ANTSTORE World of Ants

[ChetuNat]

Im curious about the natural habitat of Polyrhachis dives, like the plants in the area and the soil mixture in which the plants grow, so could you please tell me these things, because Im planning on a terrarium, as close to their natural habitat as possible.

Sorry if there are some typos

-ChetuNat

[miszt]

They are very common in Israel, have u tried running a google image search? ( Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar ) always a good place to start when trying to work out enviroments for ants

I keep these myself, very nice ants, theres some pics in the store aswell which may give you some ideas

[JimmyVe]

Hello ChetuNat and welcome,

As soil mixture you can take sand/loam. Ore use mould ground like you can find here,
http://www.antstore.net/shop/index.php/ ... lch-litter
That would be perfect to put the plant in.

I don't keep this species myself but i think miszt can help you out perfect.
Good luck.

Btw: is this the first species you are keeping ?

[miszt]

good question jimmyve, these are fairly easy, but certianly not the best to start with, due to the tempreture requirments, it takes a little experience to keep the terrarium stable, however if you already have experience with tarrariums, u shuldnt have any problem with these guys

As Jimmy said to, a mulch mix, or even a dried moss mix is good, as they use these things to weave into their nests, they dont need any depth to go down to, so just an inch or so in the bottom is fine, and maybe a couple of pieces of bark, or fake plants for them to weave there nest between....

however if you are buying a colony of any size, it will come with a nest already, so you can just put that in

[Gubbtjuven]

I got a colony of this spiecy about a week ago, they realy are cool. But my ones did not have a nest when they arrived

I have another question. I keep mine in an terrarium, and on the day the lamp heats the terrarium to about 26 degres celsius, but on the night the temperature drops to about 21 degres Do you think i could keep them like this or should I get some other sort of heatsource?

[JimmyVe]

As for as i know these temperatures would do just fine. (maybe a little bit higher is possible )

[miszt]

they will be fine at that temp although they are 'exotic' they prefer it a little cooler and drier than most popular species


dont worry that they dont have a nest they will make one for themselves soon enough, and its great to watch them do it aswell!

[ChetuNat]

I have a little colony of these ants at this moment, but a majority of the workers died due to too low temperature (I think), so Im thinking about bying a colony with 1-10 Queens & 1000+ ants from Antstore. Does the big size of the colony set any special requirements, (not the terrarium size, I have already thought about that) I have also bought heating mats (is that the right word?) and a spot lamp, in order to keep to temperature right.

Edit Antstore - post from 21:06
Please use the edit-function - Thanks!

Btw: is this the first species you are keeping ?

No, I have kept these species: Lasius niger, Myrmica sp, Camponotus herculeanus, Polyrhachis dives, Lasius flavus and another Myrmica species.

[miszt]

I have a little colony of these ants at this moment, but a majority of the workers died due to too low temperature (I think), so Im thinking about bying a colony with 1-10 Queens & 1000+ ants from Antstore. Does the big size of the colony set any special requirements, (not the terrarium size, I have already thought about that) I have also bought heating mats (is that the right word?) and a spot lamp, in order to keep to temperature right.

This is not the right way to go about it ChetuNat, if you cant get a small colony to do well, u will have little hope with a big one!

Also the burden of looking after a colony that size is HUGE.

Please get a bit more experience maybe post up some info on your setup, temp/humidity etc, what are you feeding them? how much? how regular? etc any info you can think of, and then we'll see if we can help u out I find it unlikly that cold killed them, they are hardy ants, and unless we are talking about temps 10-15C or lower for a very long time, I cant see that being the cause

[ChetuNat]

Ok, well I'll have to search for the reason somewhere else then...But I will definedly re-consider the size of the colony (Im not sure is that writen correctly) Since you guys are a lot more experienced than me, I will follow your advice without a doubt, I'll get more experience and then try again..There's no reason to buy expensive ants and just killing them because of the wrong kind of tretment, besides I've still got a small colony of these ants (about 2 queens & 15+ workers) so I'll first try to save this colony anyway. I quess I'll stick with European species then

I think there are lots of typos

[miszt]

they are pretty hardy ChetuNat...heres the basics of how I look after myne...

Main tank with nest, heat mat, thermostat set to 26C, I achieve 40-60% humidity, just by spraying a little every day

I feed them chicken, beef, insects of all kinds, honey, sugar water and carbohydrates

Most importantly, as the tank is fairly dry, they have allot of fresh pure water available

Dont worry, I'm sure you'll be able to bring them back, they arnt very hard to look after....if u have any questions, or ideas what mite be going wrong...we'll be happy to help! Dont want to see u loose your colony!

What are they in at the moment? test-tube or ?

[ChetuNat]

At this moment they are in a test-tube, but Im planning on a small terrarium for them in the near future. I'll tell you if I come up with any ideas why my colony failed.

Oh, and there was a typo in my previous post, it should have been 1-10 queens & 100+ workers, not 1000+

[Gubbtjuven]

Thanks for the great answers

And good luck ChetuNat with yours

[SNiDE]

Sorry to bring up an old thread, but I have this species and they are being fussy with regards to food other than protein- what carbs do you feed them Miszt? Like bread/pasta? Cheers!

[paulhdear]

Aha! Strange coincidence - I just posted a question on food preferences of this species. Any answers appreciated!