Ant farm

[yen_saw]

My little ant farm, a new interest I share with my son. Ant is Componatus sp.

Queen with worker ants in one of the chambers

Ant has amazing social network. Didn't take the ant to establish in the new 'home'.

 

[ShieldMantid1997]

Thats pretty cool, did you make it yourself?

 

[yen_saw]

Thats pretty cool, did you make it yourself?

I wished I could make it myself. I bought it from a friend in HOng Kong who ordered them from China. The ant housing cost me less than $20, also and came with tweezer, insect barrier, connecting tube, and pipette.I can only 'build' something simple... like the housing for this elongated twig ant (Pseudomyrmex gracilis).

The larger ant with 'thicker' thorax and swollen abdomen is the queen.

 

[ismart]

Wow! Nice colonies you have going Yen. If possible in the future if you should order anymore of those ant farms from China. Please keep me in mind! They are awesome!

 

[rs4guy]

Thats an awesome ant farm. I want to do something similar to that, but in a larger scale, with a leaf cutting species. I like the 2 chamber approach, very similar to what I had in mind. Thanks for sharing!

 

[yen_saw]

Wow! Nice colonies you have going Yen. If possible in the future if you should order anymore of those ant farms from China. Please keep me in mind! They are awesome!

Thanks Paul. Sure i am going to order more ant housing. I didn't do the conversion rate correctly the first time. The housing in the picture cost me only about $11. Which is not encouraging for me to build my own. I will let you know more on the email. They are many different type of ant farm available. I am going to use the large version for the harvester ant (Pogonomyrmex barbatus).

Thats an awesome ant farm. I want to do something similar to that, but in a larger scale, with a leaf cutting species. I like the 2 chamber approach, very similar to what I had in mind. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks. yes a big empty chamber will be needed for leaf cutter ant. The Texas leaf cutter ant here builds huge fungus dome and grow very fast too. Good luck on your ant 'project'.

 

[rs4guy]

Any info on obtaining a queen? I was thinking a double pane "window" approach, with a leaf chamber, and a couple plexi tubes going to and from.

 

[yen_saw]

Any info on obtaining a queen? I was thinking a double pane "window" approach, with a leaf chamber, and a couple plexi tubes going to and from.

The only way that I know to obtain a queen is collecting the mated queen right after nuptial flight. Nuptial flight for Atta texana is usually during May. So I won't be able to find any fresh queen until next year. Leaf cutter ant nest needs a rather elaborated set up, and queens suffer very high mortality rate, but once the colony has workers it will be much easier, as long as there is enough space for the colony to grow and sufficient variety of plant source the colony will thrive. Getting the ant to settle on the fungus location could also be tricky, as I have seen them storing fungus in tubing instead of the viewing dome specifically build for that purpose. Following are some pics showing A. texana forming a colony before I gave it away

 

[rs4guy]

Amazing! Perhaps in May I'll be ready to take on the project. Maybe we can work out an arrangement to have a few queens sent my way. Let me know! TIA

 

[agent A]

yen, can't you just take a container and fill it with sand and let the queen build a nest in that? just curious

 

[Hypoponera]

Yes you can use dirt for the nest. Most native ants will happily dig right in. But keep in mind that ants generally don't like having light in the colony chambers. So they will try to build rooms away from the side of the container. Unless your set-up is too thin for the ants to hide, they will. Then you won't see the queen, brood, or cool behaviors. Artificial nests like those allow you to keep the colony visible.

 

[Hypoponera]

Hey Yen,

Great looking nests. Glad to see we finally corrupted you with ants!!

 

[PeterF]

This is gorgeous, and I am jealous.

Yen, to verify, is that light brown filler in the large container solid? The tunnels and rooms are pre formed?

 

[yen_saw]

yen, can't you just take a container and fill it with sand and let the queen build a nest in that? just curious

Well besides the reason Hypoponera stated. The ant tunnels collapse easily using sand.

Hey Yen,

Great looking nests. Glad to see we finally corrupted you with ants!!

Yeah Chris and Paul are both :devil: too, but you're the real devil :devil: :devil: :devil: . i have to admit it has been nothing but fun observing the formation of an ant colony from single queen ant. The highly social network in ant species always amazed me. Thanks for all your help, you are always there whenever i need :helpsmilie:

This is gorgeous, and I am jealous.

Yen, to verify, is that light brown filler in the large container solid? The tunnels and rooms are pre formed?

Yes it is solid, the tunnel/rooms are preformed as you thought. Here are a few more ant housings.The large chamber ant housing for species that need it

Here is the flat type ant housing with smaller chambers

and different sizes too

Also some vertical type ant housings

but the one that i have the most numbers is this ultra small palm size great for housing fresh queen or small colony.

 

[rs4guy]

Yen, where do you purchase thise setups? They look fantastic, for both beginners and vets of the hobby.

 

[ismart]

Those last two colonies look familiar? :lol:

 

[yen_saw]

Yen, where do you purchase thise setups? They look fantastic, for both beginners and vets of the hobby.

Thanks, i thought the housings are great too! Bought it through a friend from Hong Kong but the housings were built in China (what isn't nowadays!).

Those last two colonies look familiar? :lol:

:lol: and they are doing well ^_^ Some of my recent ant pics. I use the red transparent sheet to cover the chamber screen, and the ants are a lot calmer.

Pseudomyrmex gracilis love cricket and honey water

But they also chase down fruit flies (D. hydei)

 

[Sparky]

Nice, I might have to buy some setups from China then. The ones here sell from $35-$80 for those simple setup. I had S. invicta fire ant species when I was in TX.. But I had to let them out because I was moving. That place was already infested with fire ants anyways so...

Had them in a CD case setup, but that's as far as I went. Didn't get to get them into a larger setup



I'm going back there in a couple of weeks. Hopefully I can start another colony soon. There's a lot of crematogasters where I'm going to live.

Fire ants multiply way faster than a lot of other ants I know. Within a month and a few weeks my S. invicta colony had 17 workers while my crematogaster only had 2.

 

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THAT IS THE COOLEST ANT FARM I HAVE EVER SEEN!