I haven't got around to posting about these before, but I got into ant keeping a few months ago.
Last summer I bought a lasius niger queen ant online. Lasius niger is the common black ant we have in the UK and ither countries. She lived for a few months and produced several worker ants, but I had a lot of trouble working out to get the conditions right in the ant farm (which was just one of the basic plastic ones), and how to feed the ants properly, and in the end the colony did die out. The biggest problem I had was preventing mould in the ant farm. Lasius niger eat sugar/fruits which means mould growth is common. I couldn't put food too close to the nest or it would mould, but too far away and the ants didn't seem to find it.
The first ant farm:
The ants' nest chamber:
After that, I bought a new, much better, ant enclosure from a website called anthouse.es. I also ordered from the same website a harvester ant (messor barbarus) queen with a few workers. Harvester ants eat seeds and grains, which means it should be much easier to control mould growth in their enclosure. The queen has been here a few weeks, and she has a gang of workers plus larvae and eggs. Currently she is living in the test tube she was delivered in, as advised by the company. One of the mistakes I probably made before was moving the ants into the ant farm too soon. So I have a great new ant enclosure which I'm excited to use, but I have to wait until the colony is a bit bigger.
The new ant enclosure:
The Harvester ants in their test tube:
I feed the ants on grains such as barley. Just a grain or two will last them a while. At the end of the test tube there is some water plugged by cotton wool. They get moisture from the water that gradually seeps through the cotton wool. Every now and then I have to open the test tube to remove empty seed husks and the occasional dead ant. Ants are very tidy creatures and create a rubbish heap at the entrance for me to remove.
A bit about ants:
- Ant colonies consist of a queen ant and many workers. All workers are female, and the offspring of the queen. Workers ants hatch from fertilised eggs.
- Queen ants sometimes lay unfertilised eggs. These hatch into winged male ants called drones (or alates). Drones mate with the queen so that she can continue producing fertilised eggs, and then die, their only purpose in life being fulfilled.
- The job of workers ants is to search for and collect food for the colony, and to care for the queen's eggs and larvae. Some ant species also have soldier ants which may go to war against other insects or ant colonies.
- Most fertilised eggs hatch into workers as mentioned, but some will receive extra attention which will result in them hatching into future queen ants. These ants have wings. At some point during the summer, these new queens will fly the nest, along with the male ants known as drones.
Different ant colonies synchronise so that this flight often happens on a single day, known as Flying Ant Day. If you remember a summer day where there were suddenly loads of flying ants around, this was Flying Ant Day!
The new queens and drones will mate, and then the queens will dig small holes to lay their eggs and start a new colony. She will never venture above ground again, but will spend the rest of her life reproducing!
- Worker ants live only a few weeks, but queens can live up to 20 years!
- Ant keeping is an increasingly popular hobby as ants are fascinating and low maintenance. However it can potentially be a long term commitment due to the lifespan of the queen ant. It's worth spending a bit on the initial setup (a good ant enclosure will cost £40-£80) but ongoing costs are negligible, unless your colony gets so big that you need to expand.
Last summer I bought a lasius niger queen ant online. Lasius niger is the common black ant we have in the UK and ither countries. She lived for a few months and produced several worker ants, but I had a lot of trouble working out to get the conditions right in the ant farm (which was just one of the basic plastic ones), and how to feed the ants properly, and in the end the colony did die out. The biggest problem I had was preventing mould in the ant farm. Lasius niger eat sugar/fruits which means mould growth is common. I couldn't put food too close to the nest or it would mould, but too far away and the ants didn't seem to find it.
The first ant farm:
The ants' nest chamber:
After that, I bought a new, much better, ant enclosure from a website called anthouse.es. I also ordered from the same website a harvester ant (messor barbarus) queen with a few workers. Harvester ants eat seeds and grains, which means it should be much easier to control mould growth in their enclosure. The queen has been here a few weeks, and she has a gang of workers plus larvae and eggs. Currently she is living in the test tube she was delivered in, as advised by the company. One of the mistakes I probably made before was moving the ants into the ant farm too soon. So I have a great new ant enclosure which I'm excited to use, but I have to wait until the colony is a bit bigger.
The new ant enclosure:
The Harvester ants in their test tube:
I feed the ants on grains such as barley. Just a grain or two will last them a while. At the end of the test tube there is some water plugged by cotton wool. They get moisture from the water that gradually seeps through the cotton wool. Every now and then I have to open the test tube to remove empty seed husks and the occasional dead ant. Ants are very tidy creatures and create a rubbish heap at the entrance for me to remove.
A bit about ants:
- Ant colonies consist of a queen ant and many workers. All workers are female, and the offspring of the queen. Workers ants hatch from fertilised eggs.
- Queen ants sometimes lay unfertilised eggs. These hatch into winged male ants called drones (or alates). Drones mate with the queen so that she can continue producing fertilised eggs, and then die, their only purpose in life being fulfilled.
- The job of workers ants is to search for and collect food for the colony, and to care for the queen's eggs and larvae. Some ant species also have soldier ants which may go to war against other insects or ant colonies.
- Most fertilised eggs hatch into workers as mentioned, but some will receive extra attention which will result in them hatching into future queen ants. These ants have wings. At some point during the summer, these new queens will fly the nest, along with the male ants known as drones.
Different ant colonies synchronise so that this flight often happens on a single day, known as Flying Ant Day. If you remember a summer day where there were suddenly loads of flying ants around, this was Flying Ant Day!
The new queens and drones will mate, and then the queens will dig small holes to lay their eggs and start a new colony. She will never venture above ground again, but will spend the rest of her life reproducing!
- Worker ants live only a few weeks, but queens can live up to 20 years!
- Ant keeping is an increasingly popular hobby as ants are fascinating and low maintenance. However it can potentially be a long term commitment due to the lifespan of the queen ant. It's worth spending a bit on the initial setup (a good ant enclosure will cost £40-£80) but ongoing costs are negligible, unless your colony gets so big that you need to expand.
It sounds very interesting keeping a colony of ants. I actually learned quite a lot about ants myself when a house I was living in became overrun - I needed to find out what was going on to be able to deal with it. You've explained a few things about the sexes that I didn't realise. In my case, the ants were nesting in the cavity wall insulation in an oldish house and come out through small cracks round the window surround. But this was during the summer and they were flying ants that were hatching! They were all over the windows trying to get out! And Queens all over the ceiling. I have to say it did freak me out and I had to open the windows every day so they could fly away, and hoover up a lot. But eventually they were gone. I didn't realise the flying ants were all males. So yes I remember flying ant day!
