ANTSTORE World of Ants

[delete-14751]

I to have a flat. lol

[NobleK]

I do have a refrigerator and have read in some of the other threads that some people actually use this method. But as gabranth points out, the farm for the Camponotos ligniperda needs to be quite large. Even if I could fit it inside our fridge it would take up half the space. And frankly, I doubt that my wife would appreciate having a ant farm together with our food

So it looks like I will have to wait until we find another place with some better hibernation conditions Unless some of you can suggest a good alternative species which either doesn’t hibernate or does so at a higher temperature. They should preferably be large, and please keep in mind that I am a beginner, so it should be something that is easy to keep.

And thanks for all the replies so far.

[miszt]

Tropical species are your only real option if u have no way to hibernate them at all

Why do you need such a large setup for ligniperda? They will easily fit for a several years in a ytong thats 30x20cm you dont need to put the basin in the fridge as they wont forgage

however, the biggest problem is cooling them down slowly, so they can prepare for hibernation and build up their fat reserves

[kashmir79]

Camponotus Ligniperda/herculaenus are the biggest i think

their queens are massive, about 16mm, majors can be 15mm too, workers about 8- 12 mm

majors have heads of the queen, and a chunky thorax.

[JimmyVe]

Hello NobleK and welcome to the forum (and to ant keeping )

Like Miszt said, if you buy a small colony they can easily fit in a small farm for a few years, these species grow very slow. So if you only have a farm that is about 30-20 that could go into your fridge. The out world don't need to be very large, to start off it is just enough if you can place food in there, when the colony is bigger it would be handy if the out world is also bigger.

[NobleK]

Thank you for all the replies. I’ve decided to wait with the Camponotus Ligniperda until we move to a larger home where I will be able to provide them all the needed conditions, especially when it comes to hibernation. Putting them in our (only) fridge is not really an option since, A there is not that much room, and B my wife is not as enthusiastic about ants as I am and she most definitely would not approve of this
So I am putting my antkeeping plans on standby for a while, unless there is a suitable alternative. miszt has mentioned choosing a tropical specie, which definitely sounds interesting. However, “tropical” also sounds somewhat exotic and advanced, so I fear that it may be too much for a beginner like me. Is there a tropical specie which is easy to handle and does not require too much care/knowledge/equipment. I am not interesting in acquiring a colony and finding out that I am not able to provide the little guys (or gals really ) with the conditions they need.

Thanx in advance!

[JimmyVe]

Well there are some exotic species that are not really hard to keep, still it would be better if you have some experience with keeping ants.
Exotic species need extra heating and a bit more care than European ants.
Maybe you can read a bit about them and see if you like all of the things (like heating and stuff). Take a look at a few Exotic Camponotus species. (you can use the Search engine here at Antstore).