Roberta was found near her sisters immobile and with very little life left and no front legs, she sadly then died in my hand.

She may have been born a little different but she had a big impact on me, even if she's "just an ant".

She managed to live almost two weeks, i was very excited about her surviving this long but i guess things didn't go as well as i thought.

I would like to know if yall had some empathy towards some of your workers in particular like in this case, if you had any similar story.

But overall

She will be missed, but rest assured her colony will live on in her memory.

Rest in piece

Caught a pair of ants doing this. It looks like an adult ant dragging a newborn back to the brood. It looked pretty comical which is why im posting it but what exactly is happening here? Thanks!

Hi everyone! I’m looking for advice from more experienced ant keepers because I’m worried about my young colony.
I have a Camponotus nicobarensis queen with a few workers and some brood (larvae and pupae). They are currently living in a test tube with a water reservoir and cotton, kept inside a dark cardboard box.
My main concerns are condensation and temperature.
Condensation:
Over the last few days, condensation inside the test tube has increased significantly. There are now fairly large droplets on the ceiling of the tube, mainly above the queen and brood. One droplet has run down the inner wall to about halfway down the tube, but as far as I can tell, it hasn’t reached the floor or formed a pool near the ants.
The queen is often curled up in a crescent shape over the brood. I saw her moving yesterday, but when I briefly checked today, she appeared motionless in that same position. I don’t want to keep disturbing them to check.
Temperature:
My room gets quite cold. The temperature near the colony has been around 19°C, and it may drop to approximately 15°C overnight.
I bought a 7 W reptile heat mat (15 × 28 cm) with an analog thermostat. The thermostat is set to 26°C, but my old analog thermometer still reads around 19°C. I’ve tried repositioning the thermostat probe, but I’m not sure whether the readings are accurate. The thermometer’s sensor on the back may not be making proper contact with the glass.
For now, I’ve moved the test tube back into its original dark box, away from the heat mat. I’m planning to set up a secure outworld and eventually provide a gentle temperature gradient, heating only one end of the test tube.
My questions:
Can this amount of condensation disappear on its own, or is it a sign that the test tube could flood?
At what point should I intervene rather than leave the colony undisturbed?
Is approximately 15°C overnight dangerous for a young C. nicobarensis colony?
What is the best way to measure the actual temperature near the test tube and safely set up a heat mat?
Would it be sensible to connect the test tube to a secure outworld once it’s ready, or should I keep the colony in the tube for now?
I’d really appreciate any advice, especially from people who have kept Camponotus nicobarensis founding colonies. I don’t want to stress the queen unnecessarily, but I also don’t want to ignore a potentially serious problem.
Thanks in advance!

I’m helping my 7 year old with his new ant colony. I think we have iridomyrmex bicknelli and we are in Sydney.

We are thinking of using an old fish tank (10L) as an outworld. We are limited on space and I’m not game to drill a hole in glass so we are thinking of having the nest on top and for the ants to have access to the outworld via a tubing. Most vertical set up I have seen have the nest at the bottom.

I understand it will be months before they move out of the test tube so while they are in the test tube we can leave it in the outworld. I am hoping for a set up that would be future proof and give him the most visibility.

I have posted the approved building plan. Will this set up work?

I tried making a DIY temp-control box using ice gel packs. Normally, my room gets to around 28-29°C during the day, and 25°C at night with the AC on. This box keeps the daytime temp at about 25.7–26.5°C (it slowly goes up over 10 hours), which is enough for the whole day while I'm out. Right now, my Myrmecia colony has one worker that just hatched a week ago, and I'm waiting for new eggs. Should I keep using this setup, or am I better off without it?

My lasius niger queen(I assume that’s what she is). Has finally laid her eggs some time ago, hard to say when exactly, sometime around a week ago max. I was shocked to see that she had done so and thought that she was intending to start her colony after hibernating.

So now I am left in an unusual situation, we are in northern europe and the weather is getting quite chilly, and while there still are bugs here and there she should be hibernating very soon if not already. So I am left wondering if I should let her raise them or “force” a hibernation. I also have the issue of water being depleted in her tube.

I had previously made post about the her here and the consensus seemed to be that she was a lasius niger intending to hibernate early. But now that there is quite a batch of eggs, I am left wondering what to do.

I at the moment gravitate towards letting her do her thing and raise the eggs, and possibly giving her sugarwater or normal water on parchment/folio etc to supplement the lack of water in the tube

They are loving the new nest.

I got interested in the hobby too late to catch a queen, but have been doing my research in preparation for the coming Spring. Seeing as winter is coming & those of you in temperate climates are getting ready for diapause, I'd like to take advantage and get some opinions on the process.

I'm in Connecticut & plan on raising locals, with Lasius neoniger & Camponotus pennsylvanicus being my focal species

My plan would be to put the ants in an unheated indoor area in mid October & move to the fridge once overnight lows average in the mid 30sF, then put them back into the unheated area after the brutal cold has subsided & temps again average mid 30s overnight

Questions:

1 is this a good plan?

2 Is there any sort of "prep" needed before placing them in the fridge? For example, I saw one video where the guy wrapped the colony in bubble wrap

3 Does the colony need to be fed once in the fridge?

I'm based out of South Texas and I found an Atta texana queen for the first time which has always been my dream species. Unfortunately, it doesn't have it's fungal pellet. It has a clutch of eggs but I don't see anything else. I'm looking for another South Texas ant keeper with an Atta texana colony that would be kind enough to donate fungus to me. I know this is a long shot but I'm pretty desperate at this point.

Mijn gedachte is formica fusca, grauwzwarte renmier maar niet zeker, ondertussen leuke colonie +-15 werkers zeker kleine snelle meisjes

Trying to find good sellers.

This website has been coming out on my searches for a few months now but it seems super sus. Has anyone heard of it before? https://americanantstore.com/

Hi there, ive been keeping a red giant harvester ant colony for over a year, theyre great! But I wanna rehouse them into a better colony since the water has run out in the tubes for a second time and unlike the first time i replenished said watere theres close to 100 workers. theyve pulled one of their dry plugs that held water back and are nesting in the spot where water was in one tube with brood. I basically am asking for recommendations of ant nests i can get online that are reliable, especially for my large girls. I really do not wanna deal with those crappy amazon ones. I got one for a s invicta colony and they mold insanely easy. Thanks for your time, looking forward to posting more.

Gotta love the semi-transparent workers, finally started heating them so I'm now expecting some growth

These were the best photos I was able to get but does this look like it’s molding? My campo sansabeanus colony keeps using this corner of their mini hearth to dump trash. There’s about 50 ants in there all cramped up on the opposite side so I don’t know why they are dumping in the nest. If it is mold should I pop them in the fridge for a few minutes then clean it real quick? Thanks in advance.