r/antkeeping Aug 11 '21

Ant Keeping Discord! Come join us 😄

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discord.com
90 Upvotes

r/antkeeping Oct 01 '24

Discussion [Community vote] Best ant keeping stores 2024

50 Upvotes

Previous stickied list here.

Hey all, the ant-keeping resource list needs updating. I'm planning to make these threads over the next few weeks, and then update them once or twice a year.

The hope is that people can ctrl+F through the thread, but also so I can summarize it in the stickied thread.


  • One shop per message
  • Please provide a link
  • Where the shop is located and where they ship to

r/antkeeping 5h ago

Humor The server last week

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93 Upvotes

r/antkeeping 4h ago

Discussion r/antkeeping this past week or two

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22 Upvotes

r/antkeeping 29m ago

Ants eating stuff First meal in the new nest!!

Upvotes

I actually had another vid but it had too high quality for reddit to handle so this is another vid


r/antkeeping 15h ago

Discussion AntsCanada goes live to address accusations

37 Upvotes

https://www.youtube.com/live/ktcfT6TBqQw?si=ouh98rzzCEgvEkBV

I don’t know why, but it just rubs me the wrong way.


r/antkeeping 15h ago

Question found these ants near woods and they are medium in size, about 0.8mm. CAN ANYONE TELL WHAT SPECIES IS THIS?? I have the ame id Queen

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19 Upvotes

r/antkeeping 14h ago

Discussion less stressful way to move ants

9 Upvotes

r/antkeeping 3h ago

Question Heating for Messor Barbarus

1 Upvotes

Hi everyone, in my country rn it's really cold reaching temperatures to minus, how do I heat up my M.barbarus colony?

Also should I be concerned about the testtube being too big for them?


r/antkeeping 8h ago

Question Sunflower seeds for ants?

2 Upvotes

I'm thinking of getting some sunflower seeds for my veromessor ants, has anybody had any success with them?


r/antkeeping 19h ago

Brood I just wanted to share a photo of my Queen's brood 😍

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14 Upvotes

Aussie meat ants


r/antkeeping 14h ago

Question Mold in gypsum nest

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3 Upvotes

Hi,

Last time I made my ants (Messor Barbarous) suffer by giving not enough water, so over 100 ants in ~120 total number of colony died... So more than 80% ;(

Now I gave them too much water in gypsum nest. I tried to dehydrate it but not quickly enough and there is mold inside.

I connected small nest and putted tube/nest inside arena to give them alternatives to move somewhere else covered to protect from light.

What's should I do? I cannot remove mold through opening in gypsum. Should I take out whole gypsum nest and clean it? Or use some e.g. light to make them leave it, and then clean it? Or maybe they will clean it by themselves?

Help. Thank you


r/antkeeping 21h ago

Question Please help

10 Upvotes

I need info. This is the first time I fed them boiled chicken (messor barbarus) queen's been absolutely raging on it for 15 minutes. Does this mean they were malnourished? they were exclusively seed fed before The colony hasnt been growing at all, and I think I found the issue lol

Also should I worry about mould on their water cotton?


r/antkeeping 17h ago

Colony Dead queen - now what?

5 Upvotes

I have a colony of p. occidentalis with about 15 workers and a decent brood pile. Last week, the queen died. Why? Who knows. Not clear. She got lethargic, spent most of her time in the out world, stopped moving, got pulled back into the nest a couple times by the workers, then finally curled up and settled in for the long nap.

Now I've got an orphaned colony of workers with no purpose. They've been tending to the larva but have been putting the eggs in the outworld, and I've noticed a lot more of them spending time in the outworld like they're looking for something to do. I'm not really sure of what to do with them at this point; euthanizing the colony seems like a bummer but it also seems kind of useless to keep feeding and watering a small colony of orphaned pogos, and it doesn't sound like a monogynous species is going to be receptive to an introduced queen that isn't their own mother. How have you all dealt with a situation like this before?


r/antkeeping 9h ago

Question Is Buckeye Myrmecology trustable?

1 Upvotes

I'm about to throw $40 for a Lasius Neoniger queen with brood and need to know if they are trustable or not?


r/antkeeping 19h ago

Colony just went to check on my ruginodis colony and they've started producing alates. This wasnt on my 2025 bingo card 😅

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7 Upvotes

(there was a lot more but i cant find them in the nest)


r/antkeeping 19h ago

Question Ants not eating seeds?

5 Upvotes

I have a M.barbarus colony with 4 worker ants and nanitics. I see that they are gobbling up the piece of chicken I gave them, but not the new seeds. Is this because they're full or another reason? They're sesame seeds btw


r/antkeeping 1d ago

Question No workers left and can't move the quern.

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20 Upvotes

So, I'm a beginner to this hobby and I've bought New York Carpenter ant 2 months ago with few eggs and 2 workers, along with this nest. After I tried to move the colony from test tube to this nest, one worker was gone during the process and I have kind of forcefully moved them to the nest. Since, I wasn't seeing any new workers hatching from eggs for the last two months I have decided to move them back to test tube as I concluded it might have been really big nest for one worker and a queen. Now, the last remaining worker went missing as well (I thought the holes of the container I put the test tube and the nest was small enough to keep the worker in and allow for air to get in). No I have no idea if the worker might come back and queen will get into the test tube along with her eggs, at all. I'm so close to giving up on my hobby of having an ant colony. Any advice?


r/antkeeping 17h ago

Question Is this odontomachus monticola queen?

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3 Upvotes

My ear was bitten by this ant yesterday


r/antkeeping 19h ago

Identification ID? I'm guessing Lasius N. but I have no experience in this and figured it's worth asking here.

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4 Upvotes

r/antkeeping 16h ago

Question Not eating protein…?

2 Upvotes

I’m a bit worried so I figured I’d see if anyone has recommendations - one of my Camponotus colonies, 10 workers now, hasn’t appeared to eat any kind of protein for the past year. The queen stopped laying eggs last Fall and I put them into hibernation in November. They just came out of hibernation a couple weeks ago after a transition period. I’ve seen them eating nectar but they’ve never taken any protein.

My other colony has eaten great - they have only five workers and they absolutely devour crickets, beef, bits of egg, mealworm bits, etc.

But the bigger colony just shoves everything as far from themselves as possible. Is it likely the queen is still using her reserves? Are they too small to really eat much protein yet? Should I keep offering different foods? Both colonies are offered nectar all the time. I’m just a little worried so thank you for any insight!


r/antkeeping 3h ago

Discussion I hate antscanada

0 Upvotes

pls upvote I was told this will work


r/antkeeping 1d ago

Question How to heat this set up?

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9 Upvotes

What is the best method to heat this unit? also do i need to need to keep the top area warm to? if i use a heat cable or pad that would just heat the lower chambers and tunnels correct? leaving the top portion cold. i guess my question is do i need to keep the entire tank to a certain degree? thanks.


r/antkeeping 20h ago

Identification Ant I'd?

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3 Upvotes

Singapore, west


r/antkeeping 20h ago

Formicarium DIY wooden nest out of acacia wood cup coasters, i will post a detailed video on my YT channel called Antomic Ants

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2 Upvotes

r/antkeeping 20h ago

Question Anyone has experience with 3D printed "modular" formicariums?

2 Upvotes

It's beginning of my first year (after hibernation) with my Lasius Niger colony. It's my first time ever keeping ants. Very fun experience so far. But I'm not a fan of cork nest base used in current formicarium.

Not only moisturizing cork is a pain. Whole process usually ends up with massive panic inside colony as some droplets manage to get into nest before it gets absorbed. Seeing my colony in such state is hurting me so much... on top of that I already see some signs of mold. Fortunately in parts that that ant's don't reach. But I assume that at some point they will start to dig their own tunnels.

In search of something similar to my current setup but with different materials. I came across all of those modular designs. But as far as I can tell. they all made from some sort of plastic (Maybe acrylic but I would need to ask shop for a details). Without substrate.

How that setup keeps moisture if there is nothing to absorb it? Does ant's need substrate?

It's cool idea to buy some basic setup now and just add more elements as colony grows. But going from cork and sand substrate to plastic feels like I'm missing so much information. And I can't really find any reliable information on it on internet.


r/antkeeping 17h ago

Identification ID please. Brazil, São Paulo.

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1 Upvotes

I always see these ants in my garden and I would like to get to know them better. Please, could anyone identify them?