About the Queen

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The typical T. immigrans queen is about 7mm long and mostly shiny black, often with brighter appendages. This species' queens are fully claustral, meaning during founding, they don't need any food, and you should NOT feed them. Feeding them during founding is unnecessary and can cause the queen stress. Just make sure to give them a meal soon after her first workers begin hatching!

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This species is typically monogynous. This means that only one queen is found per colony. Queens can found a colony together, but once workers arrive, they will fight to the death. We only have single-queen founding groups, as we don't want queens fighting to the death!

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About Growth

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Tetramorium immigrans colonies can grow rather quickly! Egg-to-worker times are relatively short, typically ranging from 4-6 weeks. Colonies are some of the fastest-growing in the US, especially in the north! This species can reach much beyond 1000 workers in the first year (sometimes even in the first 6-8 months, with intense care). Some keepers have been able to grow their colonies well beyond 5-10 thousand workers within 2 years.

 

Temperature and Setup

 

T. immigrans are rather accepting of a wide variety of temperatures, but of course, there is a 'sweet-spot' for growth. That might be different for each colony, but typically, right around 80-83 degrees in the warm part of the nest is best for this species. It's important to note that these ants will not grow much if kept at room temperature. They're unique in the way that they WILL grow somewhat, but realistically, it's not as fun!

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When you have a small colony, it's definitely important to keep them in the test tube for a good while. We don't recommend moving them into a small nest until they have more than 50-100 workers. Trust me, it's more than possible to keep them in the test tube for that long, or even longer!

 

If you MUST move them into a different setup earlier, ensure that it's hydrated (there's a moisture source that provides constant humidity). If there isn't a reliable hydration method, find a way to keep a test tube attached to their current setup so that, in case of dehydration, they can retreat to the test tube and survive. If there's one thing that can really kill ants fast, it's dehydration! For the earliest stage of the colony's life, Tubs and Tubes is probably the best setup to use. 

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Make sure to always remove trash and uneaten food from their outworld pretty quickly. Because of how much this species can produce, mold, fungus, or mites can occur easily!

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This species can be heated using a heat mat or a heat cable. In a test tube, only heat the front of the tube in order to provide a heat gradient for the ants (they can choose the front of the tube, which is warmer, or the back, which is cooler and more humid), as well as to prevent flooding. Direct heat on the water reservoir can lead to floods. You can touch the tube and watch the ants behavior to make sure they are comfortable - if they're as far as possible from the heat cable, move it a bit further away. If they try to get as close as possible, move it a tiny bit closer.

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Alternatively, one of the best ways to get a colony growing well is to incubate them. You can create a homemade incubator with a styrofoam box, a heat pad, and a temperature controller (which will cost you less than $100 if done correctly). Set the box to 80 degrees, and you have the perfect Pavement Ant incubator. Alternatively, you can simply heat the room they're in. Always be careful with heat, both with the ants and especially with your home. 

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Feeding

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Pavement Ants are some of the most generalist ants in the US. They'll eat just about anything you throw at them - bread, chicken, mealworms, roaches, fish flakes, you name it. As long as it's non-toxic, to them it's fair game. When the colony is young, it's probably much better to feed them feeder insects (like roaches, mealworms, fruit flies, crickets), as these are bound to be high in nutrition that the ants can enjoy. This species needs both proteins and carbohydrates. Proteins were listed previously, and carbohydrates can be pretty general too! Though the best and most commonly fed carbohydrates are liquid sugars (honeywater, sugarwater), do not feed undiluted honey, as it can be bad for the ants and their setup. This species can also open and eat seeds, with seeds like Dandelion, Sand Lovegrass, and Kentucky Bluegrass being some favorites. As the colony grows larger, they are more and more accepting of just about anything you throw at them.

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​When you feed the ants, just make sure to remove anything they aren't still working on after 16-24 hours. The last thing you want is for mold to grow or for mites to infest the setup, feeding on the leftovers!

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Note, especially when feeding, that T. immigrans can sting. Realistically, their stinger is rather 'primitive' (they are pretty bad at actually landing a sting) and doesn't do much for most people aside from irritating the skin for a few minutes. Just keep it in mind, you don't want them running all over your hand!

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Hibernation

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We're lucky to have this species! Tetramorium immigrans does not need hibernation (referred to as diapause in ants). Although they can hibernate in the wild (and in captivity too, if you want), it's unnecessary and has been shown not to really affect queen health, at least not in any real way for the first years of the colony. If you do want to hibernate them, just drop the colony temperature slowly, over a few weeks, until they're at 40°F. Keep them at that temperature for around 2-3 months and then return them to regular growing temperature. Ensure that they have a high-humidity environment in hibernation, still, as they can still dehydrate! Feed them plenty before being hibernated.

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Extreme Growth

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If you really want to grow your colony fast, you need to use a combination of heat and powerfeeding. The rest of this section assumes you want your ants to grow as fast as physically possible. Heat most of the nest to the low 80s and feed lots of protein daily. The VAST majority of ant keepers do NOT grow their colonies as fast as they could be! If your ants are taking the food you're giving them, you should be giving them much more. I tend to feed my ants every single day, sometimes even twice a day if I notice they took all of the food from my earlier feeding. An excess of food, combined with the warmth, signals to the queen, "there's lots of food! Lay more eggs!". Vary their protein type, and ensure there are carbohydrates available at all times as well. When you begin doing this, it tells the queen to finally lay plenty of eggs. It's easy for an antkeeper to powerfeed for a week, not see any results, and slacken up the feeding. Don't do that! The eggs take time to grow and hatch into larvae, and then they'll REALLY need the food! Stay consistent, and always give them as much as they will eat. 

 

Just make sure when you're feeding them all this food and keeping them heated, that you don't let their water supply run out. When heating my ants, I prefer to have a tube in their outworld or attached in case I make a mistake with hydration.

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To summarize: feed your Pavement Ants as much protein as they will take, every day, and keep them very warm(83F). This will, with consistency, cause huge growth!

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