ANTSTORE World of Ants

[TheWoolman]

I want to get a colony of Pheidole cause I love the fact they have soldiers. But I live in the UK where it's is 19-21 degrees room temperature. Is it possible to have a thriving colony without extra heating?

[yomchi86]

Hi - Pheidole pallidula are awesome aren't they! I love my colony of them and I think they are actually my favorite ant. Yes they are small but they are full of character. I've always had a small heat mat attached to the nest to speed up brood development. I think that room temp would be ok but overnight it does drop colder. I bought a heat mat off ebay for under £10 for them and they seem to love it. Watch the humidity with them though, too dry and they wont like it I've found out. Good luck

[Catman1976]

Hi Yomchi86,

Where abouts do you place the mat? I would like to use a mat on my Messor Ytong, but im concerned it will get too hot. Do you used a thermotate?

[yomchi86]

Sorry for the late response, I put my 4 watt Heat mat just against the corner of the fantastic. The idea is that when the colony starts to dig, they can decide how warm they want to be by digging closer to the mat. No thermometer in my tank, i'm more concerned with humidity as I found that in a sand/loam nest, prolongued periods of low humidity caused workers to die off. I've been keeping it at between 50% & 60% and they are thriving. 2 weeks away with parents following instructions I left and where there was about 7 workers foreging in the arena, there are now about 25. The queen has obviously been laying lots of eggs which is great!

[yomchi86]

The above post is about my Pheidole, the Messor I have in ytong have a Heat mat in the top left hand side, stuck to the ytong. Again, the colony will move where they like and where the best tempereture is. Hope that helps.