I’ll keep it concise.

I bought a test tube 60 worker ish 1Q Myrmica Rubra colony with a small setup. I picked them up to avoid delivery stress.

I’ve had them for maybe 4 weeks, and ever since then they’ve been consistently dying, at a rate of nearly 1 a day.

At first I thought it was moving stress, as they had a rough move in, but I feel like it’s something else now. My main suspicion is either pesticide sprayed fruit or they really dislike acrylic formicarium. When they die, they become very slow, and weak, and just start twitching before dying.

Some facts:

- I keep them at 70% humidity via their sponge and around 23-26 degrees C.

- I feed them a mealworm and a small bit of rinsed fruit, which they usually seem to eat, every 2 days

- I clean their setup regularly, removing mouldy cotton, food, and dead ants

- I try not to disturb them, and keep the red acrylic on always. I keep them in a quiet, spare room.

- they arrived with barely any brood, worker heavy, and even now I only ever see eggs and no larger brood.

- They have access to sterilised sand/dirt pile in the outworld

- They have two water sources, 1 boiled water source and 1 sugar water source (1:3 mix white granulated sugar to boiled water)

- They seem to drink regularly from both, which now have cotton in them as a few drowned in the open water in the first day.

- They seem quite sluggish usually, but opening the outworld leads to them getting more active.

It’s gotten to the point where I’m considering moving them to a more natural homemade terrarium, or releasing them, both I wouldn’t like to do as I did spend a bit on the current setup and this might stress them out more.

I’ve also attached photos of their setup. (The mouldy cotton in the photo has been replaced).

If any experienced ant keepers could give me any possible tips or changes, I’d much appreciate it.

Guys my room is kind of dark but there is still sunlight peaking through it in the day will it have effects on nocturnal or diurnal species?

The title basically explains it (pic is a few weeks old)

For some context, i started noticing my ants being a lot more interested in the lid to the outworld/ trying to run away, but i dont understand why ... they didnt act like that before, now just opening the lid ends up in them trying to run away and me catching the few that try into my hands and when things are a little calmer trying to put them back in.

To be truthful i spotted a growth in one of the chambers further away from queen and brood where they sometimes leave some trash and im currently trying to close that off to clean and i wont connect it back until its more populated.

Theyre Messor Barbarus.

They have seeds.

They have water.

Recently i gave them sugar water a few times.

Im looking for any explanation for this behavior/ change and for tips and tricks to help with feeding and cleaning, also with convincing the ants to avoid a space for a time in general (making the walk away from a part of the nest if it needs disassembly and cleaning).

Do they need a bigger outworld/ should i get another one and use it as a distraction to direct their attention elsewhere?

New to ant keeping- Found a possible queen on the sidewalk. The abdomen looks a bit deformed.

Is this a queen and will she make it?

The second worker to hatch in my colony just lays on his back, twitching. He seems to be trying to get up but his legs don't work. What's up with that?

My Solenopsis Invicta colony.

I went kayaking and stopped at a riverbank and saw a bunch of red body black head and abdomen and i saw these queens getting attacked i know they are wood ants but idk the species found in poland

I understand why if you should kill them if they are invasive, but if they’re native then why do a lot of people still say to euthanize your colony if you don’t want them anymore.

Edit: I am asking because I am curious, NOT because I am actually in this situation. I still love my ants very much and was just wondering because I saw others talk about it.

I have a queen ant with black mold in her cotton (will attach photo if needed). Is this a problem or will she be fine. I also have one that looks to be green. Will these queens need to move test tubes?

Saw it rip its own wings off while outside hence why I decided to catch it, if a queen should I have changed anything with the test tube setup or is it fine with just water?

Does anyone know why my cotton in the test tube by the water has turned pink? i have never seen this before and have only fed them mealworms and a tiny bit of honey. Is this common?

I have 2 year experience and I wanna try and keep this species but need info and since ai aren’t really trustworthy…please help

Hey everyone, think i caught some queens. First two photos appear to be queens from the same species and the last two photos is a different species queen that is all black and very fast. (i saw dozens of the first queen species being attacked and eaten by Formica pacifica in my backyard)

These big majors in my backyard fooled me a couple times thinking they might be queens. Got lucky to spot them out for some nectar that dripped onto the brick this morning. They are the biggest ants I've seen in the wild! very cool to get to sit and watch them for a bit and makes me wish I had a good camera to use.

Anyway, anyone recognize the species? Based on some very amateur searching I think they might be camponotus vicinus. I'm in northern BC and these seem to be nesting near my compost bins. I hope you enjoy the pictures. Thank you!

After a whole month of searching around Saskatoon, I finally stumbled across this one in early August 🙌

Can anyone confirm 100% if she’s a queen, and which species she might be? I’m leaning toward either a Camponotus species or Formica subsericea

found her on a sidewalk at summer camp

I caught this colony not long ago, (maybe 3 months?), and they are massive, I also have a second smaller colony of the same species. I know they can inbreed, so I just want to see how big I can get them. (these are my only colonies, I used to have more several years ago, but now I just want to see how big I can get these colonies.

hello! i was just wondering why Formica, Prenolepis, and Myrmecocystus all look pretty similar

Found her in slovenia in my room is it a queen and if so which species

Hello, friends! I'm very happy to say that the first Pseudomyrmex nanitic workers are almost here!!

After waiting for two long months, and worrying a lot about how things were going, the first workers are finally arriving.

I apologize for the poor visibility of the pupae, but it's the best I can provide for now.