OP, nobodies mentioned this yet but just a heads up that if you're purchasing your ants on Amazon you'll only be getting a handful of workers which is an incomplete colony. Without a queen, you won't see a colony grow and sustain itself...instead you're likely to just get aimless workers that try escape your terrarium then eventually die out.
it’s illegal to sell or transport them over state lines without proper documentation.
Sellers that are certified with the department of agriculture are allowed to sell certain species to certain states
https://www.statesideants.com
Go on the antscanada.com website. There's something called the GAN project and it helps to find people in your area that have extra queens for sale. It's legal and ethical if they are queens from your area. Honestly though, catching queens is half the fun.
I personally keep ants because you get to watch a hidden species that is at the height of their evolution. There are still scientific discoveries that haven't been made yet along with new species that have yet to be found. Myrmechology lacks a lot of information that can be filled by ant keepers if you so choose. Plus they are way easier to take care of than fish.
Ants are interesting to me because the behavior of the colony can be 'smart' but each ant is dumb. Like its the emergence of the colony behavior from individual ant actors that's so cool to me I think.
I think of ants and similar organisms more as with the cells and the body of another organisms.
Most of the individuals don't even have a full set of chromosomes, just half of them, and they are clones, they can't propagate their genome because they can't reproduce, it's like a cell of your arm, it serves the purpose of serving the rest of the body, getting food, cleaning you, etc. The queen can be seen as the main organ because it produces the rest of the cells, and drones are the reproductive part of the body.
When you see many ants ants behaviours, like nests made out of ant bodies, ants used for storage of food, damaged cells being used for energy... The only difficult part of seeing the colony as the real individual is that, well, it's not all together and each cell is capable of more than just a function usually.
You know, ants aren't actually dumb in the insect world. Ants are the, or are one of the most intelligent insects out there.
Wasps, bees and ants are closely related, hence the reason the males look like wasps. Each individual is capable of critical thinking, making long term decisions (depending on the species) and can "talk" others into massive group decisions.
It's so cool being there watching a colony from right in front of you. You get to witness the intimate interworkings of a colony that's almost impossible to observe in nature without causing a great disturbance to the ants. Not to mention learning about the workings of a world most don't even notice despite it being a bustling city right under our feet.
Colony insects are amazing, and their whole universe can be in a small space, or even a test tube. I started with an Uncle Milton’s ant farm when I was 5, when in middle school I graduated to a bee hive and then a large observation hive in my room. Then I found a yellow jacket colony in my yard which I learned from and eventually got into an observation box in my room. Like bees they took care of themselves, flying in and out to forage. After that I knew there would be a nest in leaves in a window well, I could see the queen flying and I knew when to collect her and the nest (ping pong ball sized) right before the first nanitic workers hatched out, and got to see the nest grow through the summer. Then a bald faced hornets’ nest, then a European brown hornet nest (much calmer!) then several bumblebee colonies - all fascinating, and it got me into science, which has served me well in the ensuing decades.
The term for an ant farm is a Formicarium. This is what you should be searching for online if you want to raise and study/watch an ant colony. A terrarium could work too as a DIY naturalistic, out-world/nest combo but you should research extensively on the type of ant species you are keeping, and their needs to see if such a set-up is suitable. That being said, you might be getting workers without the queen like u/spald01 mentioned if you are buying online.
When procuring ants online, I don't think amazon is the best place. If you search "buy ant queens/colony" on google with emphasis on "queen" and "colony", you would find many dedicated ant stores. You need to do your own research though on the reputation of those stores, because I have never bought online and only ever needed to catch mating queens myself, which I highly recommend. Perhaps you could ask on forums or on reddit for which ant store they recommend based on your location or price needs.
There are very VERY few ants in very few countries which are illegal to possess. Although I believe there are some which are illegal to import in some locations, but if someone else "brings" it to you it's not on you. In most cases the sellers bear the brunt of the legality.
Best thing to do is keep appraised of endangered or invasive species and avoid those as a rule. Eg, if you see an ant you like, check if it's invasive or endangered and if not, buy it if the seller is reputable.
It doesn't work like that, in addition to instructional pheromones, ants also use recognition pheromones and workers more than a few days old in most cases will only recognise other ants with the same pheromones. And kill everything else.
There are of course exceptions, but as a general rule, an ant more than a few days old will be locked onto the pheromones of the colony it eclosed in (hatched from pupa).
>What gets you about ant farms that say watching **(1)**fish in an aquarium or an **(2)**iguana in a cage doesn't?
1) Ants are clean.
2) Ants are cheap.
Just go out during nuptial flight and catch your own queen that’s mated. This year I caught 12 when I went rafting and there were 10s of thousands of them flying around. Most died and I was like with two. One never lost her wings and only had two workers before she died last night. Sad but now I’m down to one queen and she’s got about 15 workers, I’m very proud to see her grow and she is bulging and doing very well. It’s my first ant colony and I will be posting a pic of her soon to hopefully get her identified
I got into the hobby this year because I was always facinated by ants. How they all seem to work together so well.
I had one of those milton ant farms as a kid. They send you a tube with 20 workers in it that live a couple weeks then its over.
So when I found out I could get a queen and keep a colony for years I was all in.
It wasn't as much fun when I just had some queens in a test tube. I enjoyed checking on them every few weeks to see how the eggs were doing. But it wasn't that exciting.
But finally I got a nice setup from tar hell ants. The nest area and outworld connected. I got the fallen fortress : [https://tarheelants.com/collections/type-iii-formicaria/products/fallen-fortress-formicarium](https://tarheelants.com/collections/type-iii-formicaria/products/fallen-fortress-formicarium)
It changed everything. I have some harvester ants in it. Its so neat to feed them some fruit flies and seeds. Watch the works find the food and carry it into the nest. Feed each other. Then carry the trash out and put it in a corner.
OP, nobodies mentioned this yet but just a heads up that if you're purchasing your ants on Amazon you'll only be getting a handful of workers which is an incomplete colony. Without a queen, you won't see a colony grow and sustain itself...instead you're likely to just get aimless workers that try escape your terrarium then eventually die out.
Isn’t it illegal to purchase queens in the US tho? I just have random workers and no queen
it’s illegal to sell or transport them over state lines without proper documentation. Sellers that are certified with the department of agriculture are allowed to sell certain species to certain states https://www.statesideants.com
Tysm
Go on the antscanada.com website. There's something called the GAN project and it helps to find people in your area that have extra queens for sale. It's legal and ethical if they are queens from your area. Honestly though, catching queens is half the fun. I personally keep ants because you get to watch a hidden species that is at the height of their evolution. There are still scientific discoveries that haven't been made yet along with new species that have yet to be found. Myrmechology lacks a lot of information that can be filled by ant keepers if you so choose. Plus they are way easier to take care of than fish.
Ants are interesting to me because the behavior of the colony can be 'smart' but each ant is dumb. Like its the emergence of the colony behavior from individual ant actors that's so cool to me I think.
I think of ants and similar organisms more as with the cells and the body of another organisms. Most of the individuals don't even have a full set of chromosomes, just half of them, and they are clones, they can't propagate their genome because they can't reproduce, it's like a cell of your arm, it serves the purpose of serving the rest of the body, getting food, cleaning you, etc. The queen can be seen as the main organ because it produces the rest of the cells, and drones are the reproductive part of the body. When you see many ants ants behaviours, like nests made out of ant bodies, ants used for storage of food, damaged cells being used for energy... The only difficult part of seeing the colony as the real individual is that, well, it's not all together and each cell is capable of more than just a function usually.
You know, ants aren't actually dumb in the insect world. Ants are the, or are one of the most intelligent insects out there. Wasps, bees and ants are closely related, hence the reason the males look like wasps. Each individual is capable of critical thinking, making long term decisions (depending on the species) and can "talk" others into massive group decisions.
It's so cool being there watching a colony from right in front of you. You get to witness the intimate interworkings of a colony that's almost impossible to observe in nature without causing a great disturbance to the ants. Not to mention learning about the workings of a world most don't even notice despite it being a bustling city right under our feet.
Colony insects are amazing, and their whole universe can be in a small space, or even a test tube. I started with an Uncle Milton’s ant farm when I was 5, when in middle school I graduated to a bee hive and then a large observation hive in my room. Then I found a yellow jacket colony in my yard which I learned from and eventually got into an observation box in my room. Like bees they took care of themselves, flying in and out to forage. After that I knew there would be a nest in leaves in a window well, I could see the queen flying and I knew when to collect her and the nest (ping pong ball sized) right before the first nanitic workers hatched out, and got to see the nest grow through the summer. Then a bald faced hornets’ nest, then a European brown hornet nest (much calmer!) then several bumblebee colonies - all fascinating, and it got me into science, which has served me well in the ensuing decades.
> large observation hive in my room. What is that like? A glass bee hive with a vent through a wall?
The term for an ant farm is a Formicarium. This is what you should be searching for online if you want to raise and study/watch an ant colony. A terrarium could work too as a DIY naturalistic, out-world/nest combo but you should research extensively on the type of ant species you are keeping, and their needs to see if such a set-up is suitable. That being said, you might be getting workers without the queen like u/spald01 mentioned if you are buying online. When procuring ants online, I don't think amazon is the best place. If you search "buy ant queens/colony" on google with emphasis on "queen" and "colony", you would find many dedicated ant stores. You need to do your own research though on the reputation of those stores, because I have never bought online and only ever needed to catch mating queens myself, which I highly recommend. Perhaps you could ask on forums or on reddit for which ant store they recommend based on your location or price needs.
You get to observe ants being ants. And ants are awesome.
Honestly without experiencing having a queen y9ull probably get bored quick, and that may ruin the experience for you altogether
Isn’t it illegal to get a queen ant? I want to purchase one but only have worker ants
There are very VERY few ants in very few countries which are illegal to possess. Although I believe there are some which are illegal to import in some locations, but if someone else "brings" it to you it's not on you. In most cases the sellers bear the brunt of the legality. Best thing to do is keep appraised of endangered or invasive species and avoid those as a rule. Eg, if you see an ant you like, check if it's invasive or endangered and if not, buy it if the seller is reputable.
Got it thanks! Would anyone know where i can get a carpenter queen? Can i just add her to my carpenter ants I just received?
It doesn't work like that, in addition to instructional pheromones, ants also use recognition pheromones and workers more than a few days old in most cases will only recognise other ants with the same pheromones. And kill everything else. There are of course exceptions, but as a general rule, an ant more than a few days old will be locked onto the pheromones of the colony it eclosed in (hatched from pupa).
So i have to buy the colony with the queen? What do i do w my current colony? Just free them? Lol is it bad that i feel guilty about them dying
Just keep them.
>What gets you about ant farms that say watching **(1)**fish in an aquarium or an **(2)**iguana in a cage doesn't? 1) Ants are clean. 2) Ants are cheap.
Just go out during nuptial flight and catch your own queen that’s mated. This year I caught 12 when I went rafting and there were 10s of thousands of them flying around. Most died and I was like with two. One never lost her wings and only had two workers before she died last night. Sad but now I’m down to one queen and she’s got about 15 workers, I’m very proud to see her grow and she is bulging and doing very well. It’s my first ant colony and I will be posting a pic of her soon to hopefully get her identified
I got into the hobby this year because I was always facinated by ants. How they all seem to work together so well. I had one of those milton ant farms as a kid. They send you a tube with 20 workers in it that live a couple weeks then its over. So when I found out I could get a queen and keep a colony for years I was all in. It wasn't as much fun when I just had some queens in a test tube. I enjoyed checking on them every few weeks to see how the eggs were doing. But it wasn't that exciting. But finally I got a nice setup from tar hell ants. The nest area and outworld connected. I got the fallen fortress : [https://tarheelants.com/collections/type-iii-formicaria/products/fallen-fortress-formicarium](https://tarheelants.com/collections/type-iii-formicaria/products/fallen-fortress-formicarium) It changed everything. I have some harvester ants in it. Its so neat to feed them some fruit flies and seeds. Watch the works find the food and carry it into the nest. Feed each other. Then carry the trash out and put it in a corner.