How To Raise An Ant Colony! | BRUMA Ants
Summary
TLDRThis video script offers an in-depth guide for beginners interested in ant keeping as a hobby. It covers the history, benefits, and practical steps to start an ant colony from scratch, including catching a queen ant during a nuptial flight and setting up a test tube environment. The script also highlights common mistakes to avoid, emphasizing the importance of patience and proper research on the species' needs for successful ant keeping.
Takeaways
- 🐜 Ant keeping is a hobby where ants are kept as pets, involving observing their behavior and helping them establish colonies.
- 📈 The hobby gained mainstream popularity in the mid-1950s with Milton Levine's ant farm invention, which sold over twelve million units.
- 👀 Ants are fascinating to watch due to their highly organized systems and complex activities within the colony, making them educational and mesmerizing pets.
- 🚫 Ants require minimal maintenance compared to traditional pets, needing only weekly care and a proper environment to thrive.
- 💰 Keeping ants is an inexpensive hobby, with the potential to create an ant farm for less than $1 using household materials.
- 👶 Ant keeping is suitable for children, offering a fun and educational experience while teaching responsibility.
- 🏡 Ants can be easily found in various environments, including backyards, parks, and sometimes even inside homes.
- 👸 Capturing a queen ant, especially during a 'nuptial flight', is the first step in starting an ant colony.
- 🌡 Understanding the specific environmental needs of an ant species, such as temperature and humidity, is crucial for successful ant keeping.
- 🧪 A test tube setup with water and a cotton ball provides an ideal starting environment for a queen ant to lay eggs and establish a colony.
- 📝 Beginners should avoid common mistakes like insufficient research, frequent disturbance, overestimating growth pace, moving colonies too soon, and buying exotic ants without proper knowledge.
Q & A
What is the main topic of the video script?
-The main topic of the video script is about ant keeping as a hobby, including how to start an ant colony, catch a queen ant, and the various aspects of maintaining an ant colony.
Who is Milton Levine and what is his contribution to ant keeping?
-Milton Levine is a famous entrepreneur who created one of the best-selling toys of all time: the Uncle Milton's ant farm. His invention helped popularize the hobby of ant keeping in the mid-1950s.
What is a 'sandwich ant nest setup' and how does it benefit ant keepers?
-A 'sandwich ant nest setup' is a type of ant farm construction using two transparent panels separated by a small space filled with dirt. It allows ant keepers to clearly observe the ants digging tunnels and all activities inside the formicarium.
Why did the hobby of ant keeping experience an explosion in popularity in the last decade?
-The hobby of ant keeping saw an explosion in popularity due to the viral contagion among the general public, leading to the establishment of companies specializing in building and selling products dedicated to ant keeping.
What are some reasons why someone might want to keep ants as pets?
-Ants are fascinating to watch, low-maintenance, inexpensive to keep, great for kids, and easy to find, making them an appealing choice for those interested in an alternative pet.
What is a 'nuptial flight' and why is it important for ant keepers?
-A 'nuptial flight', also known as a mating flight, is a behavior where male insects fly high to attract potential mates. It is important for ant keepers as it provides an opportunity to catch queen ants to start a new colony.
How can one determine if a nuptial flight is likely to occur?
-One can determine if a nuptial flight is likely by observing factors such as temperature, humidity, and time of day, which are often favorable during hot and humid summer nights following rainstorms.
What is the purpose of a test tube setup in ant keeping?
-A test tube setup provides a comfortable and safe space for a newly mated queen ant, replicating the environment of a 'claustral chamber' in nature, facilitating the monitoring of the queen's progress.
What should one do after catching a queen ant?
-After catching a queen ant, one should place her in a test tube setup that has been prepared to provide the right environment for her to lay eggs and start a colony.
What are the differences between fully claustral and semi-claustral queen ants?
-Fully claustral queen ants can start a new colony without needing to forage for food, using nutrients from their body. Semi-claustral queens, however, need to forage for food even during the founding stage.
Why is patience important for a beginner in ant keeping?
-Patience is important because the growth of an ant colony is not linear but exponential, starting slow and picking up pace as the colony grows. Beginners often overestimate the pace of growth and need to allow the queen time to lay eggs and the colony to develop.
What is the advice for beginners regarding the size of the nest for a new ant colony?
-For beginners, it is advised to keep the queen ant or a very small colony in a test tube setup rather than a large nest, as a smaller nest makes the queen feel safer and less stressed.
Why should beginners start with a local species of ants rather than exotic ones?
-Beginners should start with a local species because it is easier to recreate their natural environment due to familiarity with the local climate and conditions, and it reduces the risk of making mistakes due to lack of knowledge.
Outlines
🐜 Introduction to Ant Keeping
This paragraph introduces the concept of ant keeping as a hobby, explaining its origins from Milton Levine's ant farm toy in the 1950s to its current status as a popular and evolving hobby. It highlights the fascination with ants, their organized behavior, and the opportunity for viewers to learn everything needed to start their own ant colonies from scratch, including catching a queen ant and setting up an ant farm.
👑 The Importance of Queen Ants in Colony Foundation
This section delves into the specifics of capturing a queen ant, which is essential for starting an ant colony. It explains the concept of a 'nuptial flight,' the mating behavior of ants, and how to identify and capture a queen ant during this event. The paragraph also discusses the unpredictability of nuptial flights and the environmental conditions that may trigger them, providing tips on how to prepare for and respond to a nuptial flight to successfully capture a queen.
🧪 Setting Up a Test Tube Environment for a Queen Ant
The paragraph describes the process of creating a test tube setup, which serves as an initial home for a newly caught queen ant. It details the materials needed, the steps to fill the test tube with water and insert a cotton ball to maintain humidity, and the importance of cleanliness to prevent bacterial growth. The setup mimics the queen's natural 'claustral chamber' and allows for easy monitoring of the queen's progress in laying eggs and starting her colony.
🍯 Post-Capture Care for Queen Ants and Their Diet Considerations
This section addresses the care of a queen ant after capture, emphasizing the need for a proper environment with adequate humidity and a water source. It discusses the difference between fully claustral and semi-claustral queens, the latter requiring food during the founding stage. The paragraph suggests offering a drop of honey to the queen for energy and provides guidance on creating a calm and stable environment for the queen to lay her eggs and establish the colony.
📋 Common Pitfalls for Beginners in Ant Keeping
The final paragraph offers a list of the top five mistakes often made by beginners in ant keeping, such as insufficient research on ant species, excessive disturbance of the queen, overestimating colony growth rates, moving the colony to a larger nest too soon, and the temptation to start with exotic ant species. It stresses the importance of patience, research, and starting with local species to gain experience before venturing into more complex ant keeping scenarios.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Ant Keeping
💡Formicarium
💡Nuptial Flight
💡Queen Ant
💡Claustral Chamber
💡Test Tube Setup
💡Founding Stage
💡Fully Claustral
💡Myrmecology
💡Common Mistakes
💡Exotic Ants
Highlights
Ant keeping is a growing hobby where ants are kept as pets, with a history dating back to the mid-1950s and the creation of the ant farm by Milton Levine.
Ant farms typically use a sandwich nest setup allowing clear observation of the ants' activities.
The hobby has evolved with companies now specializing in products for ant keeping, including nests, food, and ants themselves.
Ants are considered fascinating pets due to their highly organized societies and complex behaviors.
Ants require minimal maintenance, making them suitable for busy individuals and families.
Keeping ants is an inexpensive hobby, with the potential to create an ant farm for less than $1 using household materials.
Ant keeping can be an educational experience for children, teaching them about responsibility and the life of ants.
Ants are easily found in various environments, including backyards, parks, and sometimes even inside homes.
A nuptial flight is a mating behavior where male ants fly high to attract females, crucial for ant keepers to catch queen ants.
Nuptial flights are influenced by factors such as temperature, humidity, and time of day, and often occur after rainstorms.
To catch a queen ant during a nuptial flight, positioning downwind of the swarm and using a plastic container can be effective.
A test tube setup with water and a cotton ball provides a suitable environment for a queen ant to lay eggs and start a colony.
After catching a queen, it's important to transfer her to a test tube setup rather than keeping her in a small plastic container.
The feeding needs of a queen ant depend on whether she is fully claustral or semi-claustral, with the former not requiring immediate food.
Patience is key in ant keeping, as the growth of a colony can be slow initially and requires a quiet and stable environment for the queen.
Beginners in ant keeping should avoid common mistakes such as insufficient research, frequent checks on the queen, and moving the colony too soon.
Starting with a local ant species is recommended for beginners to learn the basics before considering more exotic species.
Transcripts
Do you want to start keeping ants as pets, but you have no idea where to start? Well,
I have some good news for you! You just found the right video!
Let’s get right into it!
Hi guys! I hope you’re doing well! Welcome back to the BRUMA Ants channel!
As you saw in the intro, today we’re going to go through everything you need to know about ant
keeping! What is ant keeping, how to start an ant colony, how to catch a queen ant, and much more!
By the end of this video, you will have all the information needed to start an ant colony from
scratch, starting from a newly mated queen ant, all the way to a large and prosperous ant empire!
But no more talk! Let’s start exploring this fantastic and underrated hobby right
from the beginning! What Is Ant Keeping?
In a nutshell, ant keeping is nothing more than a term to indicate the hobby
of keeping ants as pets. Yeah, you heard right! Ants as pets! All around the world,
more and more people are starting to join this amazing and underrated hobby!
This unusual hobby started to become mainstream in the mid-1950s, thanks to the famous entrepreneur
Milton Levine. As a kid, he liked to watch the ants work relentlessly all day long,
digging tunnels in his backyard and going up and down the driveway in search of food.
As an adult, he created one of the best-selling toys of all time: the uncle Milton's ant farm!
The ant farm was built using the so-called sandwich ant nest setup,
which consists of two transparent panels placed together, separated by a small space
filled with dirt. With this cool type of setup, the ant keeper can watch the ants
dig tunnels in the dirt, and can clearly see everything that happens inside the formicarium!
The toy was so successful, that during the
next two decades Levine sold over twelve million of them!
Since then, the hobby of ant keeping has grown at a steady pace, evolving from a
simple kid pastime, to an actual hobby enjoyed by thousands of people all around the world!
In the last decade, the hobby saw an unusual explosion in popularity among
the general public. The viral contagion was so big, that now there are actual
companies specialized in building and selling products dedicated to ant keeping! Nests,
ant food, accessories, and even the ants themselves!
Every year more and more companies start to dedicate their entire time to
facilitating the job of the ant keepers, creating amazingly engineered products,
and attracting more and more people to the hobby!
But why this obsession with keeping ants as pets? After all,
there are much better animals to keep as pets! Right? Well, if you’re not already
completely sure about this, let me try to convince you why you should keep these
tiny lovely creatures as your pets! Why You Should Keep Ants As Pets
To better understand why ants are considered to be extremely cool and interesting pets,
let’s list five important points in favor of this unusual practice!
Reason Number 1: Ants are fascinating to watch!
One of the biggest reasons to keep ants as pets, is that they are incredibly
interesting to watch! Ant colonies are one of the best-organized systems of the animal kingdom!
Ants like to work together to do all the activities needed to properly run
a formicarium! They build intricate nests and amazing structures, go outside to forage for food,
and take care of the brood, which one day will turn into the next generation of workers!
Lots of scientists and myrmecologists consider ant colonies to be like giant single organisms,
in which the various components play different key roles in the
well-being of the colony! Watching an ant colony go about its daily activities can
be really mesmerizing! And also extremely educational!
Reason Number 2: Ants are low-maintenance pets!
Unlike traditional pets, such as dogs, cats, and birds,
ants do not require much maintenance. Actually, they barely require any! As long as they have
a proper environment and access to food, they will thrive without much intervention.
Ants only need to be maintained approximately once a week,
during which you need to feed them and, if desired, clean their setup. For this reason,
this makes them the perfect pet option for busy individuals and families!
Reason Number 3: Ants are inexpensive to keep!
Another great advantage of keeping ants as pets,
is that they are very inexpensive to care for! In fact, you can make your
own ant farm for less than $1 using materials that you probably already have lying around
your house! This makes them a great pet choice for individuals or families on a tight budget!
Reason Number 4: Ants are great for kids!
If you have kids in your house,
keeping ants as pets can be a really fun and educational experience for them!
It allows them to learn about these fascinating creatures,
understanding every aspect of the life of a worker ant inside the colony!
It can even help to teach them about responsibility and caring for others!
Reason Number 5: Ants are easy to find!
Unlike some other exotic pets, ants are relatively easy to find!
As you know very well, you can find ants almost everywhere! In your own backyard,
in a nearby park, under the pavements, and sometimes, even inside your house!
As you can see, there are plenty of good reasons to keep ants as your pets! They
are one of the most fascinating animals to watch, they require very low maintenance,
are inexpensive to keep, are great for kids, and are extremely easy to find!
After this long list of convincing reasons,
I’m pretty sure you can’t wait to start growing your own ant colony all by yourself!
Now that you know what ant keeping is, and all the reasons to love this hobby,
we can jump to the most important part of this guide! Finding the first member of your future
ant empire, the queen ant! How To Catch A Queen Ant
As you probably already know, she is the most important component of an ant colony, and in
order to start our own little ant empire, we first need to get our hands on a newly mated queen ant!
But how do I catch a queen ant?
To answer this important question, let's start by explaining what a nuptial flight is!
What Is A Nuptial Flight?
A nuptial flight, also known as a mating flight, is a behavior exhibited by certain species of
insects in which the males fly high into the air in order to locate and attract potential mates.
This behavior is most commonly seen in ants, termites, and some species of bees and beetles.
During a nuptial flight, the males release lots of pheromones, which are particular types of
chemicals that are used to communicate with other members of their species,
in order to attract females. The males often fly in large groups,
creating a "swarm" that can be easily spotted by potential mates.
Once a female has been located and attracted to the swarm, she mates with one or more of
the males, before returning to the ground to start a new colony. In some species, the males
die shortly after mating, while in others they continue to live and mate with multiple females.
Nuptial flights are a crucial part of the reproductive cycle for the majority of
species of insects, and play a crucial role in their ability to reproduce and
populate new areas. For us ant keepers, this is an extremely important phase,
as it provides us with an opportunity to catch lots of queen ants!
One important thing to point out is that not all ant species have nuptial flights,
and not all areas will experience them at the same time. These mating flights happen under rare and
specific circumstances, such as the right humidity levels, temperatures, and time of the day.
Now that we know what a nuptial flight is,
let’s discuss how to spot them, and what factors make them happen.
How Do I Know When A Nuptial Flight Will Happen?
Predicting the exact timing and location of a nuptial flight can
be a very challenging activity. However, there are a few general
indicators that can help you determine if a nuptial flight is likely to occur.
Many species of insects are sensitive to changes in temperature and humidity,
and will only engage in nuptial flights when conditions are favorable. For example,
some species of ants only mate when the temperature is above a certain threshold,
while others mate when there’s a high level of humidity in the air.
As a general rule, most species of ants tend to swarm during hot and humid summer nights,
which typically occur after strong and persistent rainstorms. In these conditions,
the environment is typically very wet and humid,
making it an ideal time for ants to engage in this spectacular mating behavior.
In these rare circumstances, you will likely see massive swarms of winged ants
flying near street lamps, attracted by their strong and bright light.
Now you may be wondering:
OK, but what should I do when I see a swarm like the one you just described?
Let’s jump to the next phase!
What Should I Do During A Nuptial Flight?
This is finally our chance to get our first queen ant!
From personal experience, I would suggest you catch more than one queen at a time, as it’s very
likely that not all of them will be fertile, and not all of them will survive the founding stage.
In order to catch our queen during the nuptial flight, it is essential
to have the right equipment on hand. A little plastic container like this one is essential
for capturing the queen, and will function as a momentary home for our precious ant.
Once you have your equipment ready, it is time to head out near the swarm. If possible,
try to position yourself downwind of the swarm,
as this will give you a better chance of intercepting the queen as she flies by.
Queen ants are very easy to identify. They are usually a lot larger than males,
and they also have a bigger gaster and thorax.
When you spot a queen on the ground or on some nearby plant,
gently sweep your little container in front of her, and try to capture her without hurting her.
If you are successful, congratulations! You just caught your first queen ant!
Now it’s time to find her a proper house, where she can settle down and start her little ant
empire! Let’s jump to the next chapter! How To Prepare a Test Tube Setup
The test tube setup is probably the easiest and most effective way to
create a comfortable and safe space for a newly mated queen ant! In a nutshell,
the test tube setup is nothing more than a normal test tube filled with water,
with a cotton ball dividing the water section from the living chamber! Yeah, it’s that simple!
In the wild, after mating with a male, the queen starts searching for a small and quiet space,
probably in the soil, where she can start to lay eggs. This tiny space
is called “claustral chamber”, and it’s the starting point of every ant empire!
This simple type of setup creates an environment very similar to the one they experience in nature
inside the claustral chamber, replicating the same amount of humidity, space, and light.
The test tube setup also gives the ant keeper the chance to see inside the chamber,
facilitating the monitoring of the situation and progress of your beloved founding queen ants!
But no more talk! Let’s see how we can make this very powerful type of ant keeping setup!
For preparing a test tube setup, we’re going to need a test tube,
a pipette, some cotton, and a long stick of some sort.
Test tubes come in a lot of sizes. The main factor for deciding which size is right for you,
is the size of the queen you want to put in there. For most species of ants,
a standard-size test tube will do the trick.
Don’t worry if you don’t have the exact recommended size for your species, the queen
is very adaptable, and will surely lay eggs even in a slightly smaller or slightly larger chamber!
When you have your test tube, the first thing you have to do is fill up
about half of it with clean cold water. You can do it directly from a bottle,
from the faucet, or by using a pipette, just like I am doing.
Once you have the water in the test tube, you can then insert
a little piece of cotton. To push the cotton ball all the way to the water,
you can use a wooden skewer or some sort of plastic tool, like the one I am using.
This way the cotton will keep the water from drowning your queen,
whilst supplying the chamber with the right amount of moisture! The queen will also be able to drink
from the cotton with no problem, eliminating the need for an external source of water.
Be sure to wash your hands carefully before touching the water or the cotton,
we don’t want bacteria and mold to start infesting the nest! If you want,
you can make the test tube feel even more similar to a real claustral chamber by wrapping it with
some type of dark paper! I like to use tinfoil, which does the job swiftly!
If you like the idea of storing all of your test tubes in the same location,
I would suggest you check out this other tutorial! In this one,
I explain in detail how to make a test tube holder out of cardboard, just like this one!
In the event you mess up the process, or you just need to retrieve the cotton plug
inside the test tube, you can take it out by using a pair of long tweezers,
like the one commonly used in fish tank setups!
Simply insert it inside the test tube and close it, pulling out the cotton ball!
One thing I’ve learned from experience, is that if you put the cotton ball into the test tube very
slowly, you will probably end up having some air bubbles between the water and the cotton.
To avoid this issue, simply insert the cotton pretty fast, blocking the bubbles from forming!
If you are wondering how the ants are gonna breathe, don't worry, there will
be sufficient airflow through the cotton for the ants to survive for a very long time!
That’s it! You just made a perfect test tube setup!
Now we can jump to the next chapter, where you're gonna learn all the steps you need to
do after catching your first queen ant! What To Do After Catching A Queen Ant
Catching your very first queen ant can be an amazing and fulfilling experience for an ant
keeper, especially if you are new to this fantastic hobby! Watching the queen care
for the first generation of workers is an extremely relaxing and enjoyable pastime,
and makes you really appreciate how cool and smart these tiny animals can be!
But what should you do after catching your very first queen ant? Let’s start with the first step!
Where Should I Put Her?
Ok, you just caught your first queen ant, and now she’s probably sitting inside some sort of small
plastic container like this one. These types of containers are not very good for housing
a small ant colony in its founding stage, and they can actually create more harm than good!
They lack the right amount of humidity, and they don’t have a proper water source.
They are also very difficult to maintain, as the living space of the colony is extremely
limited. For these important reasons, we need to create a better founding nest alternative,
one which has a water source, some moisture, and it’s easy to maintain.
And here’s where the test tube we made before comes into play! Now
that we have our founding nest ready, we can finally move the queen into it!
To do that, just remove the cotton ball to open the setup, and gently make your
queen find the path to the test tube. Try to make this as safe as possible,
as we definitely don’t want to harm the queen in the process!
When the queen is in, reclose the test tube with the cotton ball.
Fantastic! Now our queen has a proper home,
where she can start to lay eggs and raise her own colony!
In the next step, we’re going to answer another frequently asked
question regarding this important founding stage! Let’s continue!
Should I Feed The Queen?
To answer this important question, we first need to understand the difference
between fully claustral and semi-claustral queens.
A fully claustral ant is a type of queen ant that is able to start a new colony without needing to
forage for food. That’s because this particular type of queen is able to use the nutrients
she already has in her body to feed herself and her first few generations of offspring.
This useful characteristic allows the queen to establish a new colony in a location where food
is not readily available, increasing the chance of surviving the founding period.
On the other hand, a semi-claustral queen is a type of queen ant that doesn’t have
this ability, and needs to forage for food even during her founding stage.
Now that we know the differences between these two types of founding options,
we need to check whether our queen is fully claustral or not. To do that,
we have to find out which species of ant our queen belongs to.
If you don’t know it yet, you can ask a question in one of the many online forums
dedicated to ant keeping, sending them some pictures of your newly caught queen. When
you have the name of the species, check online whether she’s a fully claustral species or not.
As a general rule, you can check the gaster of the queen. If it’s large and voluminous compared
to the rest of her body, she’s likely fully claustral. On the other hand, if the gaster is
small and thin, she’s probably semi-claustral, and needs to be fed during the founding stage.
However, even if the queen you just caught is fully-claustral, I would suggest you give them
a little drop of honey. This little sugar boost will help the queen stay energized
during the long founding period, and will also help her first workers during their first days!
Now we can put the test tube setup and our little queen ant in a safe and quiet place,
giving her the time to lay her first batch of eggs and start her own ant colony! This can take from a
couple of days if you are lucky, to up to a couple of months if the queen doesn’t feel quite safe!
The most important thing right now is to let the queen do her job in
a comfortable and quiet space, without any type of loud noises,
vibrations, or rapid light changes. Remember: patience is your best ally!
Now you have all the information needed to start your first ant colony from scratch,
starting from a single newly mated queen ant!
I think that one of the most useful pieces of information that a beginner can get to
get better at doing something, is a list of the most common mistakes that newbies make!
For this reason, before ending the guide, I want also give you a list of 5 of the most common
mistakes beginners make when starting this hobby for the first time! Let’s get right to the list!
5 Most Common Mistakes In Ant Keeping Let’s start by saying this: Everyone makes
mistakes. Every time you start an activity for the first time, you have a ton of information
to go through! This is the reason I think this list of mistakes is very important,
and if you are new to ant keeping, I’m sure you will find it extremely useful! Let’s begin!
Mistake number 1: Don’t do enough research about a species
As you probably already know, the world is full of different species of ants!
All around the world there are more than 12,000 of them! They are a lot!
Some of them live on top of the tallest mountains,
in extremely harsh weather conditions! Others live at the heart of the hotter
deserts, in an environment with the highest temperature on the planet!
So, as you can imagine, every ant has their own specific requirements. Things like temperature,
humidity, and food types can vary a lot between different species of ants.
Your job, as an ant keeper, is to research as much as possible all the peculiar
characteristics of the species you wanna keep. You need to know the humidity levels,
the temperature, what food they like to eat, and if and when they need hibernation.
If just one of these requirements is not met, you can instantly lose all the
progress you’ve made! Remember, do your own research before buying a queen ant online!
Mistake number 2: Checking your queen ant too frequently
So you’ve done all the needed research and now you know everything about your queen?
Congratulations! You’re in for an amazing journey!
But now comes the hard part! When the first queen arrives,
you don’t think of anything but her! I know the feeling! Every 10 minutes you wanna make
sure that she’s doing ok, getting ready to create an amazing and giant ant empire!
And there’s the issue: you start to check her too much! The only thing that a newly
mated queen ant needs right now, is a quiet and dark space! Nothing more!
Every time you check how your queen is doing and remove the cover of the test tube setup or
the founding nest, she starts to think that the chamber she’s in has been compromised!
She might think that the place where she wants to start her own ant colony
is no longer safe! This creates a ton of stress on the queen,
and lowers the chance that she will successfully lay her first batch of eggs!
The best thing you can do when you have just caught or bought a queen ant,
is to leave her alone in a dark and isolated spot! By doing this,
you can be sure that she will successfully start an amazing ant colony!
Mistake number 3: Overestimating the pace of growth of the colony
This one is very common among first-time ant keepers. Usually,
when beginner ant keepers catch or buy their first ant,
they overestimate the pace of growth of the colony. And in many cases by some margin!
The pace of growth of an ant colony isn’t linear, but is very similar to an exponential
function. At the start of the life of a colony, the development is very slow,
and the first batch of eggs takes a lot of time to develop into fully formed adult workers.
Some species grow a lot faster than others,
but the trend of growth is very similar for all ant species.
But once the colonies reach a considerable amount of workers,
they all start to grow a lot faster. This is probably due to the fact that at the
very beginning, all the work in the colony is done by one ant: the queen.
When the colony grows, so does the workforce. With more and more ants doing their part in
the colony, the optimizations of the various tasks increase dramatically,
enabling the colony to grow a lot faster!
If there’s one thing that beginners ant keepers need,
it is patience. A lot of it! This is probably the most important quality
needed in ant keeping, and without it, it’s very difficult to obtain good results!
The overestimation of the pace of growth of the colony,
almost always leads to another very common mistake.
Mistake number 4: Moving the colony into a nest too soon
This is another very common mistake made by a lot of beginner ant keepers.
Trust me, I know the feeling. You just spent an entire day watching
hundreds of videos on YouTube from your favorite ant keepers,
and now you think It’s finally time to start your own ant colony! So far, no issues.
The problem starts just after you’ve caught or bought your first queen ant. Now you’re
all hyped up, and you can’t wait to put the queen into your amazing new ant nest,
bought from your favorite ant keeping store! I can’t blame you, I've been there too.
There’s just one small problem in doing that. The queen hates large spaces! If
you give the queen a nest with too much space, she will probably start
to feel a lot stressed. In a nutshell, the smaller the nest, the safer the queen feels!
The claustral chambers that the ants create in the wild are very small! There is barely enough
space to house the queen! When you have just caught a queen ant, or you have a very small
colony with very few workers, the best thing you can do is to keep them in a test tube setup!
Mistake number 5: Buying exotic ants
This mistake is a lot less common if compared to the other ones,
but nevertheless it deserves an important place on this list!
If you usually research ants online,
you will almost certainly have encountered some exotic ant species.
As a beginner ant keeper, it is very common to be really impressed by very
strange and unusual species of ants. Usually, that’s because these species
don't live in the same area as you, and you’ve never seen one of those.
There’s nothing wrong with keeping exotic species of ants, as long as
you don’t release them into the wild and provide them with the right environment.
As a beginner, you probably don’t have the basic amount of knowledge needed to
safely keep an ant colony yet. For this reason, it’s very important to start this hobby with a
local species. With a local species it is a lot easier to recreate their natural environment,
simply because you already live in it, and know the little details that you can’t find online!
You know how the temperature varies throughout the year,
when the ants start to exit from their nests in the spring, and what are their favorite food
types. You can get this precious information just by looking at the ants in your backyard!
So, for this reason, I would suggest you start ant keeping with a local species of ant,
and start to look at exotic species only after having accumulated some experience!
So there they are! The 5 most common mistakes
that the majority of ant keepers make at the start of their ant keeping journey!
This list concludes this long and detailed guide on how to start your journey in this amazing hobby
called ant keeping! I truly hope you found it useful and insightful, and I’m sure you can’t wait
to start growing your own little ant empire! I wish you the best of luck with this new adventure!
See you soon in another video!
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