Bay Area Ants

     Throughout the years I have kept ants, honeypots have been one of my favorite types of ants to raise. Here in California, our native honeypot ants are all of the genus Myrmecocystus . These ants are visually stunning, producing large food-filled workers called repletes. Here are some repletes of one of our native species,  Myrmecocystus mexicanus :        Generally , honeypot queens will have a captivity success rate of less than 25%, which make them very hard to keep. In the years I have been raising ants, I have kept five unique species of them, all native to California. In this post, I will describe in detail the methods, tips and tricks I use to raise honeypot ant colonies. Founding       The  most difficult part of raising honeypot ants is the founding stage. Certain species, such as Myrmecocystus navajo , aren't too temperamental during this stage. However, others, such as Myrmecocystus mexicanus  are.      Honeypot ants do best when kept warm, around 80-90F, and un