27 replies to this topic

[aqandres4]

This post was removed.

Edited by aqandres4, July 21 2016 - 7:51 PM.

[Loops117]

Don't give up! I think i'm doing really good, and i've spent a grand total of $16 on supplies. $6 of which was for messing around and on grout i've yet to use. You can make an outworld and nest for literally $3, not to mention you can make them out of almost anything (trust me). Last night i made an all acrylic nest for $5.60. It's too big for all of my colonies, so i'll be making a much smaller version for $2.60 today.  You can also feed your colony food from your house. A small crumb to you could be a week or two's worth of food for a colony. Out of all my hobbys, this is by far the most cheapest, most captivating, and most rewarding.

Edited by Loops117, June 8 2016 - 4:34 AM.

[TheAnswerIsTheLogic]

Oh come on , u can still keep ants even on some modified bottle if you got imagination u don't need to spend anything. And money? Money for what u can just catch some insects to feed them . I don't know about you country, but on my country materials are cheaper. I can do a big formicarium with 1$.However, if you think that.Is the correct thing and u know better than us.

[NightsWebs]

The time you spend in this hobby should be you observing your ants and their behaviors.  The true enjoyment comes from learning what these amazing creatures can and will do to thrive.  I am sorry you think a jar or a plastic box with some dirt in it is too expensive.  In any case, good luck with your future endeavors.

[Loops117]

Honestly, this is a very cost effective hobby. They'll even come to you if you do it right.

[Reacker]

You're under a false impression that is really new to the English speaking ant keeping community.

 

Even 3 or 4 years ago for someone to say that the cost is a prohibitive factor in preventing them from keeping ants would be unheard of because only in the last couple of years have we had a proliferation of successful ant supply stores in the US giving new people the impression that their multi-hundred dollar shiny acrylic nests with 3d printed chambers and engineered hydration systems are necessary to keep ants. Before that all of the new people were just keeping ants in whatever containers were available. Keeping your ants in cheap glass test tubes used to be enough to put you ahead of the curve of average ant keepers because it meant you weren't keeping your ants in old drinking straws and soda bottles like literally scores of people. There are still people who do this by the way.

 

 

As nice as they are, it is completely unnecessary to buy anything from ant stores to keep ants.  You also do not need to buy ants to keep ants. You can find them everywhere for free with practice. This is what the people selling ants do, and they learned how for free on the internet. Here are a few examples of cheap formicarium ideas that cost less than 10 dollars to put together if you shop well:

 

1) A big jar with dirt. You get an old large pickle jar and fill it with dirt about 2/3 of the way. Poke a lot of holes in the lid that are too small to allow the ants to escape while also allowing excess humidity to escape. Water it until the entire thing is moist but not muddy and then pack the dirt down as hard as you can so it doesn't collapse while the ants are digging and when you add more water in the future. Put the ants in the jar. If you get a species that sucks at climbing you don't even need the lid. Alternatively a line of thinly applied vegetable oil from the pantry works, but you have to apply it every week or two as it wears out quickly. If you want to see the ants underground occasionally, put black paper or foil or whatever around the jar and only uncover it occasionally. The ants naturally will build their cambers against the glass as long as it's not bright.

Cost: free, if you like pickles. Or the cost of a large jar of pickles.

 

2) The same thing, except with a 10 gallon aquarium bought for 2 or 3 dollars form the thrift store or a yard sale. You might have an old one in your garage even.  This is good because it gives lots of room, and gives you better options for watering than just pouring into the top of the container. Get a funnel with a long tube and jam a big, irregularly shaped stone into the bottom very tightly. The stone needs to leave some gaps so that water can sneak past, but not large enough that the ants can really get past it into the funnel. Then put a few loose stones after the blocking stone and then fill the rest of the tube with dirt up to the widening part. Bury the tube of the funnel so that the end of the tube is near the bottom of the aquarium but with at least an inch or two above it. Now you can water your ants without flooding the top. Oil around the top as before.

Cost: used aquarium, large funnel.

 

3) A test tube inside a cheap plastic storage box from walmart. The bottom of the container can have a centimeter of random dirt or sand or whatever, just so long as it's dry. Alternatively you can have no dirt but a piece of modelling clay from the dollar store holding the test tube steady. This way the ants can optionally build a plug for their tube, but not obscure your vision of the tube. Add more tubes as necessary. This was my favorite method because it was cheap, stackable, and provided great visibility. Oil the top as before.

Cost: a test tube, a cheap plastic containter, maybe modelling clay or dirt.

 

The above nests work great for both new queens and various sized colonies (though with the jar and aquarium that's a lot of waiting an not knowing if your queens were successful before you see workers) Two cheap methods for keeping new queens visibly:

 

1) A traditional test tube, with the end plugged with more cotton. If there are species that don't work with this method, I have yet to find them. Even termites will work in this, though you'll want to make the water plug cotton extra thick as the termites will slowly eat it.

Cost: a test tube.

 

2) An older method that works but which I haven't seen in ages. You take a plastic cd case and remove the paper jacket. Then make a thick ring of cotton inside it. Maybe put some dirt inside. Put the queen inside the ring. Close the CD case. Water through a crack into the cotton ring. Instant claustral cell. here's a picture of one:

Cost: and old cd case from an album that you probably don't care about. You can also buy these separately.

 

 

The above methods are great because they require mostly stuff you already have in your kitchen and bathroom cupboards and which can otherwise be acquired very cheaply even in small towns. Test tubes are a bit tricky cost wise because they're extremely cheap if you buy a large order online form a supplier, but 2 or 3 dollars individually to buy from a physical local store unless you're lucky and live somewhere with a store that sells a ton of this stuff. I recommend buying in bulk.

 

To collect ants all you need is a medium sized bucket, a shovel of some sort (this can be a hand trowel for gardening), a spoon for sorting ants from dirt without hurting them (you can usually use your fingers if you're careful though), and either some tubes (centrifuge tubes are really cheap online and not fragile like glass) or some small tupperware containers. Or any smallish containers really. Even empty soda bottles can be used for collection. This is all you need to collect ants successfully. And if you're after queens all you need is a couple tubes. Ant collection is really cheap. The biggest cost is the practice in knowing how to find queens and colonies. I remember when I started it felt impossible but after a couple months it clicked for me and now today I can't go outside without scanning the ground for queens and I usually find one if it's early in the day and I'm actively looking. There is a good chance you already have all of the required materials to make a cheap ant collection kit. With only a few months practice in finding ants, you will come to find that it is ridiculous to think that buying ants is necessary to keep them. There are some advantages to being able to buy ants if you can afford it, but don't confuse convenience with necessity as many new ant keepers in the forum chat seem to be doing.

 

When you buy a formicarium online, you're not paying for a device to keep ants so much as a device that simulates as much as possible the conditions of an anthill in the dirt, without any of the dirt or darkness or natural hydrating properties of soil. The primary goal is perfect visibility of all aspects of ant colony life, and in some cases to also not look like cobbled together lab equipment. That so many ants can flourish in these ridiculously artificial conditions is a testament to the adaptability of ants. Test tube nests in plastic basins accomplish all of those goals with the exception of pleasing aesthetics, and they do so cheaply. Even in dirtquarium style nests you can still observe lots of interesting ant behavior.

 

Feeding ants is similarly simple for a lot of species. If the ants you're trying to feed are very common in urban areas, you can usually get away with feeding them pretty much whatever you want. Jam, bread, honey, sugar water, lunch meet, chicken, random live insects you collect from areas you know don't have pesticides (the insect being alive is usually a good indication of this). A lot of ants have specialized dietary requirements or are otherwise picky, but a huge number don't and will eat whatever garbage (both figurative and literal)) you give them.

 

 

 

In a lot of places in the US, pavement ants (Tetramorium) are flying right now. If you wake up around sunrise and wander around the neighborhood looking at the sidewalk and driveways you stand a good chance of catching a few. They can be put in tubes or whatever together in large groups and will make more workers faster than individual queens will (I have done extensive testing with this species on this very subject to find this out). You don't need to worry about feeding them until they have their first workers. They are very easy to keep as adult colonies and I think even a beginner can have good success with them. There are other species like this. A good sign that a species of ant will be easy to keep is if they are common in heavily landscaped areas and otherwise around human habitation.

 

So to you and other new ant keepers thinking the same as what you are thinking, good luck and remember that you can do an excellent job keeping ants for less than 20 dollars total. Any additional expenditures are truly optional.

Edited by Reacker, June 8 2016 - 1:11 PM.

[drtrmiller]

Keeping ants is little different from other common activities—owning a dog, gardening, or grilling a steak.

 

Hell—you can [censored] with your own hand for free, or you can spend $5,499 on one of these (very NSFW, 18+ link).  Just because commercial products exist for an activity, doesn't mean that people will forgo the activity if they are unable to afford the most premium or expensive tools of the trade.

 

Like a dog:

 

• Dog owners may adopt for free or little money, or they may choose to pay exorbitant amounts of money for a desired breed.  
• Dog owners may feed household scraps, or they may choose to buy pre-made diets and treats that range from inexpensive to moderately expensive.  
• Dog owners may let their pet run unencumbered through the house or yard, sleeping on the floor or ground, feeding from tupperware containers filled with water or food, or they may choose to invest in dog toys, beds, houses, bowls, collars, and other accessories at their option.

Like a garden:

 

• Gardeners may obtain seeds or cuttings for free or little money, or they may choose to buy them or young plants.
• Gardeners may manually water and irrigate their plants, or they may choose to invest in sprinklers or fully automated and integrated irrigation systems.
• Gardeners may use inexpensive manual tools and household scraps like eggshells and compost waste as fertilizer, or they may choose to buy any number of automatic tools and soil treatments, or even a whole greenhouse, ranging from inexpensive to extremely expensive.

Like a steak:

 

• If you want to eat a steak, you may buy a slab of raw meat from the market, or you may choose to visit a fancy restaurant and buy a $100 piece of perfectly prepared and seasoned meat.
• If you want to prepare a steak, you may season it with salt and pepper before cooking, buy inexpensive season blends at the market, or you may choose to marinate in a vacuum sealed pouch with fresh herbs and artisanal himalayan pink salt.
• If you want to grill a steak, you may cook it in a cast iron skillet on the stovetop, buy an inexpensive gas or charcoal grill, or you may choose to invest in an $8,000 smart grill that responds to voice commands and tells you when to flip the meat.

Antkeepers:

 

• Antkeepers, with little more than diligence, persistence, and a bit of luck, may find queen ants or colonies in nature, or they may buy them from ant wranglers that similarly obtain them from nature.
• Antkeepers may find insects almost anywhere for free, feed other common household items, or they may buy insects and other specialty diets and accessories from reputable vendors.
•  Antkeepers may use disposable glass or plastic containers, bottle caps, soil, pebbles, and twigs from their yard, or they may choose to buy a formicarium or accessories made by an experienced artisan or merchant.

As should be clear, the running theme here is that any money you choose to spend, as with anything in life aside from taxes, is completely your choice.  There's nothing wrong with wanting nice things, and being depressed by the fact that you have neither the money to afford them, nor the skills or determination to make a them yourself.

 

Also, as with any hobby or activity in which a number of people engage, there will continue to be makers and merchants who enjoy creating things, either to solve a specific problem, or to simply add beauty to the world, and who make those things available to others in exchange for money.  These artisans, merchants, and ant wranglers, too, bring color and vibrancy to what would otherwise be a relatively inaccessible hobby only able to be enjoyed by the most dedicated and skilled keepers of ants.

Edited by drtrmiller, June 9 2016 - 1:10 AM.

[Vendayn]

Well, ant keeping is definitely a hobby of patience! I wouldn't say it costs much though, PC gaming is WAY more expensive. PC gaming you NEED a 1,000+ PC, and a 400 dollar video card minimum every 3-4 years, if you want to max out the settings or play with game mods that people make (if game is moddable). Heck, my CPU I am really feeling it this year in needing to update it, its an i5 660 and it sucks and it sucked when it was "new". But I'm starting to really feel pressure to update it, cause games aren't running as good. Can still max things out, but my CPU is really starting to strain. My graphics card is good, but to update my CPU I'd need multiple new parts and a new power supply. Way more expensive than ants. I'm looking at easily a 400 to even 800 dollar upgrade on my CPU+other required upgrades along with it.

 

And keeping cats/dogs is more expensive overall. And like fish are cheap to buy, but MUCH harder to care for than ants, way more maintenance.

 

For ants, I still heavily use things like cheap piece of junk plastic aquariums from pet stores and that works just fine. Granted, I have started making use of buying formicariums, since I have personal health reasons I can't make my own. But you can easily make your own. And finding ants is free by walking. Though at least in California, you kinda need to drive (I can't drive) to go to the interesting ants since being in a city sucks so much for ants.

 

Really the only required thing to buy is fluon (can get it from amazon that drtrmiller sells). And that isn't very expensive and lasts a long time. I wouldn't ever not use fluon after using it.

 

Food you can find outside, or in your cupboard or anywhere else...most ants aren't very picky eaters and they don't really eat that much.

 

The only thing about ant keeping. It must definitely be one of the most patience required hobby that I can think of. Patience to find a queen, patience to flip over 1,000 and 1 rocks a day (maybe not that much, but you get the point) and once you find the queen, it often takes a month on average just to get the first worker(s). And the patience to deal with countless queens dying for whatever reason (it even happens in nature, most queens just don't make it).

 

The only "hard" part I have with keeping ants is that in the past, when my colonies do good...they end up getting overcrowded and I have a hard time dealing with that. I don't have much money either, and I'm pretty limited on space. It isn't so much an issue now though. I learned to plan ahead by drilling expansion holes in advance (or in the case of the formicariums I bought, they are already easy to be expanded) so I can connect new containers up easier.

 

The only other "pet" keeping hobby that I can think of that needs more patience than ants, are termites. And, termites ARE cheaper to keep than ants. And they are pretty similar to ants to begin with. They evolved the same way ants did, even though they aren't related. Literally throw wood in (and wood you can get for free), and they are good to go for months and months. Except, they grow VASTLY slower than ants do. Plus people don't tend to like termites.

Edited by Vendayn, June 8 2016 - 7:03 PM.

[nurbs]

Ant keeping is really cheap dude. You don't have to buy any of the commercial ant products to have fun.

 

This almost feels like a troll post to get reactions.

[Reacker]

 

This almost feels like a troll post to get reactions.

 

Even if it is I think this thread is great because anyone who gets into anting and does feel the same way can find it in search results and read these postings pointing out that you don't need to buy anything to get into ants. 

[Vendayn]

Also, while ant keeping does require patience. They don't require much maintenance really. Don't have to feed them that much every day or week. Don't require much time at all.

 

The one thing that helps a lot to cut down heavily on maintenance is them having a permanent water source. A lot of formicariums are built with water towers or, like the three I got, have water trays underneath that soak up water through a sponge, into hydrostone.

 

The most important thing is definitely water, so having a water source helps A LOT in cutting down maintenance. And dealing with water is probably the only hard thing about ants, besides them getting overcrowded. Especially if you are using an aquarium, not really a good way to hydrate the substrate easily.

[Reacker]

 

Like a steak:

 

• If you want to eat a steak, you may buy a slab of raw meat from the market, or you may choose to visit a fancy restaurant and buy a $100 piece of perfectly prepared and seasoned meat.
• If you want to prepare a steak, you may season it with salt and pepper before cooking, buy inexpensive season blends at the market, or you may choose to marinate in a vacuum sealed pouch with fresh herbs and artisanal himalayan pink salt.
• If you want to grill a steak, you may cook it in a cast iron skillet on the stovetop, buy an inexpensive gas or charcoal grill, or you may choose to invest in an $8,000 smart grill that responds to voice commands and tells you when to flip the meat.

 

 

Not that it detracts from your point at all, but I don't think your steak analogy works. Steak is at absolute cheapest a gift and otherwise always costs an above average amount of money to acquire compared to other meats. For it to be appropriate I think that in addition to the the steak facts you listed, we would also have to live in a world where steak grows for free from the ground and statistically no one cares about steak, so you can go outside and catch lots of steak without issue. In this world no one actually makes steak, it all comes from the wild in single serving batches usually found in the morning in the wild. 

 

This constrasts with dogs and gardening since you can usually get puppies and seeds for free if you're not too picky (though of course always get shots for your dog).

Edited by Reacker, June 8 2016 - 10:42 PM.

[Kingjay]

Dude don't give up.For food you could can catch wild insect or breed them.Like I do with my grasshoppers and honeybees and with the there home be creative,search up on youtube creative ant formicariums.This hobby is fun.You can watch nature grow up to be soe thing amazing.

[EstuaryAnts]

Don't give up! I think i'm doing really good, and i've spent a grand total of $16 on supplies. $6 of which was for messing around and on grout i've yet to use. You can make an outworld and nest for literally $3, not to mention you can make them out of almost anything (trust me). Last night i made an all acrylic nest for $5.60. It's too big for all of my colonies, so i'll be making a much smaller version for $2.60 today.  You can also feed your colony food from your house. A small crumb to you could be a week or two's worth of food for a colony. Out of all my hobbys, this is by far the most cheapest, most captivating, and most rewarding.

How do you make such nest? This would really help me.

[aqandres4]

Um, I came back to check on this thread and I didn't know any of this was happening. I do see ants as really cool and unique from other pets because they're entertaining, interesting, and they're really smart.

 

I was thrown off with the protein part of ants because I was told by the internet that I had to feed them things such as crickets and mealworms. I'm not thrown off by that fact because I'm scared of taking care of mealworms or anything. Believe me, I like ants, but, unfortunately, my parents nor my sister wouldn't really be okay with the fact that I have mealworms/ crickets in my house. I also heard that feeding them things that come directly from the dirt or the floor might contain pesticides and could endanger your colony. I know that I can feed them some things that people usually eat, but I don't think that it's good to feed them just that from what I remember of what I've heard. My parents would probably resentful about the whole mealworm and cricket thing.

 

However, maybe if I can keep them outside or something, it would probably be acceptable. Also, another thing that bothers me is that there probably isn't a pet store that sells mealworms or crickets around my area. There is one pet store near my area where I live and they might sell those there but I haven't gone there, yet, because I was waiting for the nanitics in the test tube setup that I had. However, if they don't sell them there, is there another possible alternative to this problem?

 

Unless it's fine to feed them protein sources that people usually eat, then I'd probably get into the ant keeping hobby again. Thanks for answering, I didn't expect to see this and sorry for replying late.

 

Please reply if I don't have to feed them mealworms or crickets! Thanks again!

 

P.S. : I'll try making my own formicarium. That sounds fun because you can customize it however you want.

Edited by aqandres4, June 15 2016 - 5:45 PM.

[dspdrew]

You can feed your ants most any food that humans eat. I feed my ants my left-overs all the time. Chicken seems to be their favorite.

[aqandres4]

You can feed your ants most any food that humans eat. I feed my ants my left-overs all the time. Chicken seems to be their favorite.

This is surprising. I wasn't aware that you didn't have to feed them what they usually eat in the wild... Thanks!

 

I feel like I made a really stupid mistake. What I did hate about releasing my ant queen was that I was worried if I might make any regrets or mistakes letting her go (I was very thoughtful about whether or not I should let her go). Thankfully, the nuptial flights haven't stopped, yet.

Edited by aqandres4, June 15 2016 - 6:08 PM.

[drtrmiller]

Please reply if I don't have to feed them mealworms or crickets! Thanks again!

 

Would it make a difference to you if you could buy pre-packaged fresh, but dead, insects on the internet?  For example, a pack of insects that were preserved through radiation, but still contained all the fluids and qualities of fresh insects?  Does that sound like something that might interest you?

Edited by drtrmiller, June 15 2016 - 6:08 PM.

[aqandres4]

 

Please reply if I don't have to feed them mealworms or crickets! Thanks again!

 

Would it make a difference to you if you could buy pre-packaged fresh, but dead, insects on the internet?  For example, a pack of insects that were preserved through radiation, but still contained all the fluids and qualities of fresh insects?  Does that sound like something that might interest you?

 

That could work! Could you please give me the link for this! Thanks again for being really nice!

Edited by aqandres4, June 15 2016 - 6:18 PM.

[drtrmiller]

It is not something that exists yet.

I was simply keen to understand if such a product would overcome your objections to feeding insects, since I'm contemplating developing such a product.