Man, that is an AWESOME formicarium!

If you are talking about the one I was thinking about moving the tetramorium colony into, it’s really nice however it’s size limits it to ants around the same size as tetramorium and the queen really has to squeeze through some of the chambers.

Just looks like such a conversation piece though. So nice.

Man, that is an AWESOME formicarium!

If you are talking about the one I was thinking about moving the tetramorium colony into, it’s really nice however it’s size limits it to ants around the same size as tetramorium and the queen really has to squeeze through some of the chambers.

Just looks like such a conversation piece though. So nice.

If I catch another tetramorium and get a nice amount of workers they might go into that formicarium, I’m hoping I’ll be able to use it at some point.

Small update: Camponotus sp (Possibly chromoides) test tube cotton tuned pink so I moved them out however one worker is in the tube that leads to the outworld and is not moving at all, is barely moving it’s leg or antennae. The worker wouldn’t move out of the tube so I had to dump her out and she wouldn’t move when she hit the ground so I used a cotton ball to put her in the tube. Any ideas on why this worker is seemingly dying a day or two after eclosing?

You CANNOT distinguish Lasius sp. without looking at the hair on their scapes and number and shape of teeth. Lasius sp. is the furthest you can go.

Definitely keep your Tetramorium in a tubs and tubes set up. The only thing better would be a naturalistic set up they can dig in. They’ll grow if you give them protein everyday.

I decided to make a natural setup and keep one tube in there at all times in case I forget to water it.


The tetramorium started digging pretty quickly and chose to use my starter hole, and have also started digging another hole on the opposite side of the setup.

Love the look! Mine piled sand around their tine entrance making it much smaller. Cool to see them make it their own. They'll be happy.

Edited by Canadant, May 30 2020 - 2:53 PM.

That looks ideal!

Love the look! Mine piled sand around their tine entrance making it much smaller. Cool to see them make it their own. They'll be happy.

That looks ideal!

They have already moved into one of the holes, and they also filled the test tube entrance leaving a small hole with a little bit of brood and workers left inside!

Edited by Amazant, May 30 2020 - 5:08 PM.

All the colonies are doing really well.

Campmotus sp is doing better and has another worker so now she has 2 workers again, this new worker is quite a lot larger than her first worker even though it enclosed only a week later. Now she has 2 pupae and a few larvae and eggs.
For some reason the camera doesn’t focus well on these ants.



Camponotus sp both have pupae now but one has a a few more larvae and got to pupae stage faster and also has a gaster that is more filled than the other queen.
Sorry for the bad quality


The phedolie colony is doing good and seems to be getting more minor workers and no majors, they still have 2 queens however one is hiding in the cotton and she is hard to see.


Lasius sp has been doing good, their test tube is almost dry so they should move soon, they have had a few more workers that have eclosed.


Formica Pallidefulva are doing good there are new workers every few days and always have pupae and a few large larvae and lots of eggs, some of the workers gasters are really huge and filled with food.


Camponotus deciepens have been doing really well and growing super fast, they have workers foraging all the time now and tons of brood, I think they even have some major or median pupae because some of the pupae are twice the size of the others.



The tetramorium colony is doing good in their new setup but have blocked all visibility with soil and there are these mites that are in the garbage piles but I haven’t seen any on the ants. Also, when they eat only a few will eat from the protein source and most will usually take pieces of sand and absorb the guts into the sand and carry that into the nest.

Myrmica queens are doing good, one has a large larvae and another one has a small batch of eggs, and then one has no eggs.

Prenelopis imparis are doing good and have more larvae and a nice pile of eggs.

Caught two more camponotus queens last week, one didn’t have wings but had a gooey thing attached to its gaster and some of it came off but she died a few days later. The other one is pulling on the cotton and still has her wings.

Nice! It seams like your colonies are thriving!

Your Camponotus sp. looks like vicinus. I have a founding pair that look just like that.

Your Camponotus sp. looks like vicinus. I have a founding pair that look just like that.

Are your camponotus vicinus queens founding together? Also, thanks for the ID.

All the ant colonies are doing well and have good amounts of brood. I tried to feed them chicken and a lot of the colonies liked it.

Prenelopis imparis are doing well and have one larvae that looks ready to pupate.



Camponotus pennsylvanicus Queen was doing good and had 6 eggs but her water turned pink and she abandoned her eggs.



I caught 6 brachymyrmex sp queens and they already have a nice sized pile of eggs however only 1 queen has shed their wings which doesn’t necessarily mean anything.



I also caught 3 solenopsis molesta which all have their wings and I cannot tell if they have eggs.



Camponotus sp are doing well and are now at 3 workers with a few more on the way, I moved them out of the mini hearth because they preferred the test tube that was connected to the mini hearth.




Formica Pallidefulva are doing well and have more brood and lots of workers and there have been no deaths for a long time. It’s hard to take pictures of these because the glass is not great.



Camponotus deciepens are doing really well and already have 2 majors which you cannot see in the pictures, they also have a large brood pile that is hidden.







Tetramorium are doing great and have tons of workers foraging, so their numbers have increased a lot since they have moved in there. It’s hard to see all the workers in the picture but there are lots of them.



The camponotus vicinus got to workers and both got 2 around the same time and I decided to try to see if they would merge colonies and so far it’s been successful, and no workers or queens have been aggressive. I also decided to give the mini hearth to them.



Lasius sp are doing really well and have a lot more workers than I thought and have moved into the nest after a while and they have a lot of room to grow.







Pheidole sp have been moved into a new setup with are larger outworld and better visibility so that I can see why the workers seem to eclose and then disappear.

Myrmica are doing good and both queens have large larvae.

Your colonies all look really healthy! Nice!

No pictures right now. A lot has been happening with my other pets for a while.
Camponotus Vicinus are doing good and have 12+ workers and both queens.
I caught a crematogaster Queen 2 months ago and she has tons of workers.
Unidentified camponotus is doing fine, she hasn’t been able to get more than 4 workers before she kills one.
Sadly the prenelopis imparis randomly died overnight, they were fine in the tube during the night but the next morning everything was dead.
Camponotus Deciepens has been doing very well and the colony is a good size.
Formica Pallidefulva is doing well with lots of workers.
Lasius sp are doing good, pretty lazy like normal.
The tetramorium colony was doing really well, and then less workers came out and I haven’t seen any for a while, so I looked where all their chambers were in the dirt and nothing was there so I dug in the dirt and didn’t see anything so I’m guessing they died.
Most of my colonies are in diapause.
I won’t be catching anymore queens unless a colony dies, as I don’t have enough room at the moment.

Amazing species!

I was bored so I decided to take some really bad pictures.

Camponotus Vicinus
I’m pretty excited for these whenever I take them out which could be in 1 or 2 months they started diapause during mid October


Camponotus Sp
Hopefully the queen doesn’t kill off her workers this year however she still has 4.


Camponotus Deciepens
This colony is weird and decided to spread out all over the nest during diapause no idea why every other colony clumped together.


Formica Pallidefulva
It’s very hard to take pictures of these because they all start running around, plus I decided the extra money for museum glass wasn’t worth it... which was a mistake.


Lasius sp
I took them out of diapause and they have a nice amount of eggs, I put them in pretty early, I think around October or late September.


Crematogaster sp
This queen was darker than all others I have gotten and she was a bit bulkier, she has been very productive I caught her in fall and I fed her 6 mealworms which was enough to get to around 50 workers which surprised me then they stopped producing brood.

That Camponotus species is most likely sansabeanus.

That Camponotus species is most likely sansabeanus.

That’s what I’m assuming, according to antwiki and ant web surrounding states have them. A lot of the ants I see haven’t been recorded from what I’ve seen such as tetramorium however you see tons of them, they are probably recorded somewhere I’m not looking. I mostly use ant wiki which is probably not super reliable but it can help sometimes.

Nice looking colonies! I’m super jealous of the F. pallidefulva colony.