If you have the flexible ports antstore sells (the things were you can screw off the cap) they can take tubing of an outside diameter of up to 18mm tubing (the description says 10-16mm but 18mm works fine for mine). Here's my port, it has 14/18mm tubing - you just need to put the end of the tubing i...

If you are in Europe and need nests get those: https://www.simants.de/en/nester-formicarien/SimAnts-Pro/SimAnts-Pro-M/ They are of similar design to the AC hybrids but better in any aspect (they actually have screws to keep the lid in place and proper ports), also low shipping costs (none if your or...

If you just want some super relaxed ants that won't make any problems get these: https://www.reddit.com/r/antkeeping/wiki/caresheets/temnothorax_nylanderi p.s. This forum is dead. If you need any advice or just want to talk about ants you should visit the Ants&Antkeeping Discord (it has over 150...

Camponotus ligniperda has a "1-year plan" and if they're done with it they stop all but the most basic activities (if they were well-fed and heated this may happen as early as June). Colonies of this species will lay 2 times per year, once in the spring (these larvae develop into workers u...

You do not want to keep any ants that clean your bones as these would mostly be species such as fire ants (the larger Solenopsis species like S. geminata and S. invicta) which have an extremely painful sting and their queens can lay over 11.000 eggs per week leading to an absolutely ridiculous growt...

This forum is dead. If you need any advice or just want to talk about ants you should visit the Ants&Antkeeping Discord (it has over 1500 members) here: https://discordapp.com/invite/qrAqPAQ or the forums of Formiculture here: http://www.Formiculture.com . You may als find this useful: https://w...

Sort of. After a while they will dry out and become uninteresting for the ants. You can also give them wet cat food as a part of their diet. Also when it's getting cold outside the ants should hibernate anyway which completely omits the problem of having to feed them until it's getting warmer again.

Envelopes have two major disadvantages: - Envelopes do not have tracking. For many people this is a huge no-go, especially with expensive ant species. If the envelope gets lost you're in trouble. - Envelopes are not treated carefully by the mail. I've worked for a mail service for two years and I te...

Generally: Express service.
And NEVER in envelopes like a few "special" ant sellers actually do.

Near my place (not just my garden but along the road) I have definitely seen: - Formica fusca (even seen flying queens) - Lasius niger (they're everywhere, when they fly you can see 3-4 queens per m² on the ground for several days) - Some sort of red-black Lasius, probably Lasius emerginatus - Some ...

Lasius niger has a reputation for being very stubborn when it comes to moving to a new tube and they are an ant species that can particularly well adapt to light, although the cotton may in fact still retain some moisture inside despite looking dry. What you could do is to attach a second test tube ...

10th January '17 Feeding time again! https://i.imgur.com/sXdhMlq.jpg This worker was actually trying to feed the dead one. https://i.imgur.com/ecW8dUY.jpg Yes, the picture way too bright but that major looks really cute. https://i.imgur.com/dSxM4pD.jpg Grasshoppers are still hot. https://i.imgur.co...

7th January '18 This is how it looks now every evening, lots of ants sitting at the entrance and a good number are foraging as well. https://i.imgur.com/maoQkW1.jpg They love baby roaches, unfortunately I ran out of them and you can't order the tiny ones. https://i.imgur.com/HXqmfpg.jpg Bee brood i...

29th December '17 Forgot to count 30 ants, edited above post... And while we're at it here's some more pictures! :) MEAT! https://i.imgur.com/MV57SOO.jpg They love it! https://i.imgur.com/Z4ch3BN.jpg https://i.imgur.com/bX0qz4k.jpg I'm not sure what exactly is going on but I have a suspicion... you...

28th December '17 Using the pictures from the 24th I made a COUNT. This is the nest. I gave every recognizable ant a blue dot, then divided the nest into small sectors and counted the ants in those sectors by giving them purple dot. https://i.imgur.com/sK6IUb2.jpg These two outworld pictures were t...

25th December '17 After noticing that they piled up garbage behind the water tube I drove the ants out of the outworld (which was kinda easy, I just hat to remove the towel to let daylight in which made all but a few brave workers hurried back into the nest) and properly cleaned the whole tank. Loo...

16th December '17 The food trials continue and I landed a real hit with cat food (pure meat, no plant crap like Cassia gum in it). They even chew on it after it became dry. Yesterday evening: https://i.imgur.com/neS3Xbs.jpg This morning: https://i.imgur.com/6qhWomi.jpg This evening: https://i.imgur...

11th December '17 My ants are meat ants! They love minced meat (even when it's dried out they still chew on it). https://i.imgur.com/0yRVoKh.jpg https://i.imgur.com/b6UPYKn.jpg The colony is fairly active and they eats a surprising amount of food considering they have so many pupae. The pupating is...

6th December '17 UPDATE! =) I tried to up their food diversity a bit. Since they won't even look at fruit with their gasters meat was the way to go. The burger beef was appreciated (which is kinda interesting cause the ingredients list said black pepper) although they mostly just licked it. The chi...

1st December '17 Usually I'd wait another 2 to 5 days for an update but there's actually stuff happening. They've brought a lot of brood into the new nest and there's a lot of pupating going on. In fact I think there's almost as many pupae in the new nest as in the old one. https://i.imgur.com/0W1U...

27th November '17 They're now kinda active even during the day (activity at night is much greater though). I made them a feeder full of diluted maple syrup but they don't seem interested however they do eat a lot of fish food (red mosquito larvae). https://i.imgur.com/1Q3lhYR.jpg One of the "m...

22nd November '17 Oh well, me stupid has just removed the pink cover foil I accidentally left on top of the glass all the time :whistle: and also added the second nest - the ants didn't like any of that. They brought all the brood (except those in the water tube) to the central part of the nest. Th...

22nd November '17 To add or not to add, that is the question... https://i.imgur.com/izjPDbP.jpg The new nest is prepared, the heating cable mounted, the water tube attached. I don't think they fill out the nest yet but I feel they are reaching the nest's limits in terms of brood storage. Also havin...

16th November '17 These pictures were originally not intended for release (I just wanted to see how the ants are doing), so they're not as good as usual. However I decided to post them anyway because, well, just look at them. I have no idea where all these ants are coming from. https://i.imgur.com/...

12th November '17 I cracked up the bee larvae while they were still frozen to share them with the Lasius niger (they can' eat a complete one) and the Camponotus seemed to like it, so this week I broke them all up. https://i.imgur.com/skQxmoJ.jpg Something is happening - there's new pupae (the white...

5th November '17 Lazy Tube is... still lazy. Their food intake isn't low but it's not spectacular either. They eat about two bee pupae every two days and some green bottle flies. The fruit flies were just ignored. https://i.imgur.com/qCGexOC.jpg Guard buddies! https://i.imgur.com/QsEMt4o.jpg There ...

29th October '17 Halloween special! Find the pumpkin ant! (revelation at the end of the post) https://i.imgur.com/ry8xRzT.jpg So I checked on the Amber Family (had to refill their feeder and give them some food) and to my surprise they were quite active outside. https://i.imgur.com/YnO7um1.jpg http...

28th October '17 Look who I caught on picture when I woke up last morning! She was NOT amused about the lights going on (in fact she looked surprisingly grumpy for an ant). https://i.imgur.com/BBCnUaV.jpg https://i.imgur.com/FraPcA3.jpg They are breeding and they are breeding a lot. It's kinda rare...

22nd October '17 Update time! I have updated the starter post, it now contains a proper care sheet for this species if someone want to raise them, too. Food item list got updated as well. Be sure to check it out. So, Lazy Tube has been surprisingly active over the last days, often there were 6+ ants...

17th October '17 Actually I wanted to make this update a bit earlier but my internet just completely screwed up... Lazy Tube got a new toy! It doesn't really fit in color-wise but you can't have everything I guess. It will help to increase the outworld's effective surface area a bit though which ha...