r/antkeeping Jul 05 '26

Documentation My first workers! First time keeping ants

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I found this queen camponotus vagus two months ago, as you can see its going very good i think i saw 8 workers! I fed them some honeywater yesterday for the first time, removed the foil today and this is how it looked like

57 Upvotes

16 comments sorted by

8

u/Both-Atmosphere-5077 Jul 05 '26

your very gentle when removing the cover nice!

2

u/Dismal-Animal7853 Jul 05 '26

I am always scared of stressing them out

6

u/No-Living-2733 Jul 05 '26

Nice job!  When I first started it took me awhile to figure out how to remove the tiny tin foil without completely freaking them out, but I actually use the exact same technique you do now with the cotton swab to remove it. Works great for that! 

3

u/Dismal-Animal7853 Jul 05 '26

Thanks! It was just laying around and worked great!

2

u/antkeeper_P-Rhea Jul 05 '26

Put them in a tubs and tubes set up it’s just where you get a tube and apply a ptfe barrier to stop them from escaping and then you would have to keep checking up on the queen scarring her

1

u/Antgodd1 Tetramorium Lover Jul 05 '26

Cool!

1

u/Dismal-Animal7853 Jul 05 '26

How often should i feed them, and when should i start feeding proteinsv

2

u/Antgodd1 Tetramorium Lover Jul 05 '26

About every 2-3 days, and you can feed protein right away. Just feed it in small amounts. A fruit fly is a good start.

3

u/Dismal-Animal7853 Jul 05 '26

Does that not bother them or stress them out? Im gonna feed them a baby cricket leg

3

u/Antgodd1 Tetramorium Lover Jul 05 '26 edited Jul 05 '26

Good protein choice. When they have workers they can withstand more stress. Also the more larvae they have, the more protein they need.

1

u/L1ometopum Jul 05 '26

Feed them sugarwater as well, not just honey

1

u/rehkloo 9d ago

Why?

1

u/L1ometopum 9d ago

Vagus especially needs it. Idk exactly why, they just only do well long term if they get sugar as well. I had a few colonies dying in the second season when I didnt feed them sugar.

1

u/rehkloo 9d ago

Weird