European red mountain ant

Manica rubida

Where it comes from

Range

Central and southern Europe, the Near East and Georgia, at 400–2,200 m

Size

Workers 5–9 mm, queen 9.5–13 mm

Queens

Often several queens

Keeping them

Diet

Insects and sugar water

Founding

Fully claustral — the queen needs no food until her first workers

Brood development

Egg to worker in roughly 7–9 weeks at 22 °C

Nest

A clear moisture gradient: one damp end, one dry end, and depth to dig

Wintering

5–8 °C

The largest stinging ant you can easily keep in Europe, and the sting is genuinely painful. It stays a small colony, so the attraction is the individual ant, not the numbers.

Starting a colony

Manica rubida is a mountain ant. It lives between about 400 and 2,200 m, on sunny slopes, in scree and in the gravel along mountain rivers, and nests in the soil under stones. The queens are large for their family, 9.5–13 mm, and a wingless queen on a mountain path has mated.

A founding queen goes into a test tube: water at the back behind a plug of cotton wool, the queen in the dry front half, and a loose plug at the opening. She is fully claustral and lives on her own reserves until her first workers arrive. Keep the tube dark, at room temperature, and leave it alone. At 22 °C, egg to worker takes roughly 7–9 weeks. Wild colonies often have several queens, so a colony with more than one is nothing to worry about.

Feeding

This is a predator. Insects are the main food — crickets, fruit flies, mealworms — and a hungry Manica colony takes live prey with real enthusiasm. Sugar water or diluted honey is welcome too. Give small portions and remove what is left after a day.

The nest

Give it a clear moisture gradient, with one damp end and one dry end, and some depth to dig. Nests filled with soil or a sand-and-loam mix suit it well. Ytong and plaster work too. Keep it at 20–24 °C, which in most homes means no heat mat at all. A mountain ant has no use for a hot nest.

Colonies stay small, at several hundred workers, so the nest does not need to be large. The workers are 5–9 mm long, and most keepers who have been stung by one remember it. Use forceps or a brush for anything you do inside the setup, and give the outworld a barrier along the top and a lid.

Hibernation

Manica rubida needs a cold winter rest, from October to March at 5–8 °C: a cold cellar or a fridge. That is a little colder than most European species, which suits a mountain ant. Lower the temperature over a couple of weeks, stop offering insects and check the water every few weeks. In spring, warm them up gradually.

Common mistakes

• Handling the ants with your fingers.
• A heat mat. This species wants it cool.
• A flat nest with nothing to dig in.
• A winter that is too warm.
• Expecting a big colony. A few hundred workers is a mature nest.

Questions keepers ask

How bad is the sting? Bad enough to take seriously. Keepers who have felt both usually find it worse than a Myrmica sting, and the pain lasts a while. It is not dangerous for most people, but if you react strongly to bee or wasp stings, this is not the species for you.

Why are there so few workers? That is how this species lives. A colony of several hundred is fully grown. Large individual ants in small numbers make it easy to watch what each one is doing.

How long until the first workers? About 7–9 weeks at 22 °C, and longer when it is cooler.

Is it a good first species? It is not hard to keep, but the sting makes it a poor choice for a first colony. Start with something harmless, such as Lasius niger, and come back to Manica once you are used to working with a setup.

Check it yourself

• AntWiki: Manica rubida

General guidance from the usual beginner references — treat it as a starting point, not as a rule your colony has agreed to.

Start a colony with this species

Similar species

• Camponotus herculeanus Hercules carpenter ant

  Northern Europe, Asia and North America, in conifer forest

  20–25 °C 50–70 %

  Intermediate
• Camponotus ligniperda Brown-black carpenter ant

  Central and northern Europe, in and under dead wood

  22–26 °C 50–70 %

  Intermediate
• Formica rufibarbis Red-barbed ant

  Europe from Portugal to western Siberia, on sandy grassland and heath

  22–26 °C 50–70 %

  Intermediate
• Myrmica rubra European fire ant

  Europe and northern Asia; introduced in North America

  20–25 °C 60–80 %

  Intermediate

All 21 species in the guide