I Wanna Get an Antfarm, where should I get the ants?

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Meadow98684

Meadow98684

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I know Amazon has a few Ant-farms for sale, could I please get some recommendations on:

1. Which One is best? Illuminated? Sand? Milton? Antworks?

2. Where do I order my Ants from?

Thanks in advance. I currently raise mantids, and wanna branch out to Ants now.

 
Usually the ant farms will come with a certificate to mail out for the ants. I know they sell all sorts of them at the gift shop at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. I like the glowing gel ant farm, but I have never personally owned one.

 
patrickfraser said:
Usually the ant farms will come with a certificate to mail out for the ants. I know they sell all sorts of them at the gift shop at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. I like the glowing gel ant farm, but I have never personally owned one.
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Ants don't like the gel. It isn't good for them.

No one official will ship you a queen, so you'll have to keep buying ants when they die off in a couple months. That alone keeps me from buying ants.

 
Collect a queen from a nuptial flight (mated; you see a male attacthed or you collect multiple ones that just lost their wings and a some will be mated) then fill a glass tetst tube 1/3 with spring water and tightly shove a cotton ball (gently because it is glass) up to the water so the cotton ball is moist...then add one alate (sexually reproducing male and female drones (for ants and bees))...then finish it off with another cotton ball at the end...once she starts laying eggs and they hatch into workers place the whole test tube into (first remove the cotton keeping them in the tube) their "antfarm" and they will slowly explore and move into their new home....this is more for advanced ant keepers but beginners can easily do it too! I am currently observing how to invasve species cope with each other, and who will out-compete the other...if you have any further questions, PM me...

All the best,

Andrew

 
AndrewNisip said:
Collect a queen from a nuptial flight (mated; you see a male attacthed or you collect multiple ones that just lost their wings and a some will be mated) then fill a glass tetst tube 1/3 with spring water and tightly shove a cotton ball (gently because it is glass) up to the water so the cotton ball is moist...then add one alate (sexually reproducing male and female drones (for ants and bees))...then finish it off with another cotton ball at the end...once she starts laying eggs and they hatch into workers place the whole test tube into (first remove the cotton keeping them in the tube) their "antfarm" and they will slowly explore and move into their new home....this is more for advanced ant keepers but beginners can easily do it too! I am currently observing how to invasve species cope with each other, and who will out-compete the other...if you have any further questions, PM me...

All the best,

Andrew
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I've never been able to do this properly. Will buy or trade for a started colony from any established US member.

 
AndrewNisip said:
Collect a queen from a nuptial flight (mated; you see a male attacthed or you collect multiple ones that just lost their wings and a some will be mated) then fill a glass tetst tube 1/3 with spring water and tightly shove a cotton ball (gently because it is glass) up to the water so the cotton ball is moist...then add one alate (sexually reproducing male and female drones (for ants and bees))...then finish it off with another cotton ball at the end...once she starts laying eggs and they hatch into workers place the whole test tube into (first remove the cotton keeping them in the tube) their "antfarm" and they will slowly explore and move into their new home....this is more for advanced ant keepers but beginners can easily do it too! I am currently observing how to invasve species cope with each other, and who will out-compete the other...if you have any further questions, PM me...

All the best,

Andrew
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What two invasive species are you pitting against each other?

 
Pheidole Megacephala (big headed ants) and Solenopsis invicta (red imported fire ant) ....the Solenopsis was introduced many years ago in a shipment of plants...and the Pheidole was recently introduced and is very successful as an invasive specie and is out-competing the Solenopsis all around Florida...the BHA's (big headed ants) don't sting and are mainly really good scavengers and the soldiers (they have huge heads to house their mandibles and why they are called bha) have cut multiple times through the netting for my net cubes and such just to get rhe mantis or it's droppings...i introduced a queen and couple workers into the fire ants' enclosure....I'm observing how the Solenopsis get overtaken by the bha...

 
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Ant farms are fun. When I got them as a kid they sent harvester ants, Pogonomyrmex sp. - rather long lived, six months to some say a few years.

I've had luck with Andrew's method finding and starting fire ant (Solenopsis invicta) colonies.

There's stuff called Fluon that ants can't walk on. I kept a big colony of carpenter ants Camponotus floridanus for many years in a plastic bin with Fluon on the rim, just throwing in bugs, meat and honey-water.

Andrew, there are some nice papers on how Pheidole dentata manages to live with S. invicta by quickly running out and killing any invicta scouts, but never taking on the colony, sort of staying off invicta's radar. Real cloak and dagger stuff.

Also there's a study just out an invasive ponerine ant that outcompete's the invasive Argentine ant. Impressive!: http://news.ncsu.edu/releases/silverman-ants-2013/

 
Meadow98684 said:
I know Amazon has a few Ant-farms for sale, could I please get some recommendations on:

1. Which One is best? Illuminated? Sand? Milton? Antworks?

2. Where do I order my Ants from?

Thanks in advance. I currently raise mantids, and wanna branch out to Ants now.
Click to expand...
1. Personally, I believe Antworks is the very best brand. The equiptment is very professional and well made.

I strongly advise you to NOT go through Uncle Milton. I got an ant farm from them once. The ants were supposed to arrive within a 4 week window - but they actually arrived 3 weeks after the window "closed". That's 7 weeks after the earliest they could arrive, and 3 weeks after the latest guarenteed arrival. When they arrived, half of the ants were dead, and another quarter died within two days. I installed everything according to instruction, following it letter by letter. Within a week, my struggling ants were making little headway and only had one tunnel. To add to that, the gel the came in their enclosure grew mold within a week. UGH!

2. Most kits have the ants order form inside the ant kit that you will buy. They will send you worker ants, but NO queen. Therefor, you will not have an ant colony that continues to grow.

 
Mime454 said:
Ants don't like the gel. It isn't good for them.

No one official will ship you a queen, so you'll have to keep buying ants when they die off in a couple months. That alone keeps me from buying ants.
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Antworks' gel was made through a NASA experiment. I don't think that the government would want to harm ants when doing an experiment on life w/o gravity.

AndrewNisip said:
Collect a queen from a nuptial flight (mated; you see a male attacthed or you collect multiple ones that just lost their wings and a some will be mated) then fill a glass tetst tube 1/3 with spring water and tightly shove a cotton ball (gently because it is glass) up to the water so the cotton ball is moist...then add one alate (sexually reproducing male and female drones (for ants and bees))...then finish it off with another cotton ball at the end...once she starts laying eggs and they hatch into workers place the whole test tube into (first remove the cotton keeping them in the tube) their "antfarm" and they will slowly explore and move into their new home....this is more for advanced ant keepers but beginners can easily do it too! I am currently observing how to invasve species cope with each other, and who will out-compete the other...if you have any further questions, PM me...

All the best,

Andrew
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Oh my, Andrew!!! WHERE do you find them in the first place? (Remember, Oregon is not hot and humid year-round. ;) )

 
I would think that in a temperate zone, it would be easier to predict when a certain species has their nuptial flight. Here in S.Florida, our seasons, or lack of seasons, are not always distinct. Some years we get quite chilly, and some(like this time) it is hardly noticable(temperature wise), or late in the year.

Some people who like to collect ants seem to know when the flight will happen. :smarty: I find it to be amazing that the ants can be that predictable, and enthusiasts can figure it out. :clap:

 
I think yen has some threads on here about ant farms and some he has ordered.

 
Research sp of ants in ur area....then research the nuptial flight of that sp....pretty simple....then u just gotta pay attentions for the signs that cause them to fly...and there ya have it :)

 

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