Thursday 20 February 2025
Last week, when checking up on my one remaining captive ant colony, I noticed that the Myrmica rubra had removed so much sand from their nesting box, that there seemed to be more space than sand. This is very typical of this species; they like to create very large chambers.
The difference between nest structure between different species of ant is fascinating, even among those that nest directly in the ground. Lasius niger tend to build lots of low ceiling horizontal chambers which are interconnected by tunnels. Myrmica rubra on the other hand seem to favour very large chambers that are directly connected to each other. They do not seem to be a tunnel building ants.
Last year I released my Lasius niger colony into the garden as I had no wild ant nests there. They moved in very quickly and are currently hibernating. When I looked at my Myrmica rubra colony last week I did consider connecting a freshly filled second nesting box. But then I thought that I could also release these into my garden too. I have an area away from the Lasius niger colony which had large flat stones on it, which Myrmica rubra love to nest under.
Now was a good time to do it time of the year wise as the Lasius niger are still hibernating, but it is mild enough for the rubras to be active. Myrmica rubra, though they do hibernate, tend to remain more active during the winter months and will emerge earlier than niger. Ideal for me. It means I was able to release the rubra into the garden without fear of them being discovered by the niger before they had settled in.
I disconnected the nesting box from the foraging box, ensuring all foraging ants were collected and placed it next to one of the large stones underneath a small tree/shrub thing. I left them for a few days before checking up on them. When I did, I saw that they had moved out of the nesting box and were nowhere to be seen. I did not start moving stones as I didn’t want to disturb them.
So now I am antless, I have no captive ant colonies. Will I get any more? Yes, but probably not for a while. I am busy with work and other stuff and so didn’t always have the time to dedicate to the ants farms as I would have liked. Perhaps when I retire for good then I will look into getting some more ant colonies. I really would like to start a new colony of Lasius flavus and have it flourish. For some reason I have never successfully raised a colony of flavus. It is something I will definitely seriously try later on.
For those of you who are interested, here is a side by side comparison of the empty Lasius niger and Myrmica rubra ant farms. Niger on the left, rubra on the right.
Side by side comparison of an empty Lasius niger nest (left) and a Myrmica rubra nest (right), showing the differences in species nest structure. Click for larger view.
Do let me know of your ant keeping experiences.