Harvester Ants
European Harvester Ants
Why this species? About them.
Messor barbarus, or Harvester Ants, are a unique and captivating species known for their seed-harvesting behaviour. These ants are perfect for beginners who want a fascinating colony that stores food and demonstrates incredible teamwork. With their black and red colours and varied activities, Harvester Ants are a joy to keep.
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Harvester Ants are known for their remarkable ability to collect and store seeds, creating fascinating granaries in their nests. They get most of their nutrition from chewing these seeds into an ant-bread. They’re a low-maintenance species, perfect for beginners, and their dual-coloured workers (black and red) add a striking visual element to your colony. If you’re looking for a species with unique behaviours, Harvester Ants are an excellent choice.
They also have a large contrast in worker size. In our hobby, this is called "polymorphism", it simply means you get small workers (called minors) medium workers (called medias) and big seed-munching workers (called majors), majors are almost as big as the queen.
Life Cycle and colony size.
From humble beginnings to bustling colonies, harvester ants have a captivating life cycle.
be sure to keep them somewhere warm, they love 23 degrees to 24 degrees.
The Queen
Age: Up to 11+ Years
Size: 14-15mm
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Does not need feeding until first workers are born.
Polymorphic
The Workers
Age: Up to 2 Years
Size: 3mm-14mm
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Fully grown colonies have more than 10,000 workers.
Growing your colony: Feeding
Feeding your colony is easy too, they need 2 types of nutrition and your starter kit comes with all 3 of them. When you receive your kit, place your sugars in the fridge and your seeds somewhere dry. Harvester ants can also benefit from additional proteins by way of insects.
Water
This should be available at all times and is typically drunk through cotton or plaster.
Sugars
Harvesters will only consume sugar if they are dehydrated so they are not essential at all.
Seeds
Small colonies just need Chia, a mix can be offered when bigger workers come.
Husbandry: Colony Care
Looking after your colony is straight forward. Weekly maintenance takes just a few minutes which makes them perfect low-maintenance pets.
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Feed them every 3 days: Provide fresh foods and remove waste. Your colony will maintain a waste pile to make your life easier too.
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Keep them at room temperature: Room temperature is fine for this species, but they will benefit from a warmer room that sits around 22-24 degrees. They will slow in the winter and become more active in spring through autumn.
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Clean up: Removing waste and dirt regularly will help your colony maintain hygiene levels.
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Minimise disturbance: Try not to knock them or disturb them too much while the colony is small.
Road to success: what next
If you are doing it right then your colony will grow. Although getting to 100 workers from 10 workers will take a good 6 months or so, once they get there they will begin to grow faster and you will be somewhat of an expert at antkeeping. By this point a guide like this will be far to basic for you. But you will be pleased to know that our starter kits are all 100% compatible with any products which have the V2 connection port. We sell everything you need to expand your setup.