ANTSTORE World of Ants

[antman1994]

Hello.

Ants have always facinated me. I used to google random stuff about ants just to read up about them, I look around on this site just because they interest me so much. The wierd thing is, until this age, I never though of actually keeping ants in my own house or in an ant farm or something. This christmas, I asked my parents to get me some kind of thing. They got me an uncle milton ant farm.

Now don't laugh.

I want to get that set up, and then I can decide if I want to go on to bigger ant colonies and other stuff because I don't want to go spending loads of money and then not like looking after them and such. I know they are cheap but I only get £5 of my parents a week!


I was looking around and it seems you sell ant queens with the colonies. Wow, I was stupid, I should have looked around more. Im considering the lasius niger, because im pretty sure i can shove them in a tank and voila-I have a colony. (I'll be nicer than that though.) I thought transportation of queens was illegal - well, thats what I read up. Seems that is only the case in the states?

I guess I could spent about £30-£40 on a tank. Of course, that translates into a bit more euros. I would be able to house a 30cm high by about a 60cm length and a width of about 20-30cm. (Im not sure of this cause im just looking at my shelf and guessing.) Could anyone reccomend a tank of that size that i could use for a lasius niger colony, and can anyone confirm that I can buy a fertilized queen with worker ants at any time of the year, at least in january?






Oh yeah, and nice to meet you all

[tail__]

I hope you mean classic UM ant farm, with sand or loam? This type of farm can be suitable for a real colony, but only for small one. Lasius niger isn't best choice, because their colonies grow quite fast and they need some larger area. However, you can keep them there for a year or two, maybe a bit more, but they will need more space for foraging. They are active, territorial ants and they like to have some own land outside nest. You can keep the UM farm as a nest and connect it to an outside arena, e.g. through a plastic pipe. I think Leptothorax/Temnothorax colony can live very well in Uncle Milton's farm for many years, their colonies are always small. Underground ants like Lasius flavus or Solenopsis fugax can also be happy without any outside area.

In summer, when the weather is good, the nuptial flights can occur even every day, as new alates are readied during whole mating season. The air should be warm and humid, the best days are first sunny day after a week of rain, when the water from wet soil evaporates, or a few hours before thunderstorm.

If you want some exotic you can always buy a colony here in Antstore.

[antman1994]

I hope you mean classic UM ant farm, with sand or loam?

IYeah, I got some kind of sand mixture with it.

I need a question desperatley answering:

I am going to buy a queen and some workers (lasius niger from AntStore) tomorrow 100% because my mom promised if I let her go on guitar hero

When I get them, will they be in hibernation and will I need them to be put in hibernation and for how long? I mean, the caresheet says they must do it for 6 weeks but I don't have a way of knowing if and how long they have already been hibernating with AntStore.

Now.

If someone tell me that they need to hibernate, then I will put them in the fridge until whenever I need to, but if I don't then can someone tell me which is better to leave it in the test tube or put it in the UM Farm? My parents want me to use the UM Farm because otherwise its a waste of £20 but it dosen't really bother me and alot of people say that it's best to leave them in the test tube.

Can someone elighten me on hibernating and how long they have been hibernating at AntStore and such

[highered]

Antstore do hibernate their ants that need it, but I think the only way you're going to find out exactly how long specific species have been on it is to email the owner Martin S. You would only ever put them in the fridge to slow them down while you do something like transfer them into different containers as you don't want them running everywhere. They hibernate at a lower temperature then what they are normally kept at and it should be about 10 C, so just put it in a cool room that stays cool all the time. I have found that my bathroom stays constantly cold so I use that. How long in total to hibernate could be at least a month to maybe 3 months.It doesnt' matter whether you keep them in the tube or transter to the ant farm, you are just able to see the colony better with no substrate in the way. Don't forget to be careful not to over water the soil/sand though. I advise you think carefully about what species you want, for example, Myrmica rubra and Laisus flavus can all be kept in similar conditions and once you have Lasius niger you may well decide you want some more slightly different ants.

[antman1994]

Ok

So we were about to buy them and it got to the point where it said in total it was twenty euros in total.

Now that started off saying it was about the equivalent to £1.50

Im not paying £18 for four ants, an ant queen and some cotton wool with water in a test tube which have a chance of dying anyway. What the hell? They're the most common ants in the world for gods sake...

[highered]

Antstore do guarantee live arrival, but the postage costs is high, about £15. There are English ant shops, I think its ok to mention them, Antsore is so good they don't mind the advertising of competition, the true sign of greatness. Anyway its Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar and Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar

[SteveUK28]

Antman.. to the forum

OK firstly.. Antstore charge quite high postage prices, well the courier does. So just buying one ant colony at a time is not a good idea. There are other places in the UK that sell colonys and you can find them if you search in google. However i think your better off buying from someone here in the forum.. Most people collect queens in the summer and might have 1 left you could buy from them fairly cheap. I may even have one myself but not 100% sure of that.

Hibernation for Lasius niger should be a good 3 -4 months.. My ants usualy go in Novemeber time and i bring them out in Febuary.. maybe even March... Depending on outside tempreture. As your going to be gettin a small colony i would keep them in the test tube they arrive in, untill they start growing when they come out of hibernation. You can easily keep Lasius niger in a test tube untill they have like 50 workers. So they can keep for a year in there.

If there is anything else you want to know then please feel free to ask.. or even search around the site.. everything you need to know is here really!

[Daint]

I know they have high postage costs and i was pretty mad on it but after some talk with a guy on a another forum i could buy his colony for only 2,1 £ really cheap!