34 replies to this topic

[Ants_Dakota]

 

Formica are exceedingly difficult to keep. Sorry for the loss. Hopefully some day someone will crack the code to successfully raise a colony to maturity.

I'd disagree with Formica as a genus being difficult to keep. They will do pretty well if heated well and fed consistently. Although I may have less experience with the genus than some others, my founding colonies are doing pretty well so far. Ants_Dakota's colony seemed to be doing pretty well up until the mold popped up. Otherwise they would've been alright with warmish temperatures and frequent feedings. My advice would be to keep an eye on humidity levels in the tube, since Formica tend to be pretty messy and will scatter food and waste everywhere. Mold will definitely grow in those conditions. I also think it helps to move them to a nest after a dozen or so workers, since in a tube they'll mess up the sponges and cotton on the inside. Hope these tips come in handy for anyone thinking of starting their own Formica colonies. 

 

Anyway, my condolences for your loss of the queen. Wishing the best of luck for having success with another colony!

 

I do agree with your analysis, raising Formica queens to workers is very easy; they were some of the first colonies I kept. But ANTdrew is right, it always seems like something slightly wrong happens sometime down the line, and Formica just can't take it as long as most other ants. Had I known about the mold, I would have moved them pretty quickly, but I had no time. Interestingly, it seems like this colony was pretty clean: whenever they brought food inside the test tube, they would bring it out whenever finished, minus the extra large piece of mealworm they could not fit back out the entrance hole that was the source of the mold in the images above. How have your colonies been in their nest? I worry they might be even more mess, and that has kept me from moving this colony into a nest I already had prepared. RushmoreAnts had a negative experience when he moved a colony of his into a nest too early just this past year, and I don't want to repeat that.

[Ants_Dakota]

 

 

Formica are exceedingly difficult to keep. Sorry for the loss. Hopefully some day someone will crack the code to successfully raise a colony to maturity.

I'd disagree with Formica as a genus being difficult to keep. They will do pretty well if heated well and fed consistently. Although I may have less experience with the genus than some others, my founding colonies are doing pretty well so far. Ants_Dakota's colony seemed to be doing pretty well up until the mold popped up. Otherwise they would've been alright with warmish temperatures and frequent feedings. My advice would be to keep an eye on humidity levels in the tube, since Formica tend to be pretty messy and will scatter food and waste everywhere. Mold will definitely grow in those conditions. I also think it helps to move them to a nest after a dozen or so workers, since in a tube they'll mess up the sponges and cotton on the inside. Hope these tips come in handy for anyone thinking of starting their own Formica colonies.

Anyway, my condolences for your loss of the queen. Wishing the best of luck for having success with another colony!

When you show us a *mature* Formica colony, then I will agree with you. I can’t point to one mature Formica colony documented on FC in all my years on here. They say Mack from THA has one, but I haven’t seen any documentation of it. That colony may be another ant-keeping urban legend.

 

From my memory, dtrmiller and Mack are the only ones who have had a large colony on this forum, and Mack's is documented here: https://www.youtube....XlxJyQ#ddg-play. Given, that was 6 years ago, so it is unknown if that still exists.

Edited by Ants_Dakota, May 24 2025 - 5:17 AM.

[bmb1bee]

 

When you show us a *mature* Formica colony, then I will agree with you. I can’t point to one mature Formica colony documented on FC in all my years on here. They say Mack from THA has one, but I haven’t seen any documentation of it. That colony may be another ant-keeping urban legend.

I'll be looking forward to doing so, since this year I plan on completely locking into keeping colonies of the genus. The only problem with mature colonies of these, and virtually any other ants, is that they need a ton of food. Since Formica really like lepidopterans, I've got a silkworm culture set up to keep them going long term. As for good-sized Formica colonies, they do exist, just probably really uncommon. I've seen some from Discord servers, although they're likely collected portions of polygynous colonies (which seem to be thriving long-term). UtahAnts got close to a nice colony in his journal here, but it seems he wasn't able to keep up with them. 

[bmb1bee]

 I do agree with your analysis, raising Formica queens to workers is very easy; they were some of the first colonies I kept. But ANTdrew is right, it always seems like something slightly wrong happens sometime down the line, and Formica just can't take it as long as most other ants. Had I known about the mold, I would have moved them pretty quickly, but I had no time. Interestingly, it seems like this colony was pretty clean: whenever they brought food inside the test tube, they would bring it out whenever finished, minus the extra large piece of mealworm they could not fit back out the entrance hole that was the source of the mold in the images above. How have your colonies been in their nest? I worry they might be even more mess, and that has kept me from moving this colony into a nest I already had prepared. RushmoreAnts had a negative experience when he moved a colony of his into a nest too early just this past year, and I don't want to repeat that.

My colonies so far have been cleaner in a nest than in a tube, although perhaps it's because I use cotton for my tubes and it just looks dirtier compared to with sponges. In tubes they tend to scatter food remains and regurgitated fluids into the cotton on the water end, though they do move the larger chunks of food over to the front for me to clean up. I find that small nests like Petri dishes or "Formisquariums" are pretty good to start with, since Mini Hearths have too much volume. My Formica obscuripes grew pretty quickly despite being moved to a small nest with around 20-30 workers. There's enough brood to cover about half the nest floor now, so I'll have to move them soon.

[ANTdrew]

If large colonies are “probably really uncommon,” then that basically proves my point. It is high time to stop calling Formica an easy genus to keep. I truly hope you or someone else will eventually crack the code to their care, though.

[RushmoreAnts]

 RushmoreAnts had a negative experience when he moved a colony of his into a nest too early just this past year, and I don't want to repeat that.

 

The pallidefulva was due to lack of heat. And the 'negative experience' was the colony not growing, which is typical of most ants. Once I put them back on heat their brood started developing like normal, and they now have 15 large larvae and pupae and ~25 eggs and small larvae. The argentea was due to the nest just overall sucking. I won't mention the brand, but a nest that can't hold humidity for more than 24 hours isn't conducive to a healthy colony. My Tetras hate it. That says a lot.

Edited by RushmoreAnts, May 25 2025 - 6:20 AM.

[Ants_Dakota]

 

 I do agree with your analysis, raising Formica queens to workers is very easy; they were some of the first colonies I kept. But ANTdrew is right, it always seems like something slightly wrong happens sometime down the line, and Formica just can't take it as long as most other ants. Had I known about the mold, I would have moved them pretty quickly, but I had no time. Interestingly, it seems like this colony was pretty clean: whenever they brought food inside the test tube, they would bring it out whenever finished, minus the extra large piece of mealworm they could not fit back out the entrance hole that was the source of the mold in the images above. How have your colonies been in their nest? I worry they might be even more mess, and that has kept me from moving this colony into a nest I already had prepared. RushmoreAnts had a negative experience when he moved a colony of his into a nest too early just this past year, and I don't want to repeat that.

My colonies so far have been cleaner in a nest than in a tube, although perhaps it's because I use cotton for my tubes and it just looks dirtier compared to with sponges. In tubes they tend to scatter food remains and regurgitated fluids into the cotton on the water end, though they do move the larger chunks of food over to the front for me to clean up. I find that small nests like Petri dishes or "Formisquariums" are pretty good to start with, since Mini Hearths have too much volume. My Formica obscuripes grew pretty quickly despite being moved to a small nest with around 20-30 workers. There's enough brood to cover about half the nest floor now, so I'll have to move them soon.

 

Do you mind sharing the dimensions of your formicarium? That does sound like a very productive colony.

[RushmoreAnts]

 

 RushmoreAnts had a negative experience when he moved a colony of his into a nest too early just this past year, and I don't want to repeat that.

 

The pallidefulva was due to lack of heat. And the 'negative experience' was the colony not growing, which is typical of most ants. Once I put them back on heat their brood started developing like normal, and they now have 15 large larvae and pupae and ~25 eggs and small larvae. The argentea was due to the nest just overall sucking. I won't mention the brand, but a nest that can't hold humidity for more than 24 hours isn't conducive to a healthy colony. My Tetras hate it. That says a lot.

 

Also I didn't move them too early, their test tubes were molding and drying up. 

[bmb1bee]

Do you mind sharing the dimensions of your formicarium? That does sound like a very productive colony.

The nest itself is about 3x3x1 inches, but the actual depth that the ants have to nest in is less than 1 cm. It's pretty much the same thing as the Formisquariums from Arthropod Antics. I personally think that too much volume, like with founding colonies in mini hearths, causes them to be less active and trash up the inside of their nests a lot more. Sanded nests are recommended since they do prefer to use a substrate for larvae pupating, but it's not much of a problem if they don't have it and start making naked pupae. The only problem with not having substrate is that they might use insect remains for pupation. Naked pupae will develop perfectly fine and usually don't result in any problems.

[bmb1bee]

If large colonies are “probably really uncommon,” then that basically proves my point. It is high time to stop calling Formica an easy genus to keep. I truly hope you or someone else will eventually crack the code to their care, though.

They are honestly not much more difficult to keep than most other ants commonly available in the hobby, such as Camponotus for instance. It's just that people tend to not keep them long term because 1) they think Formica are boring (which is subjective) or 2) they don't want to commit to the amount of food the colonies consume and would rather save it for other ants they have. 

[MyrmecologyMaven]

Aweful loss. I'll be watching my F. montana colony I got from you closely!

[Ants_Dakota]

 

Do you mind sharing the dimensions of your formicarium? That does sound like a very productive colony.

The nest itself is about 3x3x1 inches, but the actual depth that the ants have to nest in is less than 1 cm. It's pretty much the same thing as the Formisquariums from Arthropod Antics. I personally think that too much volume, like with founding colonies in mini hearths, causes them to be less active and trash up the inside of their nests a lot more. Sanded nests are recommended since they do prefer to use a substrate for larvae pupating, but it's not much of a problem if they don't have it and start making naked pupae. The only problem with not having substrate is that they might use insect remains for pupation. Naked pupae will develop perfectly fine and usually don't result in any problems.

 

Does it have a water tower or is it passive hydration? I agree with you, TarHeel ants formicaria are way to big for most ants except Camponotus.

[bmb1bee]

Does it have a water tower or is it passive hydration? I agree with you, TarHeel ants formicaria are way to big for most ants except Camponotus.

It's just passive hydration, where the plaster soaks up water from the reservoir at the bottom. I've filled it up with a bit of sand, so that it could last a bit longer than if there were none.

[Ants_Dakota]

Ants_Dakota's Formica sp. Journal

Update 3.5: We begin again

6/6/2025

There are two rules I have set for myself in antkeeping that I think very hard about before crossing: Don't purchase ant colonies and don't collect wild colonies. There is a lot of depth behind both of these rules, and I want to unpack a little bit behind the one I decided to cross a week ago: Do not collect wild colonies.

You may not be as serious about this rule as I am. After all, many of us got into ant keeping by seeing or collecting wild colonies, and besides, raising a colony from just a queen takes forever and does not always work out. On top of that, wild-caught colonies seem to do so much better in captivity than raised colonies. What makes this so bad? I could spend a long time explaining reasons, so instead, let me list them out.

1. Larger colonies in the wild have a strong influence on the area around them. Often they inhabit the most fertile area's of the local region. Removing them presents a perfect opportunity for invasive species to come in and steal prime real estate. If you live in an area with a rapidly advancing invasive species, you removing a growing colony directly contributes to this advance.
2. Wild-caught colonies are the best of the best genetically; the "fittest" in natural selection terms. Whenever you remove this colony from the wild, the local population loses a major contributor to propagating the next generation with healthy and fertile queens.
3. Collecting colonies from the wild demonstrates impatience. You may not even claim that as a reason, but it is true. If you really want rarer species that bad, spend time researching and testing methods of predicting their flights and catching them.
4. Collecting colonies reinforces impatience, which creates a cycle of distaste when you try to raise colonies from queens.
5. Wild-caught colonies, in some cases, do not take well to captivity. This is especially the case of cryptic species.
6. People who collect wild colonies can get larger colonies at a fast rate, and often do not have the proper resources to care for them adequately or ethically. 
7. While you may currently be able to care for the large influx of new and large colonies, if a busy time in your life hits, your colonies will suffer or die because you have not built up good habits.
8. Single-colony owners who are content with just a few colonies usually care for them the best. Look at Full_Frontal_Yeti.
9. Ultimately, and in the long run, few wild-caught colonies make it to the kind of maturity they would in the wild. I have probably killed a dozen wild-caught colonies when I first started keeping ants, and if you keep collecting them, you may too. Most colonies don't make it to maturity in captivity for a variety of reasons, but the important thing to note is that, if your colony was raised from a queen, she would also likely not have made it to maturity in the wild, whereas your collected colony DID, and you ended that success.

There are probably a dozen or more reasons I forgot to add as well, and more that will come up in the future. That being said, if you disagree with this, I would love to hear your perspective too.

So, what lead me to type this out? Well, I collected a wild colony for the first time in probably 5 or more years. I will admit, part of it was emotional as I had just lost my prized Formica subsericea colony to unknown reasons, but there were many logical reasons as well. The colony was tiny, with less than 10 and likely less than 5 workers. This colony had a very small impact on it's local environment because of this and was not close to producing alates. The colony also had no brood, potentially signaling an unhealthy queen, as many other colonies in the area had brood. While these reasons do not justify collecting a wild colony, they do lessen the harm.

As a small side note, there can be correct ways to collect wild colonies. For example, rptraut has convinced colonies of Tapinoma sessile to live in a formicarium, demonstrating that the conditions of the formicarium were better than the conditions of the wild, and thus that the colonies would do better in captivity. This is, however, the exception.

In the end, while I am not for collecting wild colonies, there are some ways to do it better than others. As long as you do not make it a habit and focus on raising colonies from queens, an occasional collected small colony can be ok.

With that all being said, and with not a small amount of apprehension, I am privileged to have the chance of keeping, for the first time, a colony from the Formica neogagates group (to be introduced in a future post, I am hungry).

Edited by Ants_Dakota, June 7 2025 - 2:03 PM.

[Ants_Dakota]

Ants_Dakota's Formica sp. Journal

Entry 3: Formica neogagates group

6/7/2025

Background

The Formica neogagates group is generally very scarce in South Dakota due to it being more cryptic in nature and enjoying the woodland more than open plains, but it is present here nonetheless. I often call them "woodland Formica" because of their presence in forested areas. I caught a queen of a similar or identical species in the Black Hills several years ago, but she turned out to be unmated. Besides that, I have seen few colonies and no other queens over my 10 years of antkeeping. This is a species I have wanted to keep for a while, and I am very excited and quite hopeful I can raise them to formicarium level.

Notable Journals

bmb1bee's Formica Journal (updated 3 Jun. 2025) (if they ever update for pictures)

CatsnAnts Collective Journal (HUGE picture update - Ants + Formicarium - 7-13-2020) Some good images of a Formica neogagates queen and colony in there

CatsnAnts All-In-One Journal - Attempt 2! Some more images of a Formica neogagates group, likely not the same as the colony I have

LC3's Formica hewitti journal [Jul/17/2020] My colony is not Formica hewitti, but there is an image of a Formica neogagates queen there.

UA's Formica Files A beautiful colony of Formica neogagates group ants, but not all black like my queen

Identification

For those of you that do not know, AntWiki has an incredibly helpful list of Formica Species Groups that help us Formica enthusiasts narrow down the potential species a queen could be based on general characteristics. Because Formica is such a diverse genus, in general, it is best to classify your queen or colony based on the species group until you have keyed them out or done a lot of research with images. This helps you get a more accurate ID and prevents others from being misled if you hastily ID and get a species incorrect.

My colony

 

A beautiful pile of eggs

 

Very shiny workers, although the lighting makes it hard to tell

 

Small and shiny queen, exactly what this species group is known for

 

Even this shiny queen has many visible hairs on her head

 

An image from today after they drank a lot of hummingbird nectar

 

I am quite hopeful for this colony's future and I look forward to future updates! Let me know if you have any ID ideas or if they look similar to a personal colony of yours.