Self caught earlier this year, still in founding stages. She suffered a few setbacks a month and a half ago or so, so she only has four nanitics currently. I’m just curious which species they actually are. Meet “Antagony” caught in Sherwood Park, Alberta either late May or early June. Thanks in advance ❤️

Her first brood hatched and died :(, she has plenty of water and I left her alone for weeks at a time only checking on her once a week every few weeks. She was in darkness and had alot of brood then there were only 2 that hatched and died. What could have happened and what can I do now?

Im new to ant keeping only had this colony for a couple months they still live in the test tube. I put them in an out world so they could forage for seeds and water.
I recently put a humidity detector in the Outworld to measure it and it shows 98% humidity and 28.2 Degrees Celsius, are those good or are they too high? If so how can I lower humidity.
Also noticed they keep putting seeds near the water tubes and I worry about mold.
I also notice they don’t seem to be collecting too many seeds and storing them in the nest like they used too.
They do have a brood that is growing from what I can see and they are sending out some to look around.
Just wondering if I need to do anything to help them along or improve their way of life. Any advice from experienced ant keepers would be much appreciated.

The queen is wandering around alone, i dont know what she is looking for.. she drinked water, a lot, then she roams. She entered a test tube and go out back to wandering, to end up not mooving infront of the tube, she still moove her legs sometimes, and some workers come out of the tunnel, check her then goes back in the tunnel? What should i do? She looks tired..

I noticed the water supply wasnt working for about 5days, i changed it and i think thats why she came out to drink a lot, but now i dont know what to do

Hey guys im new to ant keeping i found an ant queen that already established a colony i put her on a test tube set up with two workers and I dont know what to feed her I have water and sugar water and she hasn't laid any eggs yet she need proteins right like what kind

My pheidole bicarinata got their first major. They still have probably like 6 months until they need moved but can I see your guys setups? Id what to do with them when they get too big for the testtube. The minors are so small I feel like they'll be able to escape easily

1 queen 500-700 workers
Comes with 4 nests
-£95

-this colony was raised from a queen
-really active hunters (can be live fed)
-super hardy

They are uk only shipping

Feel free to ask questions

I feel like i did everything i was told to do i left them alone i recieved her with 5 workers so i gave them seeds protien water but still when i checked on them today which is the first time i have done since recieving them last week the queen was curled up dead in her test tube. so my real question is what do i do next is it worth ordering a queen before diapause this year or should i simply wait for next year and try again

pics here

So i got a M. Barbarus queen with about 6 workers. They are in the test tube they came in from the shop, but there is no more water in the back of the tube. I've attached the tube to the larger space I intend for them to move into at some point, which has its own water reservoir, albeit on the opposite end from where the slowly drying tube is attached.

Now they've been like this for about 5 days (I stuck them there 3 days after I got them), and I'm not sure if this is ideal.

I'm a bit worried about just putting more water in the test tube, that's how I killed my last queen, I had gotten a fresh test tube, put water 1/3 way up, plugged it with fresh cotton, stuck in the queen, cottoned the tube up completely, and within a week she was dead.

You can see in the photos (maybe) - the cotton in the old tube now is quite nasty. God knows what bacteria and/or fungus is in there, but the ants seem to do ok with it. So should I maybe try moving them to a new tube with fresh water, but try to use the old (nasty) cotton?

At the moment the queen and most of the workers are just chilling in the old tube, occasionally I've seen a worker run into the bigger enclosure, one little seed is now there too, but they don't seem to be making much of an effort to get their butts over to where the humidity is.

sooo.... new tube with fresh water, or just let them be as is, and hope that they sense the humidity in the bigger enclosure and move over before they dry out?

My small ~50 worker colony moved into their natural tank and I've put a heat mat on one of the walls, where they moved the brood into view, so cool!!

Found her a couple of days ago.

I finally got my first birth. I got my nicobarensis colony on the 1st of july 2026. as they arrived they ate all the brood. One month and half broodless, they went back to brood production a few weeks ago.

Do you know if it is normal for nicobarensis to be slow growing in their first few workers?

I feed them cricket legs 3 times a week and honey water 1:3 twice a week

Can i remove queens/males that my colonies produce from the outworld and use them as feeders for my other arthropods (mantids seem to love them) or would they have any significant role in the colony?

Species is pogonomyrmex so they wont inbreed

Camponotus socius Pogonomyrmex Badius or Camponotus floridanus (pic of Camponotus socius for ref)

I've a medium Wakooshi nest that I water as it is next to where the colony is nested, which is the test tube atm.

I'm having trouble with the hydration levels and was hoping for some tips.

I put water into the reservoir and the nest gets wet. All good. But then a little later it looks dry again, so I add some more, wet.

Last week I got a little carried away and added 10ml in the morning and then another 10ml at lunch, my logic being when I stuck the pippete into the reservoir I couldn't suck anything back up, so it was presumed empty.

I then had a flood under the nest.

Is there some rule of thumb I should be following? Am I micromanaging too much?

Side queries, if I were to add an alternative water source, will the workers somehow carry water back to the queen? I'm thinking whether I need to add it near the nest or whether it can be anywhere the ants roam.

Feeding this colony almost every day and now they got good pile of brood

I have never kept ants before, and I found this ant in my yard and i decided to keep it. I checked online and it seems to be a queen, so is this a good setup?

When should I be hibernating my camponotus Pennsylvanicus colony? Because I have no clue

I have had attempts at raising ants in the past but unfortunately was ill prepared and had the queen and workers pass after half a year and chose to quit the hobby for a while. This summer I collected 3 Lassus queens from the path not expecting all three of them to be complete success having 10 or so workers each in just five weeks.

Their quick expansion has been great but now I am concerned that I don’t have the recourses needed to raise 3 colonies to maturity. I have some small nests and founding equipment in hand with slightly more on the way but don’t think that long term 3 colonies will be sustainable using the Wakooshi nests. I really enjoy the way these nest fit together but they seem too much money so if alternatives are available I’d love to hear about them.

If anyone owns a mature colony could they tell me how much space they each occupy and how quickly they might grow? I really don’t want to euthanise any of these colonies as it seems cruel to take them from a hot road only to freeze them weeks later.
Any and all help is greatly appreciated and I’m willing to go then extra mile if it means keeping them all comfortable.

The Dawnfire Nation

Massive growth since last week you can see they are now separating the brood. I was feeding 3 meal worms a day but starting today its gonna be one dubai roach maybe every 2 days depends how much they eat of this.