9 replies to this topic

[Agonzalez4771]

Hello everyone. My name is Andres. I am from Texas. I am 37, married, and have a wonderful son who follows in my foot steps when to comes to flora and fauna. I currently raise Tortoise, Turtles, Ball Pythons, Rats, Mice, African Soft Furs, MaCaws, an African Grey, a few Amazons, 2 pair of Ring Tailed Lemurs, Fruit Flies, and 25 Tarantulas. My Tarantula Collections is still small but my current Jewel in my Tarantula Collections is either the Pink Bloom or the Ecuadorian rainbow bird eater. I'm real big into Tarantulas and my son has his own brazilian black that he's proud of. The brazilian black is still a young T. 

 

I have been watching several youTube ant keeping videos and reading up on Ants for almost half a year. There is still alot I do not know, I do know that Nuptial Flights will being in spring depending on the species and geographic location and I want to start a few colonies this year. I am still not sure how to Identify a queen, and I am not very good at identifying different species of ants.

 

As far as the colonies I want, I have seen some that I am interested in, I am interested in sugar ants, pharoah ants, texas leaf cutter ants, carpenter ants, and Myrmecocystus ants just to name a few. I know they are supposed to be found within my geographic area but I can't even find an existing colony to keep an eye on. I am open to ant speices to start with, however, I know what ants do not interest me and I would prefer not to keep. I plan to turn on pokemon go on my iPhone and start hitting the trails looking for ant colonies and hatching pokemon eggs with my son. LOL

 

I am not interested in Pogonomyrmex barbatus ants nor the Fire Ant or those like the fire ants. I have fire ants EVERYWHERE, its like i can throw a rock and it will land within 5 feet of a fire ant nest... yes, that many.

 

If your from Texas... drop me a line... id love to visit and talk Ants... or Tarantulas.  

 

Album: Tarantula Species I Own : Pics are For ID-ing

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[Connectimyrmex]

Welcome to the forum!

Fire ants are actually quite fun to keep. Out of all my ants my Solenopsis are the most clever ant always come out at the time I feed them. They are actually very tame if kept gently and not disturbed too often, if you are worrying about you or your son or your wife getting stung. An individual fire ant sting doesn't hurt for me, but I don't know about texas solenopsis.

Also, P. Barbatus is one of my dream ants! They're also quite fun ants, they are like seed eating leaf cutters.


Also, this is a great time to be in the ant community. All the major flights are still coming! Also keep an eye out for Atta Texana! In April you may get lucky and hit the jackpot. 

Feel free to send me some tarantula pics! I used to have a baby rosehair tarantula that I got for free at a reptile expo due to sickliness. She grew up strong but we sadly had to give her away.

 

 

wait.

WAIT.

WAIT.

 

​You keep parrots?! I LOVE PARROTS! I used to have an amazing Peachface lovebird. She would always sit on my shoulder and preen my hair.

Also, send some pics of the lemurs!

Edited by Hawaiiant, January 25 2017 - 10:40 PM.

[FSTP]

Welcome!

 

I was born and grew up a bit in Bryan Tx. Looks like you're well versed in animal husbandry so ants should be an easy transition for you.

[T.C.]

Hello everyone. My name is Andres. I am from Texas. I am 37, married, and have a wonderful son who follows in my foot steps when to comes to flora and fauna. I currently raise Tortoise, Turtles, Ball Pythons, Rats, Mice, African Soft Furs, MaCaws, an African Grey, a few Amazons, 2 pair of Ring Tailed Lemurs, Fruit Flies, and 25 Tarantulas. My Tarantula Collections is still small but my current Jewel in my Tarantula Collections is either the Pink Bloom or the Ecuadorian rainbow bird eater. I'm real big into Tarantulas and my son has his own brazilian black that he's proud of. The brazilian black is still a young T. 

 

I have been watching several youTube ant keeping videos and reading up on Ants for almost half a year. There is still alot I do not know, I do know that Nuptial Flights will being in spring depending on the species and geographic location and I want to start a few colonies this year. I am still not sure how to Identify a queen, and I am not very good at identifying different species of ants.

 

As far as the colonies I want, I have seen some that I am interested in, I am interested in sugar ants, pharoah ants, texas leaf cutter ants, carpenter ants, and Myrmecocystus ants just to name a few. I know they are supposed to be found within my geographic area but I can't even find an existing colony to keep an eye on. I am open to ant speices to start with, however, I know what ants do not interest me and I would prefer not to keep. I plan to turn on pokemon go on my iPhone and start hitting the trails looking for ant colonies and hatching pokemon eggs with my son. LOL

 

I am not interested in Pogonomyrmex barbatus ants nor the Fire Ant or those like the fire ants. I have fire ants EVERYWHERE, its like i can throw a rock and it will land within 5 feet of a fire ant nest... yes, that many.

 

If your from Texas... drop me a line... id love to visit and talk Ants... or Tarantulas.  

 

Welcome. I never kept any lemurs, but I am sure they are cool. Tarantulas are cool, ants are too, real cool. Well actually I get into it all, from Insect to Arachnids so I like keeping and talking about it all. So maybe I will catch you in chat and we can talk about either ants or T's

[antgenius123]

Welcome to the forum! Good luck with any species you're hoping to get this season.

[Alabama Anter]

Welcome! I live in Alabama so whenever your down here lets meet!

[AntsTexas]

greetings, from west texas!!

[Leo]

你好 from China, Hong Kong

[NightsWebs]

Welcome to the forum and good luck with your species.  I would start with some Pogonomyrmex Species as they are common and keep well with minimum interference.  good luck and if you have questions just ask. Plenty of people will share their experiences with you.

[drtrmiller]

Camponotus sp. would be a good place to start.  Very large, average demeanor, easy to culture.  After you get your feet wet, you can try honey pot ants or leaf cutters.

 

Probably the most important thing, however, is that in North American antkeeping, you're mostly limited to what you can find on your own.  So if you can't find anything but fire ants or P. barbatus, you may need to settle for them until you can find the species you're most interested in.

Edited by drtrmiller, February 3 2017 - 4:06 PM.