New to ants!

[roostergod]

Hello everyone,

Name is Erik and I live in Quebradillas,Puerto Rico,
I have always liked ants, Here in PR you mostly deal with some VERY VERY mean aggressive fire ants, And I have gotten bit by them ALOT in life, Tho now When they bite I no longer feel the bites or stings, However by the next morning where they have bitten is a little red dot with puss, Yes I know nasty, But still with that I still like ants, I have this thing with HUGE ants, Stuff like the Jack Jumpers from Australia, However no where in PR can you buy ants, I like how big they are and how they are always on the look out and not scared to jump at you n bite, But I have not a clue where to start, Is there any GOOD sites to buy them from, Please if you could just email me at finalfantasyx666@hotmail.com But any tips or tricks to keeping them would be great, I have the containers I need to house them, But what kind of dirt or wood or whatever should I have in them for huge ants like that, I know they like to dig down, If I had a 10gallon tank and have a lid they can breath thru but not get out would that be better? Give them more room? Or maybe a bigger tank? I have MANY tanks and containers, So I wont run out of things to house them in, But would like I detailed step by step to housing and caring and feeding them,
thank you very much for your time
Erik

[Mika]

If I am correct, Purto rico is an USA state? Then it is illegal for you to transport ant queens over state borders. But actually that is no problem for you, since you live in one of the richtest ant fauna's around. So you should be able to catch a lot of queens during mating flights, or catch small colonies. You even have the opportunity of observing them in the wild.

[roostergod]

Yes they are breeding right now, However they are not the kinds I want to get, Im looking for ants like the jack jumper, I like huge ants so any of the largest ants I would love to get ahold of, Here in PR the law is this
We are in the CONTINENTAL usa, BUT not part of the main land *states* We dont have a law about the insects, however we do have a law not allowing insects or reptiles to be exported out of puerto rico, You can get things INTO PR just not out, Have no idea why but thats what they say on the law,But would u happen to know of any sites to get jack jumpers or huge ants like them?

[Mika]

Well, those are Australian. I do not know how far north they go, but there are some very interesting larger, tropical South american species.

Check out http://myrmecos.net/anttaxa.html

for Dinoponera, Paraponera, Odontomachus, Daceton(?), Atta, ... Gigantiops is a visual ant, but not as smart as other visual ants. Dinoponera and Paraponera have potent stings, and Paraponera is called the bullet shot ant, and 24 hour ant. Hunting for those is risky.

http://www.sasionline.org/ : check education center, then arthropods, then casa hormiga.

eg. http://www.sasionline.org/antsfiles/pag ... andry.html

[roostergod]

Thank you VERY VERY VERY MUCH!! I will look at them in the morning when I get out.
Again, thank you so much.

[Mika]

I forgot Cephalotes, which are also very nice ants! Do not always look for the size: ants have other aspects that are appealing!

[Phantom]

Cephalotes spp. might the the most diverse genus of ants, looking solely at the exterior of the different species, I think?