If you are keeping fire ants for your hobby, I think you have to find a good formicarium for your fire ants, because you don’t want your fire ants to get into your house and turn out to be an infestation.
Tar Heel Ants Phalanx is the best formicarium for fire ants since it well enough space to expand along with a material that absorbs water and retains moisture.
Choosing the best formicarium for your fire ants will make your keeping process more fun and interesting. Hang on with me. I will give you all the facts that you need to know when choosing a formicarium for fire ants.
Why a formicarium for fire ants?
There are several specific breeds of fire ants. And most of those fire ant breeds can explode rapidly when you start to care for them in a good environment.
Here’s what an experienced ant keeper thoughts about the rapid exploding of fire ants.
“ Solenopsis grow extremely quickly. One queen could get over 10,000 workers in 6 months. I would NOT recommend them to beginners. “
Formiculture
The thing is, because of the aggressiveness of fire ants, in case if they grow up their colony like this they might try to escape from your setup and turn out to be an infestation at your house.
Trust me. If fire ants get into your house, they will establish their new colony with thousands of workers within a few hours on a corner of your house.
A standard formicarium is always made to preserve your ants inside the provided environment.
And the other reason you need to have a formicarium for fire ants is the ease of controlling the living conditions and supplements.
For instance, you can bump up the humidity and moisture by injecting some water into the walls of the fortress.
Apart from the above facts, since fire ants are expanding their colonies pretty quickly, these aggressive ants try to chew through the covers. In fact, they will make their effort worthwhile in many cases.
Even small ant colonies with 25 – 30 colonies which are established in test tubes, ants often chew through cotton and escape from the territory.
Therefore, a better preserving system is required for fire ants. So formicarium for fire ants becomes essential.
Also Read: Can fire ants survive fire?
How to choose a formicarium for fire ants?
Now I’m going to share what are the things you need to consider when choosing a formicarium for fire ants.
- Look for the size first
As I said earlier, if you actually want to grow a fire ant colony, you need to realize that you have to bear a minimum of 500 – 1000 workers in the first 6 months.
Considering that, you have two options in terms of the size of the formicarium.
You can either choose a small to medium-sized ant farm and move the colony into a bigger one when it expands or you can start with something like a 10-gallon tank up front.
You may feel really bad if you start the colony in a large tank or dirt box with a queen and a few workers. Because you can’t really see your ants staying active unless you feed them.
But on the other hand, if you use a small formicarium on fire ants early on and try to move it to a bigger farm when it expands, there is a chance to fall you into more trouble.
Therefore I recommend going with something large in size.
- Look for the correct material
The material is a vital factor when you choose the best formicarium for your fire ants.
A formicarium made with suitable material will help to retain moisture, and humidity, and also keep the ant farm clean.
In this case, the main thing we have to consider is the ability to absorb moisture. It will allow not to flood the surface if a water leakage happens.
Materials such as fiber, and wood are working pretty well with holding and absorbing the moisture. So fiber and wood are the best materials for an ant formicarium.
In contrast, I don’t really recommend ant formicariums built in plastic since they flood the liquids on the surface.
Best formicarium for fire ants
I have reached out to many ant keepers and look back into my own experiences to find you the best formicarium for fire ants.
According to all the observations and research I have done, I found one particular ant formicarium fulfills both requirements of the size, and material, plus some additional features.
I considered 3 popular formicariums to check and figure out the best option for you. Those three ant farm products are Ants Australia, Ants Canada, and Tar Heel Ants.
I used my personal observation, as well as I made a poll and left ant keepers to vote on their preference of the above formicariums regarding fire ants.
Then I have made a decision.
So what is the best formicarium for fire ants?
Tar Heel Ants Phalanx (Type III) is the best formicarium for fire ants since it is comparatively large and made with water-absorbable fiber material with an attached foraging area and 2 water towers.
According to Tar Heel Ants, a Phalanx is made with a particular material, especially to hold the destructive ants like fire ants.
Here are some features included in the Tar Heel Ants Phalanx formicarium.
- 4x8x4 foraging area
- 3” x 6” single or double-sided nest
- Water tower
- Stainless steel mesh vent
- Standard or museum glass
Most importantly you can do feeding, watering, and controlling moisture by impacting from outer world.
In terms of pricing of the THA Phalanx, it will be 89.99 $. But in my point of view, it’s still worth it.
When talking about the material of Ants Canada Formicarium, it is made of plastic. So it can not absorb the moisture into the material. It can affect badly to the growth of the colony.
Also read: Can fire ants bite through clothes?