ANTSTORE World of Ants

[Hazuki]

ive read on the ant store info about this ant psecies that it likes to house in sand or earth. my question is when they mean sand can i use the sand they have in sand boxes i dont want to use earth since it will mess up the glass plate when wet and block my view. my other question is during nuptial flight will queens and males of same colony mate?

[miszt]

if you use Sand, you will need a Sand/Loam mix, otherwise it wont stick together, some ants are insectus, none of the camponutus are as far as i know

[JimmyVe]

Hi Hazuki and welcome,

Sand/loam is okay to make a nest, but you can not look into it if you want, that is why i prefer a y-tong nest, most species like it.

[Hazuki]

im currently making a 2 plate formicarium thats 30x119 cm for them (very long) and im thinking if i should make y-tong or soil i dont really like y-tong since it looks so unatural and u cant study the digging habits T_T and im going to make the space between the plates 10mm the size of the queen just enough for the ants to turn XD so they dig close to the glass. my ants are going to arrive probably tomorrow or after tomorrow im going to keep them warm so they dont hybernate too early. hope im making the right decisions -_-#

[Hazuki]

can anyone give me a link about ant export import rules in germany or europe in general because i want my brother in philippines to send me a camponotus gigas ant queen i remember finding alot of them there and ive even seen a nuptial flight of a tree dwelling weaver ant whose queens were about 2.5 cm scary @_@

[JimmyVe]

If you make the farm so small you should be able to see some of the rooms but the ants will use the sand to make it dark, they probably going to stick it to the glass.
But it is worth a try, place some pictures if you finished it.

In Europe there are not really import rules, it is illegal to let species from an other country free but as for as i know you may import them.

Camponotus gigas Very nice ants, but hard to keep, if you have more than one queen, I'm always interested.