I might be getting an Acromyrmex species

[Wood~Ant]

I am feeling a bit sad at losing my Pogo rugosus queen and worker recently, and as I have never tried to keep a Leaf Cutter ant before, I wondered about trying to do so.
So when I found out a good friend of mine (Ade of Antsectopia) will be selling an Acromyrmex species, which is from Argentina apparently, I seriously considered keeping Leaf Cutters a try

I have read that most Leaf Cutter ants of the genus Acromyrmex are fairly tough and robust, and it is the fungus that needs careful treatment, as without the right warmth and humidity it can fail to grow.
What keeps going through my head now is, what type of set up to use and what kind of soil?

Knowing that fungus grows well in damp peat or mushroom compost, I reckon I'll use a mix of moss peat & sand, as this should provide a good growing medium for the fungus.
Then all I will need to do is supply leaves, and as we have lots of brambles and other plants which keep their leaves through winter, this shouldn't be a problem

What my main concern will be, keeping the ants in an escape proof tank which is large enough to house both ants and fungus
Any suggestions that you guys can offer will be most gratefully accepted.

[Kyle]

I am also trying these for the first time.
I am keeping them in a sand loam and peat mix (2parts-2parts-1part) in a 50x20x50 (HxWxL) with a temperature of about 24oC and a humidity of 70-80%.
by the way as you probably know they will grow very quickly if they can establish a nest, tho it is meant to be very hard to start with just a single queen.
but good luck and I hope they do well for you.
hope this helped

[Wood~Ant]

Thanks Kyle, it is good to read that another member of this Ant Hill will be keeping them. We will have to hope that they survive the winter, as fresh leaves are always hard to find at this time; but bramble is a good plant as a standby I've been told

I will have to prepare a fairly large tank ready for them, as I have plenty of sand, peat and some loam in my shed

[Kyle]

I always find flower shops are very useful ;D just ask for any old snippings or scraps, but make sure they've not used any form of fertilizer or that can harm the fungus.
but even grass is meant to be good if leaves are running low. hope this helps?

[Wood~Ant]

Hi Kyle, I assume that the tank is the one you're going to keep your Acro's in? Does it have a built in heater, as it appears to have a thermostat wired up to it?

I am not sure how I'll provide warmth yet, but still have a couple of weeks to work on my set up

[Kyle]

yes forgot to say that is for my acro's
well it does have a small 60w ceramic heat lamp on top it just about seen it the photo but the humidifier is not in the pic I've not set it up yet.
by the way these sell heat lamps and I got the thermostat from them cornishcrispa.com/, but that depends on what type of lid you have, so do not put a heat lamp on a glass lid as I found out the hard way
hope this helps

[Phasmid]

Heres my set up for Acromyrmex octospinosus, there is about 10litres of space for the garden to fill. Very very cheap compared to what some people use. I keep the nest box at about 26C, and I assume the humidity is right because they are still alive, but I don't know what it is.

[Wood~Ant]

Thanks for posting a photo of your set up Phasmid, I wonder how you supply heat for it? Also I see that the twigs with the leaves are outside the set up, so how do your ants get to them?

[Phasmid]

There is a heat-mat under the nest box and the temp is controlled with a thermostat. There is a tube coming out the top of the nest box and going into the tank with the food.

[Wood~Ant]

I must be honest and say that I have only set up 1 tank to keep them in at present, and haven't yet considered how to link up a foraging tank to the main one. Also my main source of winter heating for ants is still my airing cupboard, so I will have to look into maybe getting a heat pad with a thermostatic control

Getting advice from members who keep either Atta or Acromyrmex should prove very useful, as it will give me ideas on what to do once I do start keeping a Leaf Cutter ant species

[Kyle]

yeah it would be better if you could get some form of heating and thermo control other than your airing cupboard
and I just use a bit of tubing(7 meters) to connect the nest to the foraging tank.
by the way my queen has now dug a chamber and taken the fungus in so I should start to get eggs soon ;D
hope this helps

[dmfaria]

Hello!
I have never seen anyone keeping Acromyrmex, but I have seen many people keeping Atta. I suppose you could use the same ideas.
People that keep ants in universities to study them or that keeps ants in zoo's don't use any substrate. Normally they use a set up made of cylindrical chambers made of glass or plastic or acrylic (depending on the money to be spent), with a base made of plaster, or cement, or clay, or something hard that can keep humidity. They start with just one chamber to be the nest and one to be the foraging area. Then, as the colony grows, they connect other chambers to the set up. They use a glass or transparent plastic pipe to connect the chambers. You can see an example on this video (it is in Portuguese, but you will be able to picture what I described above)


You said you are importing ants from Argentina, so I don't think you should worry with the exact humidity inside the antfarm, because I think Argentina's humidity may be very similar to UK's. Of course you should put water in the foraring area and on the base of your chambers, but I don't think you should worry that much.
With respect to the temperature, you should try to mantain a similar temperature as the one in Argentina ("...the climate is predominantly temperate with extremes ranging from subtropical in the north to subpolar in the far south." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentina). I think that in the North it may range from 0C to 30C during the year...

by the way, if I had to start another Atta colony now, I wouldn't use any soil, differently from what I did with my colony. I would put the queen directly in an empty jar or small bottle. (as you can see here: .

I see that many people here keeps leaf cutter ants, it would be nice if you made some informative videos/photos/posts to show us how you built your set ups and how it is at the moment.

[Phasmid]

The problems with this type of set up, that zoos have, are that all the equipment needed costs a lot and takes up loads of space.
A very cheap but effective method is just to have one large tank filled with damp earth as normal (organic) and put a heat mat on the side.
If you set the temp to 26C so that the sensor is between the tank and the heat-mat then the ants will build the fungus garden against the side so you can see it.
Or you could have just the heat-mat without thermostat but the ants will build away from the side where it is cooler.

For a while, when the colony was very small, I kept them in a 30x20x20cm (LxHxD) tank with about 5" of substrate.
I had a heat-mat underneath with insulation between the heat-mat and tank to regulate the temp (26C). This was very cheap (heat-mat+plastic tank) worked realy well untill the colony grew out of it, I could remove the cover to see the garden.

[Vendayn]

I think generally you need three aquariums for leafcutter ants. The garden chamber, foraging area and the waste. All three are important. The waste removal is very important for leafcutter ants (and other ants too, but especially for leafcutters).

Also from reading up on the forums, expect to buy lettuce and stuff only for Leafcutter ants. I forgot that one member that kept them, but I remember he said he had to buy separate veggies for his colony. I imagine lettuce is a good source in the winter over in the UK.

Humidity/heat is really important, as been said on this thread.

And as I'm sure you know, space is really important too. I imagine after awhile, leafcutter ants take a lot of space since their colonies get so big. Plus, the fungus will need more containers to grow in after awhile too.

[Wood~Ant]

Thanks for all your heplful input guys, as I can assure you that I am taking all this in for keeping these ants
Space is going to be a priority as the colony grows, but I will probably just begin with 1 tank for the queen who should be arriving with fungus and hopefully some brood

The size of tank I have set up will fit nicely inside my hot cupboard, and it is half filled with damp peat/loam/sand mix.
I am still thinking of ways to improve the thing as a whole, so your ideas and posts are proving most helpful