Looking For An Ant Dealer

[BrangLai]

I know this will sound very ridiculous to some of you out there. Especially those who only know the difference between red/black and small/big ants.

As an ardent admirer of ants for their success and adaptive ability, I would like to keep an ant colony in a special formicarium inside my apartment. Does anybody know the legal situation for keeping these kind of animals? Some may be classified as an endangered species in Thailand or may not be bought or held as pets.

I am also looking for an ant dealer who would be able to sell a fertilized queen or a small colony, preferably a local camponatus spec.. I have been trying to find a dealer through the internet and various shops at chatuchak, but have had no luck.

Any information in this matter would help. Serious replies only.

Thanks!

[Okidoki]

I know this will sound very ridiculous to some of you out there. Especially those who only know the difference between red/black and small/big ants.

As an ardent admirer of ants for their success and adaptive ability, I would like to keep an ant colony in a special formicarium inside my apartment. Does anybody know the legal situation for keeping these kind of animals? Some may be classified as an endangered species in Thailand or may not be bought or held as pets.

I am also looking for an ant dealer who would be able to sell a fertilized queen or a small colony, preferably a local camponatus spec.. I have been trying to find a dealer through the internet and various shops at chatuchak, but have had no luck.

Any information in this matter would help. Serious replies only.

Thanks!

Hi, We used to own an inhouse zoo and as one of the attractions, we planned for building a fake tree, in natural size, made of concrete to host soldier/walking/leaf cutting/eating ants. Out of the exhibitions point of view, the leaf eating ants where the one that suited our need best. The idea was to have a glasspanel to see the nest as well as be able to follow how the ants walked with the leaves from the feeding places. Ants actually needs more space then you think... And we also planned to have huge magnification glasses for big close ups!

There also some very specific advices we got that it is not possible to mix ants from two different stacks, the need for cleaning, air, to avoid humidity and how to secure the "cage". Among other things.

Unfortunately, we never executed our ideas but we found several species of ant colonies in England, Holland and US. We was able to get them from both private societies working with insects and butterflies as well as from institutions. Unfortunately, I do not have the information of my contact persons but you should be able to get them. You can also find fireflies, fireworms, silkworms, beetles, stickinsects, leeches, "death"worms, and all sorts of insects you can imagine.

A way to maybe find a colony/stack is to contact some of persons behind these websites. Most people with an "odd" knowledge, working f eks with ants are very keen on helping out. So you should easily be able to find what you want down below:

http://bugguide.net/node/view/275520/bgpage

http://www.insecta-inspecta.com/ants/leafcutter/index.html

http://www.blueboard.com/leafcutters/care/...easyexotics.pdf

http://www.easyinsects.co.uk/site/content/view/12/1/

I hardly believe there is a need for a permit to keep ants and most insects doesn´t even need an importlicense, except if you want to import them to some states in US and of course, Australia, madagascar, etc. In Thailand that would be possible to sort out anyway. But I recommend that you make sure they can´t escape.