Myrmecologists

[Spoogii]

Heyo!

Anyone else into myrmecology? This is a thread for anything related to it <3
You can get help identifying queens and taking care of your colony, chat about myrmecology and your colonies, anything related really! I haven't found any other myrmecologists yet on Chicken Smoothie but hopefully this will attract some of you! <3

If you don't know what myrmecology is or why people like it, PM me! I'll tell you anything you want about myrmecology. n.n


I am currently housing:
- Formica Fusca

[pizzas and scream]

I googled the word.

what are the common "pet" ants? It's possibly a bad idea to keep bullet ants and the projectile acid ants right? maybe you can train pharoh ants to go in a house and eat all the bed bugs then come back to you.

[Spoogii]

The common pet ants are Lasius niger, which is your common black garden ant if you live in the US. However if you live in Europe, then it is probably a bad idea to go out and catch a black ant queen if you don't mind acid-spraying Formica sp.. My first colony was Formica fusca which is common in the US, but all Formica sp. do spray formicarium acid, but they are a good starter colony to keep, as long as you have all nessicary things, Fluor for example, so they don't escape.
To find a queen you need to research times in the year for nuptial flights in your area. Nuptial flight is where queens go out and fly and breed. When you see a queen on the ground, it is probably fertilized and you could catch it to start your colony. ^-^
If you want to start ant-keeping, I suggest you go to a YouTube channel called AntsCanada and watch some of his tutorials; he is a professional and I watched him when I got my first colony and they're doing great!

Oh, I forgot to mention but, if you go to the AntsCanada website, you can buy queens with at least 1 worker, which garuntees fertilization!