For context, I caught a queen at the beginning of October. I only found 1 and put it in a founding cup where it had laid eggs almost immediately. Unfortunately, over the next 2 weeks it didn't seem to have any fungus. I was able to find a seller of Atta texana and bought a small colony of about 30 workers which had some fungus. When that colony arrived in the mail the fungus was looking sad but nonetheless I donated a small pellet to my fungus absent queen. This was about 1 week ago. The 1st pic shows the pellet the day it was donated and accepted by the queen. The 2nd pic shows the fungal pellet right now. There is noticable fuzz now and things are looking up. I might have to donate more soon but the other colonies fungus is still recovering so I'll have to hold off, additionally, I might need to brood bost but wait for the same reasons. It's small and things are not looking good but I'm staying hopeful.

They're usually in an orange nest so their color doesn't contrast very well compared to a white background.

Species: Leptogenys elongata

Location: Houston, Texas, USA

Video recorded on Samsung Galaxy s25 Ultra

I got into making ant nests for myself and made way too many. I have to downsize a bit. If you're willing to pay for shipping, toss me what you think is a fair price and help me clear some of these out! Not a business. DM me for questions and if you're really interested in one, throw down a dibs comment

An older video of my Trachymyrmex colony!

I was literally taking care of a queen of a species I still haven't identified, which I already know for sure is a queen because she has shed her wings, when I suddenly look at the ground and I'm THIS close to STEPPING on what looks like a Camponotus queen (I'm assuming that because she's pretty big and genuinely looks like a queen based on my extremely shallow and limited knowledge, so sorry if I'm wrong).

Can anyone confirm if that's actually what it is?? I left her in the dark to check tomorrow later on if she has laid eggs.

Hey! I’m looking for firsthand advice on Myrmecia nigriceps: feeding, setup, temperature, moisture, and everyday care.
If you’ve kept them, what worked for you? What went wrong, and what would you do differently? Even one tip or a photo of your setup would be a big help!
I have 1 queen, 2 workers, and 1 cocoon.

I’ve had this terrarium for about a year now. These ants very, very slowly started appearing about a little over a month ago. I put down some fruit earlier and now I see how many there are, way more than I thought.

What are they? How could they have gotten inside? Surely they didn’t come with the substrate, I assume they would’ve made an appearance much sooner if so.

Normally I’d love caring for a colony but they are living with my 3 year old lineage of cylisticus convexus and now that they have shown their numbers, I see them bickering with my pods.

Concerned about what to do here and intrigued as to how they got in / what species they are. Any help is appreciated.

I just wanted to post an update on my Atta texana colony I had received in the mail after next day shipping. Shipping lasted 1 day and when they arrived the fungus looked pretty sad. There was no white in it and it looked grey and black. I immediately put them in a set up with a hygrometer and maintained their humidity at 99% and temperature between 76f and 81f. I provided them with oats which they took immediately. I tried to introduce honey mesquite leaves and orange tree leaves but they never touched them. They only started taking esperanza flowers yesterday which is day 5. On a side note, they arr native to my area so I'm trying to use native plants. The photos show the before and after of the fungus. The first picture is day 1 when they arrived and pic 2 is day 6. The fungus has bounced back a bit and I will continue updating this sub on my colony. Atta texana posts are strangely sparse in this sub.

I'm starting the hobby now. I thought this is what I believe is a queen of dorymermex. Is there a possibility of being? (I was looking for any queens here at home so I only took these photos. Sorry if it got bad)

For an arid/savannah species what are some highly visible signs or alarms that aren't over the lethal zone but visible enough to act on and moisturize immediately? Are there any?

Found a colony of these near my house, I live on the middle of Brazil

They've been climbing a tomato plant in their tank and swarming this dead branch, can someone explain why

Hey! I’m looking for firsthand advice on Myrmecia nigriceps: feeding, setup, temperature, moisture, and everyday care.
If you’ve kept them, what worked for you? What went wrong, and what would you do differently? Even one tip or a photo of your setup would be a big help!
I have 1 queen, 2 workers, and 1 cocoon.

Looking to have a discussion on these two nests. I currently have my two colonys in AC Hybrid Mini Nests but have been interested in Wakooshi.

Wakooshi

- Gen 4 Medium ($25) (~4in×4in)

- Gen 4 XL ($77) (~8in×8in)

Ants Canada

- Hybrid Mini (~$28) (4in×4in)

- Hybrid Nest (~$54) (8in×8in)

These nests are very close to the same size making for a good comparison.

The Wakooshi medium is a few $ cheaper then the AC mini but the XL is >$20 more the the AC Hybrid nest. Most peoples reason for hating the AC is price but they are close to the same Wakooshi is more if you want a cover. I haven't heard any major hate for Wakooshi.

Ants Canada Pros

- Easy hydration medium swap

- Spot for heating cable

- Includes a cover

Wakooshi Pros

- Gypsum allows for better humidity coverage

- Easier additions that connect together

Ants Canada Cons

- Glass needs to be glued for some species

- The plugs can be chewed through by some species

- Humidity can be hard to set right

Wakooshi Cons

- Cover is an extra cost

- Some species will dig through the gypsum

- Some species can escape where two nests joins

Ive also been wondering how well the Wakooshi handles heating. My Ants have been putting all there brood right where the heating cable is and Iam wondering if they just cant get enough heat. Iam thinking the Wakooshi would be better with a heat mat instead of a cable like the AC.

aphenogaster sp. 5w and brood

nylandera flavipes 40w and brood

lasius neoniger 150-200w tons of brood

pogonomyrmex queens

I have extra equipment that I can ship to new keepers for free. Mini outworlds, medium outworlds, test tubes, etc. planning to give this away as an act of kindness.

My only requirement is that you’re truly a new hobbyist and that you’ve done your research on ant keeping and are prepared to take on the hobby seriously.

Mods let me know if this isn’t allowed. Thanks!

I haven’t been watching the queens so closely for a little while, but then I suddenly noticed that there were some small things crawling around in the tube, and when I filmed closer I saw that they were all over the queens! These are Lasius Flavus Queens found in Sweden!

They have been going at it for 4 days now, and I finally figured out what these dumbasses have been doing. They pick up a dead worker, climb the plant, throw it off, climb back down, find the same dead worker on the ground, and do it all over again. You can see one pile on the left, one on the right lmao

My ants water supply is probably down to half, the cotton on water side is a bit black and maybe a hint of yellow but I’m unsure. I want to hibernate them soon but was wondering if this will work:

Attach their test tube to a fresh tube with water so they don’t have to travel far if they want other water. Is this a workable solution?

Side question:

When do I know it’s time to hibernate? Lasius Niger, right time of year but my colony is still very busy.

My ant colony had a rough start. They are doing better now but their low in numbers, only about 7 workers. The problem is the test tube is low on water. They are connected to a small outworld where they get food. On the other side is the new nest, but the door is closed as I was told not to move them in until they fill the tube. The problem is the water is low in the tube. Im not sure what to do here at this point.

Do I use a syringe and needle to refill the water?

Do i need a 2nd tube to try to coax/transfer them into somehow?

Or is it time to just bite the bullet and open the nest , put the water tank on it and let them possibly move in when the tube dries out? Move them in despite their low numbers?

Looking for amy advice here. Initial problems were things like poor temp control/faulty thermostat letting it get too cool. Them rejecting their first 2 protein sources (apparently these guys hate flightless fruit flies, and arent a fan of cut up meal worm....finally hit good with cut up Dubai roaches). Included pictures are the ants im their tube, kinda showing how small of a colony they are, their little outworld, and their future nest for reference.

Looking for any advice as I dont want to accidentally kill them when the water runs out. And Noone really said what to do if the colony has a rough start like this and isn't "big" when the water runs out.

I put my ants in a “ant-farm” and put food into the outworld part. In the meantime i have put an external feeding place through a tube. But the initial food has started deteriorating as you can see on the pictures. Should i try removing it, risking upsetting the colony, or will this go away on its own?

About 9 months ago, I made a post about my Camponotus nicobarensis setup:

Camponotus nicobarensis: Are my nest humidity and feeding setup correct?

Based on the advice I received, I immediately ordered a much smaller nest — less than ¼ of the size of the original one — and placed it directly inside the outworld. It took them some time, but eventually they moved into it.

I also changed a few things regarding their setup and feeding:

• They now have two water sources with cotton in front of them.
• They get a mealworm 1–2 times per week.
• They get 1–3 drops of sugar water every day.
• For the sugar water, I boil some water, mix roughly 1/3 brown sugar with 2/3 water, and keep it in the fridge. Every day, I put a few drops on a piece of aluminum foil in the outworld. I make a fresh batch once a week.
• 1–2 times per week, I also place a small, wet cotton ball on top of the nest. I think they seem to like this, because they tend to stay in the half of the nest closest to the wet cotton.

The nest was still only occupied to about 50% at most, so I decided to give them another option. I placed a test tube in the outworld, blocked most of the entrance with a cork stopper, and left only a small gap as an entrance.

Now comes the problem:

Instead of choosing one nest, they seem to have turned the test tube into some kind of outpost. There are now always ants in both locations — the nest and the test tube.

Why don't they move completely into the test tube? Could the entrance be too small for the queen? I can't really imagine that being the problem, though.

At the moment, I estimate there are roughly 30 ants in the test tube and another 30 in the nest.

What do you think about my setup and feeding routine in general? Does everything seem reasonable so far, or is there anything you would change?

English isn't my native language, so I used ChatGPT to help translate and polish this post.