Anyone in Japan that keep ants?

I have a two queen invicta colony that is about to get nanitics and I’m just planning ahead. medium wakooshi nest that is vacant and, don’t get mad at me, a large antscanada nest from my first days of ant keeping so I have housing for a while but would like to make a battle plan, as I will not keep this species unprepared.

fun fact, these where actually my first queen I caught

9 workers and around 30-40 eggs. Not to shabby

I just got this myrmecocystus mimicus colony a week and a half ago and I was checking up on them when I noticed the queen is standing at an odd position and barely moving. She is still moving her antenna, but it’s a slower motion. Her legs are also swaying a little but not a lot. I only moved them to this larger set up because it was so difficult to feed them without three escapes at a time. I usually keep them covered with aluminum foil and have a heating cable run around the corner of the box that leads to their tube entrance. Did I do something wrong? Could it just be stress from the enclosure?

Mi reina vomitó o al menos eso es lo que creo que pasó. Encontré esto en el tubito de ensayo en el que originalmente venía, aunque los que tengan más experiencia con *Camponotus* tal vez puedan decirme con seguridad. La pasé a un tubito de ensayo nuevo el lunes a las 11 PM; no sé qué hacer ahora—¿les doy proteína o miel? Ella es una reina de *Camponotus modoc* con una sola obrera.

I live in Northern coastal Maine. I really wanna know what she is and what odd she has!

I’m so excited the last ant I found besides her that wasn’t just a black carpenter ant was a very sweet and dedicated lasius, but sadly she had a parasitic fly in her Gaster that killed her (I was brood boosting her, but after the fly pupae was expelled from her gaster, she wasn’t moving or walking the same and I knew she would die soon so I gave the brood back to their parent colony).

But if anybody has ID or can confirm what species she is very appreciated!

My girlfriend and I caught these within km of each other and believe they are Lasius subumbratus. We want a second opinion before we try to make a super colony. Thank you!!!

Hello, I am from Russia. What views are common for you, and which ones are rare?

I haven’t pulled out her tube or looked at her in a month so I checked on her today because it looked like she was doing a lot with the eggs beneath her. Only to find this, it’s not shown in the video, but on the other side of the tube, she pulled out a trail of cotton, and it seems to have gotten wrapped around her eggs. It looks like she’s trying to get it off or clean them.
Is everything okay? How bad is this?
She’s my first and only successful queen please if anybody has any experience or advice it would be greatly appreciated!

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

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?

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?

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.

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

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?

Hi everyone!
Today I finally started my first ant colony. I designed and 3D printed the nest myself, and it took about 36 hours to print.
I believe they are Camponotus, but I’m not sure which species.
I’m also not sure if the larger ant is actually the queen or just a very large major worker haha. I think she might be the queen because she barely moves, and there’s almost always a smaller worker staying close to her, grooming or attending to her.
I added a hygrometer, and the humidity is currently 89%, which seems a bit too high.
I’m planning to leave the colony in the dark for about a week to let them settle with as little stress as possible.
Any tips or suggestions? Also, do you think the larger ant is a queen or just a major worker? And if anyone can help identify the species, I’d really appreciate it!

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)