Thank you!

I wanted to stop by to thank the devs for creating this game. I introduced my son(7) to this game when he was 5 (edit: just went back and checked when I purchased the game on steam. he was 4 1/2) , and ever since I was able to teach him the controls, he has been extremely interested in all things ant related. Any time there is any news about future updates, he reads it, and then runs around the house excited. He can not wait for fire ants. Today, he noticed there was a new extra level added, and immediately came to me with his eyes wide, and mouth open saying "they...added....a...new...extra...level!".

Due to his interest in ants, we are hoping to find a queen ant this year, so that we can start our own colony. Again, thank you for making this game, and continuing to add new things. It has kept my sons interest longer than anything else we have introduced him to.
 
It has kept my sons interest longer than anything else we have introduced him to.
Great that your sons love it! It might be a bit of a disappointment to know that it is (not illegal just the right thing to do) to keep ants native to your area. It really sucks that non of the native ants where I live are of much/no interest to me. Just got regular old black garden ants and red ants. And maybe an invasive species too. So I just bought one online, it is a colony of black harvester ants Messor Barbarous, they are polymorphic, which means they can come in all sizes ranging from tiny worker to a sizable majors. They may not be native to my area but they are to the whole of Briton (which is where I live), anyway, if you really want to and you have enough knowledge dealing with easier to house ant colonies, try Marauder ants, they are extremely polymorphic! They are my dream ant to keep! And I'm sure that if you son laid eyes on an entire colony of them his mouth would drop to the ground, I know mine would!
 

HofNerd

Colony
Beta Tester
Extremely Helpful Person
Due to his interest in ants, we are hoping to find a queen ant this year, so that we can start our own colony.
If you do go looking for a queen in the area you live, beware not to catch a red fire ant queen. Because red fire ants are quite difficult (compared to other ants) to keep inside their enclosures. I remember seeing videos of a YT ant channel, and the red fire ants breaking out was something that happened on a regular basis.
 

person111

Colony
Ecosystem Beta Tester
Due to his interest in ants, we are hoping to find a queen ant this year, so that we can start our own colony. Again, thank you for making this game, and continuing to add new things. It has kept my sons interest longer than anything else we have introduced him to.
Hmm, maybe if your son is interested in ants, he should get an ant species that has colonies with relatively small populations like bullet ants or wood ants. Maybe they're not native to your area so you might need to buy one queen online, if you're asking that why shouldn't you keep something like fire ants, argentine ants or something among the lines of that, it is because of the fact that bigger populations mean more food requirements and the probability of ants escaping are higher, especially fire ants. But first, you should ask your son to do some research to find his goal species, you wouldn't wanna end up getting something that wouldn't really interest your son. After you and your son have agreed on one single species, you should be ready to go, and coincidentally april and may is the nuptial flight season for A LOT of ants like well, winter ants, Winter ants can protect themselves from invading colonies and they live in north america, so if that's where you live, you should start pretty soon, they usually have nuptial flights from february to april but I think that their could potentially be more. Also this is also the season of carpenter ants, so yeah, look out for those!
 
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person111

Colony
Ecosystem Beta Tester
Note that you can catch a queen ant during any time of the day so don't worry about your schedule, by the way, make sure to have a test tube with cotton filled with sugar water and some dry cotton, you are not gonna know when there's a random queen ant scurrying around somewhere, be sure to find a place where it is kind of covered with grass and it is like a field, and if you live in the urban areas, you can drive to the countryside, it will drastically increase your chances of finding one, if you spot a queen ant that have just went out of our nest, don't catch her, she might not have mated yet.
 

MikeSlugDisco

Community Manager
Staff member
Community Manager
Just a note from the team to say - thank you so much for your kind words about our project! An absolutely amazing story about your son - I hope he finds the future updates to the game up to his standards!
 

Guy Fieri

Worker
Hmm, maybe if your son is interested in ants, he should get an ant species that has colonies with relatively small populations like bullet ants or wood ants.
WARNING: A 7 year old shouldn't be coming into contact with bullet ants! (also wood ant colonies reach 6 digits)
 

Star Rider

Worker
Awesome that your son likes the game, you're definitely a cool dad! ❤️
It's nice that he's going to have his own colony to take care of. He'll learn that animals have their own personalities (even insects!) and that we have a responsibility not to cause them more harm than we need to.
Careful there, you might raise a vegan.
 

person111

Colony
Ecosystem Beta Tester
So, about the bullet ants, I know that its stings are like walking on hot coal while being poked with a nail but, it is not lethal, but sorry for being irresponsible. Also, maybe carpenter ants will work as a substitude for wood ants.
 

person111

Colony
Ecosystem Beta Tester
By the way, if you have other pets that are small abd can somehow squeeze into the ants enclosure, something like this could happen. I was in the mountain the other day and I saw a bird with his or her skull exposed FULLY. Guys can you tell me what ant species is this?
 
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