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Gonna bump this need thread saying that I am in the middle of planning an ant farm myself. I'm thinking about using the plan from the OP in the older 2007 thread, with the carved wood slabs plus plexiglass held down by rubber bands, each connected by a series of tubes. I have a few questions as well though. I'm not very familiar with ant biology and am eagerly trying to read up as much as I can. I live in the metro area of Minnesota, A snowy hellscape for 6 months of the year and moderate humid weather during the warmer months, local ecology is just wet eastern deciduous forest, I'm assuming carpenter ants will be the most common I'll find across my driveway? What traits and where can I look if I want ants (and a queen) that will last long in my wooden fortresses? What is a decent way to deal with humidity? I've read about the damp paper cloth option, is there any others? I'm not a big fan of just tearing apart soggy trees, I'm a big wuss when it comes to dealing with creepy-crawlies and I wouldn't want some man eating spider to devour my face so I've read that there's other options, such as where I can dig around a small colony and pour water into the 'moat', forcing them out towards the top, but I'd imagine this only brings out the queen in certain species and can cause some of them to drown. Any input about this? And for when I finally get the moment to scoop them up, is there any tools that are better than others, like are there any containers or basters that can catch them and hold them without murdering the ants before they arrive in their new home? I feel like an idiot, but I really don't want my first colony to die out within two days.  edit: All of the ants near my home are so tiny, I'm never going to find those big black plump ones I see all over the internet. 
Imapanda fucked around with this message at 18:00 on Aug 11, 2012 |
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Aug 9, 2012 13:31
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So my queen has 9 little larvae, and my first worker just popped out of nowhere. At least it looks like a worker, it's just a shriveled up not-moving white ant babby. It's possible that it could be just spinning its cocoon.  Would it be alright for the queens and larvae's health to be out in the open in my bedrooms lights during the day? I've been keeping a dark cloth on her test tube but I can't stop looking at her. It's exciting, I want to see the colony come to life!
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Jul 15, 2013 05:35
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It wasn't even pupa. It was just 3 dried up shriveled dead eggs tangled in a bundle of dirty cotton. I thought the cotton tendrils were its body parts or something. On a brighter note though, she layed 3 eggs last night. Her first new bundle in 2 weeks.
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Jul 15, 2013 20:44
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Why do I have both the 'fuzzy white cocoon thing with dot on one end' pupa and the 'tiny white shriveled-up ant' pupa? I guess I should expect this, but I don't really know the life process of the brood that well.. Just cleaning and keeping a colony alive.
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Jul 28, 2013 01:30
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Finally just got my first worker today. Two or three more should be coming within the next week as well. When should I begin thinking about migrating the test tube into a larger terrarium? Also, when should I begin feeding the colony and with what? I've read that honey works well, but my test tube really isn't much of a test tube, it's some plastic toothbrush container, so cleaning it and feeding the ants might be more difficult for me.
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Aug 3, 2013 08:56
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Fed my queen and her worker a grape, which is also their first fed meal. holy poo poo they're digging into it. Their gasters are so full they look like they're gonna pop.  edit: There goes worker #2 appearing out of nowhere in the middle of the night. 
Imapanda fucked around with this message at 08:39 on Aug 6, 2013 |
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Aug 5, 2013 04:05
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-woops double post-
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Aug 6, 2013 08:38
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I have two colonies going right now as well. I have the one I found in June, she only has 3 workers and about 15 larvae. There was another worker but I guess that worker felt like he wanted to tunnel into the wet side of the test tube and drown herself. The larvae seemed to have stopped growing, is that just them beginning to experience hibernation until spring? They've been basically the same size for like a month now, which wasn't the case for the nanitics. I've only been feeding my ants grapes and apples, which they absolutely devour. I've looked up some additional info on that antfarm yuku forums though and it seems like it would be a good idea to feed them other insects as well? I tried doing this earlier in the fall with a ladybug and they were freaking the hell out, doing the opposite of eating it by either lunging at it or running from it (I wade sure it was dead too). I'm afraid if I introduce them to another bug to eat they'll just freak out and the queen will get stressed out. I live in Minnesota so finding insects other than indoor spiders during the winter months could be tough. Ants are tight, and it's fun to just gawp at them and watch their behavior. I've noticed that my biggest worker guards the eggs and sticks by the queen, the smallest one gathers the fruitjuices to puke into her moms mouth, and the middle-child kind of does her own thing running around and occasionally feeding the queen too. As for the other queen, I caught her last week, she's smaller than the other queen and laid 2 tiny specks of eggs so far. But she's coping with her new home much easier than my first queen did. Imapanda fucked around with this message at 09:31 on Oct 13, 2013 |
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Oct 13, 2013 09:25
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I'm pretty sure exporting ants from the US is illegal in some way. I remember there's a website hosted somewhere in europe that ships ant queens though. If you don't have a queen now it'd be best to wait until spring comes around so you could catch your own queens. You'll always find fertilized queens running along the sidewalks in suburban areas. Or you could check out that antfarm yuku forums to see if there's an enthusiast in your area who has spare queens, it's not uncommon for the people on that website to own over a dozen queens.
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Oct 27, 2013 18:56
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Winter time hibernation sucks. I want these larvae to grow, damnit.  I just know my queen and her 3 workers are going to get tired of all the fruit I'm feeding them one of these months and gobble up all the sleeping young. Should I even have to worry about feeding them as much during hibernation? I sort of get paranoid about them starving every time a chunk of fruit I feed them dries up.
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Oct 30, 2013 20:57
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I'm pretty sure that's the queen. Soldiers generally look like larger worker ants but with an abnormally large head.
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Nov 20, 2013 23:19
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An enormous colony came out of nowhere recently in my kitchen but I have no idea why a queen would suddenly begin popping out dozens of new workers in the middle of winter in Minnesota of all places. They're coming from under the refrigerator and I sort of want to move it out of the way to see if I can find a queen or at least eliminate them from potentially getting into our foods. Could more food/protein or more heat potentially shorten their hibernation? I'm so excited for spring. I found my queen late in the fall so she didn't really have too much of an opportunity to make many nanitics, there's only 3 workers and I'm finding myself checking up on them so much that I've even given them names and can tell which one is which. (the runt is missing one of her antennas, so she's always this confused little rascal )
Imapanda fucked around with this message at 00:52 on Jan 15, 2014 |
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Jan 15, 2014 00:47
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I believe my queen is a Camponotus Noveboracensis. This is a picture I took shortly after I caught her last June.  I lover her species. They're so big and I'm glad I managed to run into her. Is feeding my ants harvestmen spiders safe? They're the only other insect that I can really hunt for in bulk right now. Imapanda fucked around with this message at 07:04 on Jan 20, 2014 |
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Jan 20, 2014 04:36
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I meant dead harvestman spiders. I fed my ants a mixture of honey, orange juice, and protein powder the other day and now they wont stop pissing (or is that vomit) all over their test tube. 
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Jan 31, 2014 15:12
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Finally hibernation is done and the egg-laying and pupae-developing has resumed. A black swathe of mold seems grow on the wet cotton piece every shortly after I clean my ants test tubes. I have to do this like every 2 weeks and I'm beginning to question if it's even worth cleaning. Their health doesn't seem to suffer with a little bit of mold. I'm just worried about mites arriving again.
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Feb 25, 2014 02:32
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2/3rds of my 9 ants died this week after I switched them into a Tarheel growth chamber from a test tube setup. And this is the smallest amount of eggs I've seen her with. Cmon little fellas. I feed you guys your first meals of meat (waxworms) and give you a new home and this is how you react to me. They didn't seem too crazy about the waxworms though. They maybe take a couple little sips from its guts and then go to sleep or something. If I feed them an apple they literally get so fat that their butts are basically transparent.
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Apr 13, 2014 20:21
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Seriously, your best bet is to just go outside on long walks on nice days, stare at the sidewalk, and grab the most suitable queen you can find. If you really want that species though just go to that Yuku ant farm forum and ask around. Queens are actually everywhere when you become good at noticing the differences between the workers and the queen. Anyways, the other day I was biking home from work and saw this  ant battle. If you look closely you can probably see soldiers with the big heads chomping on some poor confused worker or something.
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May 21, 2014 20:47
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Some of my ants have been going missing. This isn't too big of a deal to me because I have 8 other workers (2 went gone). A friend wanted to see my colony after I told him I have my own farm. I took a picture for him and what do I see? Well, look around the top right:  See it? decapitated ant head I feed them a ton, they're full of cherry juice right now yet they still cannibalize on eachother. I'm a bad ant-parent arent I?
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Jun 19, 2014 06:01
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I got the growth chamber with a small screened opening on the top. I dont heat them though. Also, I only water their water tower thing once it gets dry, nothing else. I should try adding moisture though like you to see how they react. You though should try using less water if yours isn't very ventilated, I'm assuming the condensation is only building up because of the heating and nowhere else for the water to evaporate to.
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Jun 21, 2014 10:20
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My queen from a year back is down to 2 workers and around 8 eggs. She hasn't laid any new eggs in months. I might consider moving her back into a test tube setup again so she can get back on her feet. I'm really nervous the 2 workers will die and the queen herself will die after she has nobody to feed her. I hope she isn't that lazy.
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Sep 8, 2014 22:44
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