10 replies to this topic

[MunnyBadger]

Hi all! I'm a newbie to ant keeping and have some questions and musings on keeping Myrmecocystus. After looking through a lot of the myrmecocystus ant journals here, and discussions on the reddit and discord, it seems that the genus as a whole has a high failure rate. Seeing as though I'm expecting a small colony (5-15 workers) of Myrmecocystus Placodrops and a Myrmecocystus Mimicus queen this week, I'd like to get some thoughts on how to set them up for success.

 

My first thought is to have to move them as little as possible, since the repletes can't move, and thus the moving process is sudden and forced. From what I've seen this doesn't matter too much for larger developed colonies, but I imagine a forced move could be a large set-back for smaller colonies. the solution to this, in my mind, is to set them up in such a way that you never have to move them once you get them to a formicarium from a test tube.

 

There seems to be two ways to accomplish this:

 

1. A naturalistic vivarium with deep substrate so that they can expand their nest as they see fit.

 

2. A large formicarium, where you can block off most of it and unblock it in stages as the colony grows.

 

I'm personally leaning towards option 2 since the coolest part of honeypots is, well, seeing the honeypots! Which would be much more difficult in a naturalistic viv. One thing I'm not sure about would be how to block off the rest of the formicarium. What would you think about filling up the portions of the formicarium to be blocked off with soil so they can dig in as needed, much like a naturalistic viv but with the benefit of a better viewing experience? I've considered stuffing it with cotton but I feel it wouldn't look as nice. Maybe acrylic partitions? Has anyone tried this? If not, I'm still curious to hear your thoughts on whether it would work or not. 

 

One of the other things I've seen give Myrmecocystus keepers problems is flooding. Sometimes in the outworld because of water-towers, and other times in the test-tube. What ways have you guys found to avoid this? In the test tube, is it flooding because the ants attach the soil we provide for their pupae to the cotton? How can I avoid these flooding issues?

 

The final thing I'm curious about is I've seen keepers feeding the queens as they tend their brood, before the nanitics emerge. Is this best practice? From my understanding they're fully claustral, but if it can increase their chance of success I'm more than happy to fed them some honey or sugar water during the founding stage.

 

I'd really appreciate your feedback and ideas on this. I want to set them up to grow into mature and thriving colonies, and any tips are very welcome. 

 

PS I'm also getting a Camponotus US-CA-02. I've read through Bleepers journal on these, as well as a few others, and they seem to give keepers far less trouble than Myrmecocystus, but I'll happily accept any Genus or species specific tips on these as well. 

 

Thank-you for reading! I'm going to start a journal here on all three of them when they come in. I hope to see you guys there as well!

Edited by MunnyBadger, May 4 2025 - 10:23 AM.

[bmb1bee]

Myrmecocystus don’t really have high failure rates. It’s just that people often overcomplicate their founding stage or don’t have them heated well. Done right, they shouldn’t be much more difficult than most other ants. As for your colonies, I’d recommend starting from something like a mini hearth then just expanding by connecting it to more nests when they get more workers.

[MunnyBadger]

Myrmecocystus don’t really have high failure rates. It’s just that people often overcomplicate their founding stage or don’t have them heated well. Done right, they shouldn’t be much more difficult than most other ants. As for your colonies, I’d recommend starting from something like a mini hearth then just expanding by connecting it to more nests when they get more workers.

 

I may try that. I'm going to try and DIY the formicariums. Might try making something like the PioneerXL from THA and blocking of chambers, or making a mini hearth and expanding from there

[ANTdrew]

I can’t say I’ve ever seen anyone blocking off chambers in a way that worked well and looked good. It’s one of those ideas that floats around in ant-keeping, but isn’t really practical, like the idea of a free-range colony or captive breeding queens.

[kiedeerk]

The same questions I am going to ask, are these colonies from last year? or fresh ones from this season? because if they are from last year they are probably not well taken care of

[Ants_Dakota]

The same questions I am going to ask, are these colonies from last year? or fresh ones from this season? because if they are from last year they are probably not well taken care of

Kiedeerk has an excellent point. Where did you get the colonies from? Certain ant suppliers in the US are notoriously bad at caring for their colonies after nanitics leading to issues like those you mentioned, with high mortality rates. Colonies not well cared for initially often experience long term detrimental effects that leave new ant keepers confused and believing that they were the cause of the death or slow growth (which can be the case, but is not always. Many new ant keepers on this forum are like yourself and have done their research well before purchasing and caring for a colony and treat them with the utmost consideration) while the business gets off scott free with $60 in their back pocket. I am not as familiar as Kiedeerk with Myrmecocystus due to my location but, if shop data says anything, these colonies with workers are usually available in the mid summer, meaning yours could be from last years flight. All this to say that the idea of Myrmecocystus being hard to keep is further harmed by businesses selling ants with only money in mind, but nothing a dedicated ant keeper can't overcome, albeit with more care than may have been originally required.

Edited by Ants_Dakota, May 4 2025 - 7:10 PM.

[MunnyBadger]

I can’t say I’ve ever seen anyone blocking off chambers in a way that worked well and looked good. It’s one of those ideas that floats around in ant-keeping, but isn’t really practical, like the idea of a free-range colony or captive breeding queens.

 

I certainly wouldn't try to do a "free-range colony" XD That just sounds like having an ant problem in the house. I might continue workshopping the idea of blocking chambers, but if no one has done it successfully yet, I don't imagine that I would be the first.

 

The same questions I am going to ask, are these colonies from last year? or fresh ones from this season? because if they are from last year they are probably not well taken care of

 

 

 

The same questions I am going to ask, are these colonies from last year? or fresh ones from this season? because if they are from last year they are probably not well taken care of

Kiedeerk has an excellent point. Where did you get the colonies from? Certain ant suppliers in the US are notoriously bad at caring for their colonies after nanitics leading to issues like those you mentioned, with high mortality rates. Colonies not well cared for initially often experience long term detrimental effects that leave new ant keepers confused and believing that they were the cause of the death or slow growth (which can be the case, but is not always. Many new ant keepers on this forum are like yourself and have done their research well before purchasing and caring for a colony and treat them with the utmost consideration) while the business gets off scott free with $60 in their back pocket. I am not as familiar as Kiedeerk with Myrmecocystus due to my location but, if shop data says anything, these colonies with workers are usually available in the mid summer, meaning yours could be from last years flight. All this to say that the idea of Myrmecocystus being hard to keep is further harmed by businesses selling ants with only money in mind, but nothing a dedicated ant keeper can't overcome, albeit with more care than may have been originally required.

 

 

I'm not sure. The Myrmecocystus could be from last year? Antwiki says the Placodops fly in August, and the mimicus fly in June, July, and August so I suppose they probably are. I can PM you two regarding the vendor, I don't want to badmouth anyone, especially when I'm not familiar enough to know if someone is not up to standard. 

 

The Camponotus CA02 seem to have reports of flights in early April so hopefully she's fresh at least

 

PS: Kiedeerk: I love your journal. Lots of interesting species. I wish we got an Odontomachus over here in CA! And Ants_Dakota, I binged your Lasius journal this afternoon. I'm feeling pretty inspired to try and hunt down a Lasius queen this year lol

[Ants_Dakota]

I'm not sure. The Myrmecocystus could be from last year? Antwiki says the Placodops fly in August, and the mimicus fly in June, July, and August so I suppose they probably are. I can PM you two regarding the vendor, I don't want to badmouth anyone, especially when I'm not familiar enough to know if someone is not up to standard. 

 

The Camponotus CA02 seem to have reports of flights in early April so hopefully she's fresh at least

 

PS: Kiedeerk: I love your journal. Lots of interesting species. I wish we got an Odontomachus over here in CA! And Ants_Dakota, I binged your Lasius journal this afternoon. I'm feeling pretty inspired to try and hunt down a Lasius queen this year lol

 

I am glad you enjoyed it! I would love to hear about your Lasius hunting in CA as I don't hear about that species being found there very often.

[bmb1bee]

The ca02 are likely from this season. As for placodops and mimicus, they're probably from this year as well since people catch the 01 variant around February.

[MunnyBadger]

The ca02 are likely from this season. As for placodops and mimicus, they're probably from this year as well since people catch the 01 variant around February.

 

Hmm.. I could see that. Whether they're from last year or not, all I can do is give them the best care I can.

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

While i've only kept the one colony so far, i'm a fan of separated nests and outworlds, rather than an all in one.
An outworld attached by tube can be maintained (add food and water/clean up) without overly disturbing the nest.
Not that it's a big deal really, but it is nice to do outworld work and not see the whole colony freak out because their nest is being vibrated too and they think they are under attack.

As well you can't give them too much outworld, and the more you can give the more of their wild behaviors you can see if the illusion of going "outside" is convincing to them.

 

And a decently planed nest can have several ports available on it for expanding as the colony grows by just adding on, rather than needing a full move out from one nest to the next.
This way you can expand as needed, but don't need to figure out keeping their in use nest space small, while there is already a lot more nest there from the start.
Also by expanding with add on nests as you go, you can check out some variety to try a mix of side and top down views into their nest life. While doing one big nest up front is a commitment you can get stuck in for no real need.

I tend to plan around being lazy/ease of upkeep as a high priority factor for me. And a far as i could tell it looked like real dirt setups are a general higher level of ongoing effort to keep over time. Which is why i choose crafted nests rather than natural dirt setups.