asking these so that I can estimate what I would expect of them in the future.

Thanks again!

[Necturus]

Hey methuselah,
as your a newbie to this topic im afraid ill have to preach a bit... Pheidole are not suitable AT ALL for beginners. Workers and Soldiers alike are very tiny and masters of escape. Preventing that needs quite some experience. They are known houseants, meaning once they escape ( and they will bite through silicone, ytong and a lot of other materials) , they can settle down in your house and your facing a very high exterminator bill. Also they grow at an enormous speed, which doesnt make keeping them easier.
The colony can grow big and from the beginning on you will need possibilities to connect other tanks to the nest. Wouldnt know the age estimation for a Pheidole queen, but Lasius queens have been known to live for around 20 years.
Since i assume you're eyes got caught by the "soldiers": you wont find them fighting a lot. Usually, they transport bigger food or stones and bite through larger insects. The real soldiers are the workers. Also, dont be disappointed if the soldiers are smaller then most of your local ants.
To sum it up, you might be better off starting with an easier species. Did you have a look at Camponotus ligniperda or herculeanus? They grow very big and vary in sizes too:)
Greetings,
Necturus

[JimmyVe]

Necturus has a point there, they are not so easy to start with but if you do your best i guess you will succeed. They need more attention than other species. (Temperature and humidity)
This are in deed small ants and masters in escaping. The colony can get very big, a can not put a number on it.

[methuselah]

I think we need a section to state warnings/hazards of keeping a particular ant species, like what Necturus stated regarding Pheidole. Is that the reason why it is classified as Risk Class 3? I can't read German.

By the way, is it not true Camponotus ligniperda is a carpenter ant and will build the nest in wood? I would like a colony to build their nest in the sand/loam. Is hibernation an option (not necessity) to this species?

[miszt]

I've posted a (very bad) babelfish translation of the classes in the english forum Risk Class refers to them not being a native ant and the possibliity of them setting up colony in the uk, which wuld not be good

[JimmyVe]

Camponotus ligniperda likes living in wood, that is true, but you can also keep them in a y-tong nest. Wooden nest are a bit difficult.
This species also have a hibernation period.

[andrea.english1@btinternet.com]

I have two Pheidole pallidula ant colony’s both with workers am I able to merge them to make a super colony or will they just kill eachother? I’ve heard you can