Keeping Ants

Keeping ants can be a very rewarding experience and, if looked after properly, your ant colony could flourish and last for years, and eventually spawn new queens who may fly to create new colonies elsewhere.

On these pages we will explain how to keep a successful ant colony in the comfort of your own home.

Types of ant farms>

There are several things you need to bear in mind when considering keeping ants; Which species? What type of ant farm? Where will you keep them?

Which Species Should I Use?

There over over 10,000 described species of ant in the world; some are ideal to keep in ant farms, others are not. If this is the first time you are keeping ants then I would wholly recommend that you choose a species that is commonly found in your area. Where I live, for example, the most common ant is Lasius niger, the common black garden ant. These ants are ideal as they do not sting and very rarely bite, unless the nest is disturbed. They are also very active ants and a lot easier to keep than many other species. Other species to consider would be Lasius flavus, Myrmica rubra, Tapinoma erraticum or Tetramorium caespitum. If you plan on keeping your ants in a small, traditional slim ant farm, then choose a smaller species, such as the ones mentioned above. If you have a large tank available then you could opt for a large species such as Formica fusca.

What Type of Ant Farm Should I use?

There are several factors to take into account when deciding which type of ant farm to use, such as; which species are you wanting to keep? As mentioned above, the more traditional slim ant farms are ideal for the smaller species of ants, whilst a glass tank would be better for larger ants. Personally, I like to mix the two types together in using the Starter Kit from the German company Ant Store (see Contact page for a link to their site). Space is another factor; if you do not have much space to keep an ant farm, then perhaps a tank may not be the best type for you to use.