Messor wasmanni

Species at a glance

• Origin: the Mediterranean: Italy, the Balkans, Greece and neighbouring regions
• Size: queen 12–15 mm; workers 4–9 mm
• Colony: a single queen; up to 10,000 workers
• Difficulty: suitable for beginners

Care conditions

• Temperature: 22–30 °C; heat one chamber to 25–28 °C and keep the rest cooler
• Humidity: 30–60%; the brood area slightly moist, the granary dry
• Food: seeds (grass seeds, niger, canary seed, dandelion, poppy) with no coating or treatment; insects twice a week

Hibernation

Essential: from late October or November lower the temperature gradually to 12 °C and hold for 8–12 weeks, until February or early March.

Farm and colony growth

The queen founds the colony alone and needs no food until the first workers appear. A young colony lives in a test tube until it has a few dozen workers. After that it needs a formicarium with a dry seed granary and a small moist brood area.