There is a Lack of Antkeeping Information on the Web
############ As of 1st June 2025, the experiment failed- the ants were unable to establish a colony due to a poor nesting environment. The container barrier (baby powder & water) was inadequate, the mature worker ants were escaping, and were unable to find their way back. This resulted in the queen using up her energy stores and not being cared for in the process. *womp womp woooomp* – you’re welcome to the read the rest of the article, just know that caring for bee is not the same as caring for ant (duh) – I’ll stick with the bees thanks,
Sorry for the silence. Life got in the way. Holidays and all that jazz. During my (regional) travels, I came across the idea of antkeeping, and well… how hard can it be? A week later, a Camponotus aeneopilosus queen arrived in a test tube, and has been sitting in my drawer undisturbed as she cares for her brood. I’ll be documenting her rise from a test tube tyrant to queen of an established hive.
Like bees and wasps, ants are Hymenopterans. There are overlaps in their biology (e.g. single reproductive queen, sterile workers, division of labour), along with family-specific traits (major & minor workers, claustral versus non-claustral founding). Googling “how to keep for Golden Tail Sugar Ants” returns with a few results, and I’d like to change that. Sure there are videos on generalized antkeeping, and they are very, very, very good… But you prefer to read, right anon?
Queens Start their Colony in a Test Tube
Mated queen ants are shipped in a test tube consisting of two-thirds water, topped by a cotton bud, a small space for the queen and her brood, and another cotton bud to seal the entrance but allow airflow. She will remain in this space until a few generations of workers emerge, at which point they begin foraging food and establishing a proper nest. This duration takes months, and will depend on your species. The best time to start an ant colony is last year. The second-best-time is today.
Temperature, Air, Water and other Abiotic factors
Three quarters of a test tube are filled with water and sealed with a cotton bud. The cotton will stay moist, allowing Her Majesty to use it as a water source. By loosely sealing the other side of the tube, air comes in and the ant stays in, so that takes care of gas exchange.
Temperature is managed by storing ants in a controlled environment; I’m using a spare drawer for easy access and protection from dirt and noise. Light should be kept to a minimum – the colony spends most of its time underground after all1.
Storing the Queen in a Cupboard?
Your ant’s life cycle will determine how long she stays in the dark. I inspect my queen once a week and even I think that’s too frequent. The cupboard is easy to access, dark and temperature controlled. She’ll stay there for months until it’s time to move her to a larger container. So long as she’s kept undisturbed, the subsequent brood can remain in this space until they grow. Like bees, ants don’t do well if the space provided is beyond their capacities to defend– pests, disease and parasites can take advantage of the unguarded space and it’s a downward spiral from there.
Moving Out of a Test Tube
New colonies can survive without external food sources from the queen’s fat stores (for example in desert seed-harvester ants Pogonomyrmex; Johnson 1998). They may remain in the test tube until perhaps the third generation of workers emerge (colony growth will be exponential as the newly-emerged workers tend to the brood). The test tube is then placed in a larger enclosure, the “outworld”, where they forage and dispose of their dead. This can be a standard food container, a fish tank or something creative – many options.
Jordan Dean’s videos are great resources, and I will be putting his information into practice.
Stressed out Queens from Improper Handling
I was too keen in my “unboxing” video and greatly disturbed the queen, causing Her Majesty to panic. You don’t need to be an expert to see the signs – erratic, fast movements, egg clutched in the mandible, seeking cover. The sudden brightness did not help either. After inspecting ten days later, there seemed to be no harm done, and so I dodged a bullet.
What if there was harms done? Under stressful conditions, the eggs would have been consumed by the queen to conserve resources- this is evident in other ants species, where eggs are consumed in response to resource competition or scarcity, or starvation. (e.g. black garden ants Lasius niger, Urbani, 1991or fire ants, Solenopsis Invicta, Sorensen et al., 1985). By eating the eggs, the queen:
- Restores some of the spent energy from her fat bodies, and
- Prevents the emergence of her brood into a potentially hostile environment,
- They’d become another mouth to feed in an environment without feed, further straining resources.
How Does the Ant Queen Survive Without Food?
The ant queen stores large amounts of fats and proteins in her body prior to colony founding – this allows her to produce the first rounds of brood without an external food source (Wheeler & Buck, 1995). The protein demands are met by reabsorption of the flight muscles; ants sprout wings when it’s time for reproduction and recycle them after mating2.
The reproductive form of most ants (and termites and some other insects) are alates – they are the ones with wings. When the ant queen (ant princess?) mates successful, she sheds her wings (dealation… de-alate-tion,) and recycles the muscles tissue for energy. These nutrients are used by Her Majesty in place of food during the first cycle of brood rearing, hence “claustral” colony founding phase (see Jones et al., 1978 for an example in the fire ants Solenopsis). In smaller species, claustral founding preferred – perhaps because the queen is the sole reproductive female and is too precious to risk out hunting.
This is not true for all ant species- Bull ants Myrmecia are “semi-claustral” – these queens look and act like absolute units, and will hunt for food… If the queen is an aggressive hunter when alone, what do you think her workers will be? That’s right, she’ll be aggressive, and Myremecia are called “bully” ants for a good reason. Social wasps and hornet queens also hunt during the early stages of nest rearing- unlike ants however they have the advantage of flight, bites AND stings.
Biology of Golden Tail Sugar Ants
The biology of these ants is much like other ants. The Camponotus genus is large – Antwiki states that there are more than 100 species worldwide. In general:
- Golden tail ants nest in the ground, others nest in trees, twigs or dead wood,
- They have major and minor worker forms,
- Their queens found claustral colonies, shedding their wings and using their fat stores to raise the initial generations of brood, and
- They have a golden colouration on their abdomen, which gives them their name.
What to Feed C. aenopilosus
From their name “sugar ants”, I assume they prize sugar as the highest resource. However this does not make them herbivorous – they need to obtain their proteins from somewhere. I will be experimenting with a variety of nuts, arthropods and invertebrates, from compost worms to grubs captured in the garden. I may even feed them dead bees!
Animals are best fed pre-killed – whether by freezing or boiling. This reduces the struggle session between of Antlien Vs Predator™, removes potential pathogens on the surface/body of the food and (for those who care), is a humane way of killing the insect prior to feeding it to your ants. As of writing, I assume that insect brood (larvae) will be far more palatable than the adult forms.
Mimicking the Natural Environment of C. aeneopilosus
Golden tail sugar ants are found on the eastern side of Australia, an environment that ranges from tropical (Far North Queensland) to temperate and cool (Melbourne, Victoria). I will be mimicking a suburban ground nesting environment, using a C. aeneopilosus nest established near my home as a model. This one is situated on a grassy patch surrounded by concrete. The wide distribution of these ants suggests they are adaptable and would be easy to care for.
Let’s see how I go eh?
Read the whole post and found puns, typos mistakes? Or just don’t like ants? Voice your displeasure with a strongly-worded message to admin@tgbee.com.au, or by filling this form.
Footnotes
- When the colony is large, I plan to place them in a fishtank with red plexiglass coverings on the bottom. Like bees and wasps, ants cannot see the red colours of the light spectrum and will treat it as darkness for their brood chamber. ↩︎
- This distinguishes them from honeybees, whose queens keep their wings for life. When it’s time to reproduce, the reigning queen will fly to a new location and start anew- the swarming phenomenon. ↩︎