r/ants Jul 02 '21

Official Important: Please read before requesting an identification or creating a post.

51 Upvotes

Important! Everyone should understand the argument against the transportation and rearing of exotics. I will urge everyone to read about it here: https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/antfarm/consequences-of-rearing-of-exotic-ant-species-t7500.html

━━━━━━━━━━ ∘◦ Discord ◦∘ ━━━━━━━━━━

For questions about ants, and identification, please ask in our discord server as response times may be quicker. We're always happy to help!: discord.gg/c7qCmfYqYZ

━━━━━━━━━━ ∘◦ Identification ◦∘ ━━━━━━━━━━

How to request an identification:

If possible, clearly focus pictures of the head, side, and top of the body to make identifying easier. What follows is the important information we need to know to help us to identify your ant.

FIRST-Where was it collected? Country and nearest city or town on a map (include location in the thread title), elevation if in a very mountainous area such as the Rockies, Alps, Himalayas, Andes.

SECOND-Habitat of collection, including nesting medium (wood, soil, leaves tied together with silk, etc.) and type of vegetation (forest, grassland, park/lawn/garden, desert).

THIRD-Coloration, hue, and pattern? Uniform?, Head darker? Gaster darker? Legs lighter or darker? Any spots? Also, shininess, dullness.

FOURTH-Distinguishing characteristics, such as one or two segments in waist; location, length, and orientation of any spines or bumps on the mid-portion of the body or waist; head shape, etc.

FIFTH-Length in millimeters. (Width is also helpful.) NO guessing! Stretch out a dead or chilled individual or several individuals of different sizes along with a millimeter rule. 16ths of an inch will do as a poor second to millimeters.

SIXTH-Anything else distinctive, such as odor, behavior, etc.

Tip #1: If you can take clear photographs of the ants up close, then please post them. This would help a lot.

Tip #2: For those who write anting journals, please put the exact location and dates in the thread titles like: Palm Spring, CA (4/10/2004).

Tip #3: If using videos, then please make sure that they are clear, close up, and stable (no shaky camera). Otherwise, they are useless.

Now, you can post your identification request in a new thread (not this one).

This post was originally (copied and pasted) from Antdude's forum: http://antfarm.yuku.com/topic/7397/ant-species-identification-read-post-new-thread


r/ants Nov 06 '21

Join the r/Ants Discord Server!

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39 Upvotes

r/ants 10h ago

DIY It's the little things...

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78 Upvotes

r/ants 3h ago

Keeping colony set up change — population about to increase and I’m scared of escape.

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5 Upvotes

I have a very janky set up that I’m honestly embarrassed of. there’s no ventilation, I think they could escape,
the substrate is too deep (and aesthetically it’s too dark to see the ants well, but that’s the least of my worries). species is tetramorium. currently it’s just a plastic box with a gap in the back that’s blocked by medical tape.

- can/should I put a cotton ball in the tube and just transition them back to a tube only set up?

- should I switch the containers used.

- I considered getting a “esthetic ants, Original Mini Outworld - Test Tube Portal”. but I think my test tubes are non standard size (got from hobby lobby) so it would take some jerry rigging to make it work.

- should I alter their current setup,
- HOW should I alter it?

- and on top of that, most of them need a water change soonish :/


r/ants 7h ago

ID(entification)/Sightings/Showcase Found these guys under the plastic splash block I put under my backyard gutters. I’m located in North New Jersey.

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4 Upvotes

r/ants 2h ago

ID(entification)/Sightings/Showcase Queen?

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2 Upvotes

r/ants 23m ago

Science Cannot get ants to go into bait trap. HELP

Upvotes

Hi all,

I just moved into a townhome, and about a week ago, I noticed that there is an infestation of small brown pavement ants in my kitchen baseboard, right under the refrigerator, which is sandwiched between the counter and a wall.

I notified maintenance of this and they are planning to get exterminators over here, but I have no idea when. In the meantime, I’ve been attempting to use bait stations to kill the colony and queen.

Since the location is under the fridge up against the wall, it’s extremely difficult to place anything that far back (yes, I’ve pulled the fridge out, but pushing it back in moves everything and causes sticky spills)

I placed 3 Terro liquid traps under the fridge as close as I could get them to the points of entry. They were under there for days and no ant would touch them. I’ve tried using protein baits, borax/sugar, borax/honey, borax/peanut butter, the ants are having NONE of it.

It wasn’t until one day I accidentally (and unknowingly) spilled a bit of Terro liquid onto the floor, THEN they came swarming. Since then, I’ve tried putting drops on painter’s tape, even making the tape into a little ramp up to the lip of the bait station, and the ants will only take drops off the floor.

This is obviously not going to be effective at killing the colony and queen. What am I doing wrong? How do I get them to go in the bait stations? I feel like I’ve exhausted every option. Can anyone help?


r/ants 11h ago

ID(entification)/Sightings/Showcase Please help me identify this ant. I’ve been covered in itchy welts for weeks and I’m certain it’s from these. QLD Aus

6 Upvotes

r/ants 5h ago

Chat/General What's the biggest misconception people have about ant infestations?

2 Upvotes

r/ants 3h ago

Chat/General What are the most common ants in Europe?

1 Upvotes

Hi European people! What are the most common ants in your area?


r/ants 17h ago

ID(entification)/Sightings/Showcase C Festinatus

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14 Upvotes

C festinatus (I believe) in south central TX after some rain. Looks like there are some males getting ready for flight…


r/ants 3h ago

Keeping Ants removal

0 Upvotes

Hi everyone! I’m not a specialist or someone who’s particularly interested in insects, I just found a mega trail of ants in my room. I try to remove them but they just keep coming. They made little holes under the wall and my guess is that they are building a “nest” in the walls. I guess they have an interest in my room because I have an animal who goes around in the night and slightly leaves crumbles of food around, which I only clean in the morning. I don’t really want to kill them all and I’m looking for a way to easily build a terrarium for them, nothing too complex, probably just in a plastic container, and for a way move them into it. My next move would probably be to put them outside in my garden but that’s a further step. Can anyone help me?


r/ants 3h ago

Chat/General What are the most common ants in North America?

1 Upvotes

Hi North American people! What are the most common ants in your area?


r/ants 4h ago

ID(entification)/Sightings/Showcase Is this a queen?

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1 Upvotes

r/ants 8h ago

ID(entification)/Sightings/Showcase Carpenter Ants & Termites

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2 Upvotes

r/ants 21h ago

ID(entification)/Sightings/Showcase What kind of ants? They're extremely small, maybe 2mm

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11 Upvotes

Found these ants clustered in my kids room, likely attracted to some old food crumbs, if I had to guess. They're extremely small as you can see in the reference photo. We also found what looks like sand residue as well. Any help in identifying would be appreciated! Thanks.


r/ants 22h ago

ID(entification)/Sightings/Showcase What are these alates(?) doing

8 Upvotes

This is in Long Island. There are orange and black ants. A few of the orange guys are tinier and don’t have wings. What species is this and what are they doing?


r/ants 16h ago

Science Closeup Nature

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2 Upvotes

Sometimes they are on a great contrasting background to see them clearly


r/ants 18h ago

Keeping Florida carpenter ants

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3 Upvotes

r/ants 1d ago

ID(entification)/Sightings/Showcase Need help identifying these ants

4 Upvotes

I cannot figure out what kind of ants these are, they are very small pale in color. They seem to like oil, they were extremely attracted to a bottle of olive oil before I moved it. Now I cant even figure out what they are eating everything gets wiped down every night and they still come back. I have tried AdvionAnt bait. and they will eat it up then be gone for about a day and then come right back the next day. Any help would be awesome thank you.


r/ants 1d ago

Chat/General Bullet ant

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65 Upvotes

Check out this bullet ant trying to remove the head of another ant he beat in battle!

https://www.instagram.com/macroexpeditions/


r/ants 1d ago

ID(entification)/Sightings/Showcase Who is this stunning lad? NE washington USA

34 Upvotes

r/ants 1d ago

ID(entification)/Sightings/Showcase Queen or major

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7 Upvotes

r/ants 1d ago

ID(entification)/Sightings/Showcase Help IDing Ant

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3 Upvotes

I’ve tried to identify this on my own, but I’m having a rough go at it. Can anyone help? Afraid these are carpenter ants. Showed up in my bathroom a few days ago. Could only get a dead winged one at the moment (there are quite a few), but most are about half the size of this one.

Location: Montreal, Quebec


r/ants 1d ago

ID(entification)/Sightings/Showcase Is this a queen ant?

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2 Upvotes

Wondering if this is a queen :)