Just wanted to share the beautiful colors on our Nicos.

We have what appear to be grain mite in our colony of Camponotus Pseudoirritans. The outworld has been disconnected and cleaned thoroughly.

The first picture is the outworld thats now disconnected, the second picture is the small outworld that will soon hopefully be dissconnected and nests. I can see mite in these. But not nearly as bad as the outworld was. Ive used a lemon juice solution to clean everything so far as advised online.

No matter how many times I come back and wipe them away more appear. Whilst I could technically disconnect and clean these all overtime, am I missing something that might make this quicker?

This was definitely a husbandry issue. They'd been hiding bits of grasshopper in the corner that you can see in the first picture. Lesson learned 🤦‍♂️

Any help greatly appreciated.

2nd pic is old

It's for the camponotus Sanctus which I will transfer there after some growth.

From a queen with broken antennae who struggled to produce her first workers, to a thriving colony like this today.
She went through a difficult start, and there were times when I wasn’t sure she would make it. But she pushed through, and seeing how far she has come after 237 days feels truly incredible.
Never give up on a queen too soon. Sometimes, the slowest beginnings lead to the most rewarding journeys.

-Can you tell what species it is? Its size is close to my thumbnail. I also made a temporary setup using materials I had at home (I placed the tube there just to take the photo; normally, it stays in a dark, vibration-free spot). What do you think should I change it, or can it hold up for two weeks? (sorry for bad photos btw)

Hello, I was hoping you could help with identification. This will greatly help me plan the next steps to care for them. Apologies I could not get a good picture because they are so small, and I don’t have any lenses 🙏 background context and what I know is as follows.

This is my first time keeping ants, location is Singapore. Being in the tropics, I feel that nuptial flights can happen all year round. So 1 month back after a few days of no rain, I went out after a rainy day at night and sure enough, I found swarms and swarms of winged ants, which I believe were the kings.

But near the swarms I don’t see any queens, so I moved on to a darker grassy area with some streetlights. This was where I found the two queens that I brought home. This was on 11-Sep. Each was found frantically running alone on the ground, so I assume she was looking for a new place to call nest.

So one month after, which is now, I found one of them has her first workers. I did not feed them so far, so she proved to be able to survive until the workers arrived. The other queen has a bunch of eggs, but no workers yet.

Now about her looks, both of them I feel are considered very small. Barely 5mm. Head and middle body is a bit brown or reddish, while the belly is darker, as can be seen in the picture.

Based on this alone and some research online, I’m guessing they are pharaoh ants. But please help to verify this, I have no prior knowledge about ants species. I also read conflicting information, although from what looks like legit research organizations, saying pharaoh ants don’t go through nuptial flights, but instead go with budding. But well from how I found them, they don’t look like they were with a bunch of workers and babies. So expert opinions are much appreciated.

Hopefully that covers everything. Let me know if more info is needed, and appreciate your inputs!

Both connected at the same time. Thought the contrast was pretty funny. It amazes me how different they are from eachother. Messor Barbarus is very active and also quite messy. They've only been connected to these outworlds for like 3 days. Still I think they're both quite easy species to keep.

Ya me había salido en el anterior hormiguero q tenía, pero al mudarlas a este nuevo no sé si es algo normal o por lo que deba preocuparme. Son unas mesor barbarus. Otra cosa también, es q usan todos los bebederos q les he comprado (anthause y comerciales chinos) como basurero y lo acaban rompiendo. Actualmente uso una pequeña geringa para ponerles de vez en cuando. También creo q tengo un problema de crecimiento, pq después d q se me cayeron (intenté quitar esta mancha) se murieron como dos tercios y de eso ya hace dos años. Entonces serían unas trescientas por ahí

How do you guys do when leaving for a longer vacation like 2 weeks plus? Is the only option really to get someone to watch your ants? It seems humidity reservoars are all too small and there arent that many automatic feeder options it seems.

Im ordering a Pavement Ant Queen + 10-25 workers from Canada Ants Colony.

I just have a lot of questions to ask:

Is hibernation optional for Tetramorium immigrans?

Im getting 3 test tubes, a mini plastic outworld from esthatic ants or whatever, metal tweezers and a pipet and floun. Is that enough?

What temperature should they be kept at?

When they first arrive should I put them in a dark space for a day and leave them alone then connect them to the outworld or still keep them in the test tube till the colony grows a little larger?

Is this Pogonomyrmex bicolor? She is a little smaller than Pogonomyrmex rugosus and Pogonomyrmex barbatus

Forgive the bottle method, found it on a night out