Ant-keeping

With the exception of Pogonomyrmex occidentalis, U.S. Federal law restricts shipping live queen ants of other species (and other “plant pests”) in interstate commerce.

Furthermore, ants require less involvement from human keepers to breed, as long as the proper conditions are met, as opposed to other species.

Beware that certain species have large workers similar in size to a queen; Pheidologeton diversus, for example, possesses several castes of dinergates (soldier ants).

[citation needed] For fully claustral species, the queen should be sealed in a dark, aerated small container with access to water.

An ant's diet should consist primarily of sugars/carbohydrates (such as fruit, sugar water, raw honey, or honeydew) and proteins (such as mealworms, cockroaches, or bits of egg).

Besides the obvious need of a formicarium and outworld (A separate container, often decorated to resemble the outside world, in which the ants forage for food.

While light-aversion can be a useful tool when moving colonies to new habitats, the benefits of having ants both indifferent to observation and more easily monitored far outweighs this, especially when more effective alternatives, such as physical disturbance to or partial disassembly of the formicarium exist.

The legality of intentionally shipping reproductive ants (usually a mated queen or whole colony) across state, provincial, or international borders varies substantially by country.

In Europe, some domestic species (such as Formica rufa) are protected, and it is illegal to own, keep, buy, or sell these ants, or to damage their nests.

However, unlike for reptiles and spiders, there are no rules for owning, keeping, buying or selling non-protected species inside the EU and many other countries.