Beginner Ant Farm: Mini Queen Ant Nest Starter Kit

All of our queens come in a test tube, with half of the tube filled with water and blocked off by cotton. Some water seeps through the cotton and allows the queen and her colony to drink.

You will need to feed the colony regularly by placing a small amount of food in the test tube or outworld. They will need sugars (honey, sugar water, ant nectar) and protein (mealworms, crickets, or other insects) about once every 5-7 days.

This depends on the species. “Easy care” ants like big-headed ants and pavement ants typically don’t mind if you check on them often, as long as you do not turn, bump, or shake the tube. It is best to place them in a position that allows for you to view them without picking up the tube, such as simply opening up a box and looking in, or lifting up a cloth that covers the tube. Some ants, like bull ants and other semi-Claustral ants, are much more sensitive to disturbance and can eat their eggs or die if they are disturbed too often, so keep disturbances to a couple times a week at the most for these ant types.

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Typically you should only move the ants when they no long fit in the test tube and are often escaping when you try to feed them. Moving them in too early can cause them to become stressed and develop slowly.

If you’d like to move them, you can purchase some test tubes and a connector from the site and make a new tube using cotton. Once the ends of the tubes are connected, move the new tube/nest into the dark (preferably warm too) and leave the old tube under some bright light, at a slight upwards angle if possible. It can take anywhere from ten minutes to a few weeks for a colony to move into a new tube or nest.

This happens often in winter. Ants tend to slow down and reduce activity when it is cold, so creating a warmer environment and feeding more protein can encourage colony growth.

Mould is not necessarily a problem, it’s usually only an issue if the ants are clearly avoiding it and moving to the other side of the test tube. If they are staying near the cotton and don’t seem to care, I wouldn’t worry too much.

We recommend starting off small. A nest that is too big for the colony will stress them out, and they may die off. Remember, underground, ants don’t have much space, so it’s better for them to be cramped.

It can depend on many factors including temperature, time of year, and diet, but typically we recommend pavement ants (Iridomyrmex bicknelli), meat ants (Iridomyrmex purpureus) and big-headed ants (pheidole).

Typically, whichever one you prefer! You can usually just choose whichever nest you like the look of more, however, here are some difference between the two: The Y-Tong nest will retain moisture for longer than the 3D printed nests, meaning you will have to water them less frequently. They are also larger and can contain more ants. The Y-Tong are built to stand up on their side, however they can also be laid flat. The 3D printed nests must be laid flat. Finally, bull ants will not fit in the Type A (red) Y-tong nests.

You only need one queen, she will lay thousands of eggs throughout her life and keep the colony growing in size.

We recommend that all semi-Claustral ants have some form of substrate in their outworld. Please check the information of your ant to determine if its is Claustral or semi-Claustral. We do not recommend sand be placed inside test tubes.

toolTips('.classtoolTips0','The method of establishing a new colony, in which a queen sequesters herself in a small chamber and hatches the first generation of workers, nourishing them primarily on stored body fat. The queens will not forage for food, and do not require feeding until the first generation is hatched');

You should only get bull ants if you are very experienced and patient. They are very sensitive to disturbance, highly aggressive, have a painful sting, and take anywhere from 4 months to a year for an egg to hatch into a worker. Also, they usually only lay a few eggs at a time. It’s a long journey!