ANTSTORE World of Ants

[Fleur]

Hi there!

Prepare for a long post

My name is Fleur, I'm 21 year old girl from Amsterdam and totally new to antfarms and this forum.

I've spend some time today browsing through the forum and the store. At first I found the Antworks-gel thing on a website for "cool gadgets" and was very interested. As with every (living) thing I purchase, I search for reviews from users/people with some experience. As I always plan ahead: after reading a lot of good reviews on Antworks, I started searching for a place to buy the ants for my future Antworks and ended up here.

After reading your posts on Antworks and the care you put into your ants, I quickly came to the conclusion that Antworks was definately not for me: I care too much about the well-being of all living things to put ants in there. Being a total noob to everything to do with ants, I thought they would be perfectly fine and comfortable living in the antworks habitat at first, hence why I was thinking of purchasing one. As I said: I've changed my mind by now...

Anyway: I now stand before a bit of a dilemma. Reading all your stories got me quite intrigued with antfarming in general. And I am seriously considering buying a good starterkit and giving it a go. I need a bit of advice though:

The Good:
- I have a very small appartment, and having something "living" in my home that is small, is nice. (I have a hamster atm, but that doesn't compare to ants )
- Since I'm not home all the time (sometimes away for a few days), ants would be perfect, since they pretty much look after themselves, except for feeding and just checking up on them every once in a while.
- I love watching things grow, change and build overtime. Ants fascinate me in that they are so intelligent and care for eichother.
- Building things/arranging habitats is totally my thing. (You should see my hamster cage, with all the tubes and extensions).

The Bad:
- To be honest: ants scare the sh*t out of me. If they would ever break loose or touch me; I'd run away screaming. Sorry, I'm still just a girl...
- I don't have a lot of space. If a colony grows too big and takes up over a square meter in my appartment: I won't be able to take care of them anymore, and some would have to either die or be sold (which is hard, I understand selling just workers is pointless). And I don't want to kill them.
- I don't buy any living thing without being 100% informed on every single thing about them. So if I buy ants, I want to know exactly what would be the perfect environment and care for them. And to be honest: I find it hard even on this forum, to find a guide that can tell me step by step what I need to do, why and how.

If I were to buy ants, there are a few things I would need to take into account to my present knowledge:
- Ants I buy, cannot hybernate. I have a 2 room appartment, consisting of a bed/living/kitchen space and bathroom of which I cannot put the temperature under 25 degrees.
- Ants I buy cannot take up more than one square meter of space, simply because I don't have more space here.
- The farm/habitat I buy HAS to be 100% escape-proof, because if they do escape, I will be too scared to catch them.
- The ants should be capable of taking care of themselves for atleast 2 days in a row without me having to do anything, because over the weekends, I'm simply never home.

That's all I can think of at the moment. By the way: I'm not afraid to stick my hand into the habitat to move items, feed the ants, put fresh water in or re-arrange things, as long as they don't touch me: I'm perfectly fine with it.

I would like to hear from you guys if you think ants are something for me to start on and if you have any advice on what species I should take if I were to start a farm. I've come to the conclusion for now that the Messor barbarus would be the species to take, because they don't really hybernate and are a level 1.

Can you guys help me out here?

[miszt]

Messor barbarus do need to hibernate, they just do it at a higher temp than northern species, around 10C

I would be tempted to recomend a tropical Camponotus species, this will cost a little more of course, aswell as taking some extra care, but they are fairly large, so unlikly to escape from any of the farms available from ant store

Most ants look after themselves, 2 days is no problem, as long as they have water, and the tempreture is controled, ie you need a good thermostat, prefrably a Pulse version that maintains a steady tempreture

I'm actually writing a DIY Formicarium guide, which explains step by step how to design various aspects of your setup, and why, based on doing your own research into the species you want to keep, if you can wait a few more weeks, it'll be ready to download

btw, you will have to touch them at some point, as long as they arent a stinging species, you wont have to much problem, most can bite, but you wont notice it really, the worst thing may involve them rubbing you with Formic acid, which can be extremly itchy


1m square is more than enough for most of the species you are likly to consider at this stage

[Fleur]

Thank you for your quick reply!

I guess all ants hybernate then. I will need to find a solution for that. As I said: it's simply impossible to let the temperature go below 20 degrees in here (or I'll be the one freezing to death in my own home instead of the ants )

Money is no object to me when it comes to animals. If I need to spend a bit more to make them feel comfortable; no problem. I am also willing to take some extra care of them if they need it. I'm going to look into your suggestion for the tropical Camponotus species.

I will also consider the thermostat you recommended.

I'm actually reading through the guide on this message board for the Lasius Niger ants at the moment. But I have no problem waiting a few more weeks before you finish the guide. I want to be sure that I can provide them with the best care possible.

Why do I really need to touch them? Do you need to change the soil every once in a while? I've been bitten by some very small, common ants here in my country when I was younger and it hurt like hell. I'm really scared to touch them, even with tweezers.

[miszt]

Not all ants do, most Tropical species dont, with some exceptions, but you are unlikly to come accross them just yet, the Lasius Niger caresheet is definitly a good start

You dont have to touch them, its just something inevitable that will happen lol dont worry, as long as you are carefull you will be fine, just dont choose a species that stings and is aggresive, otherwise you may one day get a shock if they deciede you opening the tank up to feed them is an attempt to get into their nest lol

[miszt]

I have to say, usually I would not recomend tropical species for a starter species, the only reason i do is the lack of oppertunity to hibernate them, remeber of course that you can also hibernate ants in a fridge, as long as it is not a fridge-freezer, as these often suffer from frost which will kill your colony

anyways, a tropical camponotus is probly your best bet, pherhaps Camp substitutus, you will probly have more luck with a colony of around 10+ ants, Queens can be hard to raise

[ford-ute]

Im from australia and ants here dont hybernate they may go into a stage of slower groth but they bont hybernate. It doesnt very often get below 10 degrees here so if you can find a species that is from a tropical area of a more temerate climate (some place it dose not get cold enough to snow) you should not need to lower the room temp. tropical species live in areas of high humidity so if you can find a species that live in an area with similar humidity to where you live you will not have get humidity control for your farm which will keep the cost down.

It is important to remove dead ants from the farm to stop infection and if you have 100 ants crawling all over your farm and you stick your hand in to remove old food or water you will get ants on you at some stage but not all ants have a bite that hurts so that another thing to consider when you pick your species

Different species of ants have different colony sizes some only have a few hundred some have many thousands of and so one more thing to conside but most colonies wont take up more than 1 square meter

but if you are going to keep ants i think you are going to need to over come your fear of them just puick them up one at a time

[miszt]

Some australian ants do hibernate, eg M pavidia, but thats just me bein geeky lol

I'm afraid however I have to disagree re species not needing special care if they are from your local area, the climate inside a building is very diffrent to outside, and needs to be controlled carefully to prevent over heating, mold etc, espcially in a house that is 25C constantly




(btw, seriously 25C all the time? erm...have you managed to miss the Global Warming crisis our planet is going thru atm? S )

[Fleur]

Thank you all for your replies!

I've been looking into the tropical Camponotus species, yet:
- They have a hazard level of 2, which I don't feel too comfortable about
- They are almost all for more experienced people. I didn't even know antfarming excisted three days ago. So I'm afraid I'll be throwing away my money and they'll die because of me being inexperienced.
- Antstore doesn't have any of them in stock and I really have no clue where else to get them but here.
- They need a humidifier (however you write that). I am good with computers, but with other electronics.... oh dear. Are those things easy to set up and control?
- Do they sting or bite painfully? And are they agressive?

So I have my doubts about the tropical species.

I've been thinking of a solution for the whole touch-problem. The only thing I can think of is buying some surgical-gloves (I used those to tame my hamster as well). Only thing is: if they run op the gloves very fast and onto my arms.... I'm scared my reflex is to sweep them off and they might get hurt.

My fridge is a fridge-freezer. Temperature I'm not completely sure about but, I'd have to place a thermometer in there to check it, but I think it's about 7 degrees. I'd have to see how on earth I'd put them in there though, it's quite small

And well, yes, my house is usually around 25 degrees because I'm seriously always cold. In the summer when it's around 22 degrees outside I'm still wearing a coat

[mzfckr]

there are messor spec. from a other offerer, what are very easy to keep and interesting to watch and dont hibernate.

[JimmyVe]

Hello Fleur and welcome,

Nice to see you do you homework first before buying the ants (believe me most people do it the other way around )

Let me say this first; Exotic species are not for beginners that is true. But if you take really good care of them it should work out just fine. Depending on the species you take. For example, Camponotus substitutus ore easier to keep than Pheidologeton diversus.

After reading all of this is would recommend Camponotus substitutus for you, you need a good thermostat. That is all.
You can keep them in a y-tong nest (look at the gallery here at the site for ideas) they like it dry. They grow out pretty big but don't need more than 1m². The ants themselves are about 1-1.5cm big so they don't escape that easy.

And don't be afraid of them getting on your hands, they don't hurt you, they rather walk away from you hand than attacking it.

If you want to see pictures from these ants, you can look here.

[ford-ute]

i get what you say miszt it is diferent outside than inside all i was trying to say if you get ants from aclimate that is lik what your inside climate is like they will need less care than getting and ant from the amazon and trying to keep it in iceland

[mzfckr]

about thermostats, i bought one (about 30eur) in a reptile shop.i tought it was pretty good but the temp difference is 5oC.so choose a good one!

[tail__]

Maybe you should consider keeping ants of some local species and hibernating them in refridgerator. I do so and this is really easy. You won't need extra heating, because 25C will be good for them. And you can catch a free queen if you are afraid of wasting money, and let them go free if you decide you don't want them anymore.

And try to do something with this touch fear I have a strange feeling that ants, other insects and spiders really love to walk on people who hate this, and ignore those who don't care. It's probably an example of Murphy's laws. Try to think of them as they were cats or something, only smaller

[Fleur]

@JimmyVe:

I've looked into the Camponotus substitutus. I like the look of the black Messor barbarus better. But hey, beauty is only skin-deep

I see they are not available at the Antstore. So again: that is an issue since I don't have the slightest clue where else to get them but here. And I will have to start with a queen and a few workers because I know I'd be hopeless without them, so buying some from you guys without a queen would not be a good idea I think.

@ Tail__: The ants that live here naturally are really small. Too small if you ask me. They are the kind that live in between pavements and sidewalks. I have little interest in those to be honest. But thank you for the suggestion. How much space do your ants take up in your fridge? My fridge is really small. Do you put them in a container of some kind or do you just put the entire farm in there?

@mzfckr: It seems Antstore doesn't sell to the other offerer. Do you know any shop that ships them to the Netherlands? Where can I get more information on their care?

[miszt]

You will still need to drop the tempreture graduly for 6-8 weeks before putting them in the fridge, which is why i didnt suggest that to you before as this doesnt seem like it will be possible for you, and yep you put the whole setup in the fridge, Messor are small ants, also M barbarus require hibernation, there are some tropical species of Messor tho that may be worth looking into, and they have interesting behaviour, in that they setup 'bread farms' where they chew up seeds to make 'ant bread'