ANTSTORE World of Ants

[Sniengan Doo]

Hello everyone.

I am a science technician at our local college. One of the lecturers has asked if we might start an ant colony and its my job to get it done!

I think its a great idea and I want to find out as much as I can before we go ahead.

questions:

What would be the best housing?

How do you feed the ants, and in the artifical home that they have, how is this done (see, a total beginner)

Also, assuming the colony goes to plan and reproduces.... what happens should the colony become over crowded? Ive seen wild ants migrate from their colony via flight.... Could this happen in an artifical home provided, and if it does.... what is the best approach to deal with this??

As much advice as possible please.... I have lots of time to learn first, then make the step to starting a colony in the laboratory.

Oh....


How often is their enviroment cleaned? For example, when I take a fortnights holiday, what has to be done to ensure the colony cope alone for 2 weeks?



Many thanks


Mary

[Dr.House]

I am a science technician at our local college

I think you have researched quite much in your life. I suggest you start with reading through postings in this Forum. After 2 or 3 days, if there any questions left, feel free to ask.

greetings and welcome on board.

[Kiam]

Yes and do you know what species you'd be interested in ?

[JimmyVe]

Yes and do you know what species you'd be interested in ?

That would be a start, if you know which species you would like to keep we can tell you what is the best way to keep them and what is the best nest to keep them in.

[Varban]

... and what is the best nest to keep them in.

Hehe I am pretty sure no matter what species he pics you will recomend y-tong

[Dr.House]

@Varban: He wants Oecophylla smaragdina

[mpir]

@Sniengan Doo

I think that what everybody here is trying to tell you is that your question is way to general. It's like as if you would go to some car forum and ask: "I'm buying a new car, which one should I get and how do I take care of it? Does it burn a lot of gas?"
You see my point? So without sarcasm I recomend you that you look at some of the pictures of the species, see what you like, read something about them. Decide on something and then ask some more questions.

There is no such thing as ideal and care-free ants. They all need some care if they are kept in "artificial home". Some are smaller, some bigger, some colonies grow fast some really slow, some need special enviroment and some don't.

And one more advice... don't leave ants unattended for a fortnight. Lack of humidity will kill them for sure.

[JimmyVe]

... and what is the best nest to keep them in.

Hehe I am pretty sure no matter what species he pics you will recomend y-tong

probably. hehe. I still think it is the best material for a farm (for most species)

[Uncletommy]

Id like to suggest simply Lasius niger, the common black ant native to uk and other parts or Europe. It's a tough little bugger and relatively simple to get them to survive and reproduce. I bought one mid July and she now has about 10 children, they still live in her test tube that she came in but yesterday my proper ant farm arrived so they will be going into that soon. I bought the starter set (glass ant farm and a small forraging area attached via clear tubing). As im at uni and just starting out on my ant keeping journey, id definatly reccomend these. But then again if you are looking for something more 'exciting' then go for a more exotic species ......but if you're new then don't cos they will probably just die.....to put it bluntly. Ahh well fire some questions back cos i am in the same boat as you pretty much and have done a fair bit of reading on these things.

Tom