Does anyone else have any problems with their ant farm? The ants I have just sit around doing nothing.?

Question

Is there such a thing as surface only ants? Mine lay around all day, and haven't even started one hole yet. I think they might have antosis

Answer 1

There is not really a thing like surface only ants, but there are ants which do mainly foraging.
If you just sweep up a bunch of ants around a nest and put them in your ant farm I'd expect them to behave exactly like you describe. They are away from their mom and feel lonely and depressed...
Anyway, doesn't sound like you have an ant queen and brood in your nest. You also don't say anything about feeding them and giving them water. You should indeed read up on the poor critters before you mistreat them. They may be small animals, but they still are animals and need proper care. And ants need their own and complete colony to behave normally - and even then, ants underground don't have a reputation to uphold, they can be fairly lazy.

Answer 2

Hmm! Its going to be something to do with the conditions they are in, like the humidity of the air in their container and or the soil conditions (type, moisture content, air spaces) or the correct mix of workers, soldiers and hopefully a queen. I'm not sure if you put a random grouping of ants into a container they will automatically start constructing tunnels!? When an ant colony is too large it sends out new winged males and females (kings/queens) to start a new colony, so if you only have workers (all females) do they have a reason (purpose) in contructing a nest!?
Learn a bit about what ants need to live and you might have better luck.
Good luck.

Answer 3

Naw, they've just got a really good union. lmao