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#antkeeping

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myrmepropagandist

They are such beautiful ants! You *almost* forget how ravenous, warlike and sneaky they are!

The queens are all about the same shade of yellow/orange— which shows they all emerged at once. As their exoskeletons harden, their color will darken. In this species the wings are almost black—very striking! I hope the next batch isn’t all males— though this colony is massive— to think there were only 8 of them years ago.
(read alt text to learn how to spot a queen ant!) #antkeeping #ants #camponotus

A young queen alate side view. She is a pale lemon orange. Her gaster is shiny black with prominent stripes. Her eyes are large and black. Notice the rather rectangular shape of her thorax: often people struggle to tell queens from major workers— when her wings are gone the bulky shape of the thorax will be the ‘tell’ that she is a queen who was born with flight muscles, not a soldier
A queen rests her wide head on her sisters back. They are in a cork nest and it’s crowded.
Some of the workers, that are chestnut brown with black gasters. Their gasters are a bit distended as this colony eats without end.
Side view of a major worker. Soon the young queens will be this red brown color. Notice the difference in thorax shape.
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myrmepropagandist

My carpenter ant colony takes up two bookshelves. They have two "outworlds" or places to find food and do ant stuff. They have three nesting spaces. (More about the setup in the alt text. )

Glass on antkeeping enclosures often has a hazy look. We use "fluon" to keep the ants from climbing out. It basically makes a powdery slippery layer near the top of the glass that ants struggle to climb. I wish I could find a solution that didn't look so messy.

The full set up. On the top shelf a log cut in half with plexiglass cover to show the nest chambers. Large black ants are packed into the nest. A glass terrarium connects to the log, the to a small annex nest: a round wood circle filled with more ants. A long curving plastic tube connects to the lower shelf. There is a larger enclosure with a branch to climb on and sugar feeder. Then, their newest log home. it’s not as full as they are still moving in.
Closer view of their new nest. It’s about one third full mostly older ants using it for now. They have not moved and brood down to this nest. The brown cable provides heat, which they seem to like on cold days.
The mini annex nest is a round of wood with five chambers like flower petals. It’s packed with ants.
The two shelves again but with the purple, green and ochre magnetic felt covers on the three nests to block out the light. The annex nest has a cover with a felt flower petal design that mirrors the chambers.
#ants#antkeeping#carpenterAnts
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myrmepropagandist

FYI for ant fans in Oregon, one of the formiculture forum members has started a small ant concern selling local species and some basic supplies.

I have not shopped with them, but were they in NY I'd be interested! Out west ya'll are lucky to have so many ant shops (there are a few good ones in CA too)

#antkeeping #ants #shops #formiculture

oregonants.com/

Oregonants"OregonAnts: Your Destination for Ant Keeping Supplies in Oregon" | OregonantsAnt supplies? Live ants? No problem we gotchu covered.
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myrmepropagandist

It's been a few days since I've opened the enclosure for her colony, so she must have been lost in the apartment for several days. She managed to not get eaten by a spider or by #pica! (yes Pica will eat ants)

I gave her some sugar water before returning her to her home. #antVideo #camponotus #ants #antkeeping #antsOfMastodon #WithNarration

youtu.be/cugNRyChthg

YouTubeRehydrating a lost ant before returning her to her colonyBy Susan D.
Public
myrmepropagandist

The astonishing art of aquarium landscape art: Made for fish, but I want these kinds of worlds for ants. For that to work they'd need to be durable, and on a much smaller scale... but this gives me some ideas for the new outworld I'm making for the coming carpenter ant population boom.

Also, with ants ... they shape their environment. They will tear up your plants, move all your sand. Designs must work with not against "ant ideas" of design. It's hard! #antkeeping #ants

etsy.com/people/xp4zjcnc/favor

Inverted mountains for an aquarium.
A root-scape for a mangrove-like environment.
Public
myrmepropagandist

Here's a video with some narration about the "#ant porch" I got from undergroundCiti a few weeks back. It has a little water mote and lets you interact with the ants close up and take photos. I might modify it to have its own lighting system. There is so such thing as "too much light" when photographing ants.

Enjoy! and let me know what you think.

#antvideo #ants #camponotus #antkeeping #cutebabies #arthropods

youtube.com/watch?v=AmwHW7f5Pg

YouTubeAnt PorchBy Susan D.
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