How to Care for Myrmecocystus navajo | The Navajo Honeypot Ant Guide
Photo: Jake Nitta, via iNaturalist, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
Myrmecocystus navajo is a small, golden-yellow honeypot ant from the dry hills and deserts of the American south-west. Some of its workers swell up with nectar until they look like tiny amber beads, then hang from the nest ceiling as a living larder.
It is the Navajo honeypot ant, a smaller cousin of the famous golden honey pot ant. This guide explains Myrmecocystus navajo care step by step, from a single queen to a busy, glowing colony.
Myrmecocystus navajo is a North American ant, and Best Ants UK does not sell it. It may be illegal or impossible to import to the UK, and we don't encourage importing ants from abroad. This guide is for keepers where the species is native, and for anyone curious about it.
We have kept ants since 1997, and the care rules here are the same ones we use for our own colonies every day.
👉 In a hurry? Download our free Myrmecocystus navajo care sheet (PDF) or open the Myrmecocystus navajo care sheet page for the key facts at a glance.
Myrmecocystus navajo at a Glance
Also known as: the Navajo honeypot ant, or mini golden honeypot ant
Origin: the dry, warm south-western USA and northern Mexico
Keeping level: Intermediate
Queen: 8 to 9mm, yellow to reddish yellow with a bulky thorax
Workers: 3 to 4mm, yellow to reddish yellow; repletes swell into golden beads
Colony: one queen only, more than 1,000 ants when mature
Nest temperature: warm spot 31 to 33°C (35°C at most), the rest 24 to 26°C
Nest humidity: 50 to 70%
Workers before moving into a nest: 10 minimum, 15 to 20 recommended
Winter: no rest in the first year; from the second year, a natural rest from November to the end of February
Escape risk: high, tiny fast workers, so a PTFE barrier is a must
Meet the Navajo Honeypot Ant
In the wild, Myrmecocystus navajo lives from Colorado and western Texas west to Utah, Nevada, California and northern Mexico. It likes hot, dry country, from desert scrub to juniper and pinyon pine woodland and short-grass prairie.
Its nests are dug into loose, gritty soil and are easy to miss. A mature nest has a small crater of coarse grains and tiny pebbles around the entrance.
This is a night ant. Workers come out after dark, and in the heat of high summer they may wait until close to midnight. In the wild, direct desert sun can kill a worker within minutes, which is why they forage in the cool of the night.
They collect sweet honeydew from aphids and mealybugs, sip flower nectar and pick up small dead insects. The repletes store the sweet liquid inside their swollen abdomens and pass it back to their sisters when food runs short.
Each colony has a single queen. New queens and males fly on warm evenings, often after heavy summer rain, and a mated queen then seals herself away to raise her first workers alone.
When Your Ants Arrive
The most important step: leave the parcel completely unopened, exactly as it arrived, at room temperature for 5 hours. The ants must adjust to your home's temperature slowly, because abrupt temperature changes make ants seriously unwell.
After the 5 hours, check the queen is safe and sound. Then leave the colony in its original packaging, with the test tube still in its tin foil and wrapping.
Put it somewhere quiet and still, away from daily household activity. Normal daylight is fine, but never direct sunlight.
Give the colony 4 to 5 days of complete rest, with no food. A good supplier feeds the ants before dispatch. Use this time to set up and water the nest. 👉 Our step-by-step ant farm setup guide shows you exactly how.
Still workers or a motionless queen after delivery are almost always delivery stress. Look at the queen's antennae: moving antennae mean she is fine. Almost all recover within 4 to 5 days.
Life in the Test Tube
Keep the colony in its test tube until it has at least 10 workers. 15 to 20 is even better. The workers are tiny, and moved too early they often abandon the queen in the bigger space, so the colony can fail. The same rule applies to a queen on her own.
A queen on her own still needs a little food. Once a week, give her a tiny drop of protein jelly, about half a grain of rice, on a small flat piece of tin foil inside the tube, next to the dry cotton stopper.
In our experience a fed queen raises her first workers faster, and the queen and colony do far better afterwards. Keep her tube wrapped in its foil, keep it warm and disturb her as little as possible.
Be patient. Honeypot colonies grow slowly at the start, and the first repletes only appear once the colony is well established.
Moving Into the Ant Farm
When the colony is ready, connect the test tube to the nest with the delivery tin foil still on. Leave it like that for 14 days.
Then slide the foil back about 1mm every day until the tube is fully exposed to daylight. Bit by bit, the tube becomes the bright spot and the dark nest becomes the safe home.
If the ants haven't moved 2 days after the tube is fully exposed, wrap the foil back on, wait another fortnight and repeat. Moving in happens on the ants' own time: anywhere from a couple of days to 6 months.
Once the colony has moved, leave the old test tube connected for at least another 14 days, as ants sometimes leave brood behind.
The red filter and black cover stay on the nest all the time. You can lift the black cover once a day for 2 to 3 minutes, ideally at night, and take the red filter off once a week for 2 to 3 minutes. Take colony photos no more than once a month.
The Best Ant Farm for Myrmecocystus navajo
Tiny honeypot workers squeeze through the smallest gaps, so their home must be well made and escape-proof. A young colony feels safest in a small nest it can fill.
👉 Our top pick is the A7 Plus ant farm kit. Its pre-installed digital meter shows nest temperature and humidity at a glance, which makes heating and watering far easier for a heat-loving species like this.
Place the ant farm in normal daylight, never direct sunlight: the sun can overheat a nest within minutes. Avoid windows, radiators and heaters, vibrating surfaces, speakers and TVs, and rooms with strong smells such as the kitchen.
Temperature and Heating
Navajo honeypot ants love heat. Give the nest a warm spot of 31 to 33°C, never above 35°C at the warmest point, and let the rest of the nest taper down to 24 to 26°C. Full repletes hang from the chamber ceilings and can't move quickly, so the workers need a cooler zone to carry them and the brood to if it gets too hot or dry.
Almost every UK home is far cooler than that. 👉 The Advanced Heating System Small 4W holds a steady warm spot with its digital thermostat. Set it to 32°C, with the probe inside or against the heated chamber, so it reads the true nest temperature.
The heat mat covers no more than about a third of the nest, along one side or corner, opposite the watering area. Never heat the whole nest. On a vertical nest, keep the warm zone at the top and the lower chambers cooler.
Keep the room at 20 to 22°C or more. A heat mat can only lift the nest so far above the room, so in a colder room it struggles to reach 32°C. In the outworld, aim for 22 to 28°C.
Water and Humidity
Keep the nest humidity at 50 to 70%. Use distilled or purified water only. Never use tap water, rainwater or bottled mineral water, even boiled: they cause mould and fungus, which is deadly for ants.
Water the nest with the pipette provided. Pour slowly, a few drops at a time, through the watering hole. Stop as soon as 1 or 2 drops appear inside the nest. That is how you know it is done correctly.
Water about once a week, a little more in summer and a little less in winter. A heated nest dries out faster, so check the meter often and water when the nest humidity drops below 50%.
Never water the outworld. Keep it dry, at about 50% humidity, like an average UK home. A watering test tube in the outworld gives the workers a safe drink.
Feeding Your Honeypot Ants
Sugars matter more for honeypot ants than for almost any other ant, because the colony stores them for hard times. Feed twice a week, in small amounts, in the outworld only. Remove leftovers after 2 days to stop mould.
🍯 For energy, give our 👉 organic ant honey or 👉 Ant Nectar, which has even more carbohydrates than honey. Offer it at every feed, in small drops so tiny workers don't get stuck. Both are far better than sugar water or home-made mixes.
🥩 For the queen and brood, give 👉 Protein Jelly or 👉 Cricket Mash. Keep protein jelly in the fridge at all times.
Serve food on a small piece of tin foil or in a 👉 small feeding dish, so leftovers are easy to lift out.
Live food, such as crickets or locusts, is only for big, established colonies, never small ones. Always scald it first: wearing gloves, hold it with tweezers in just-boiled water (above 90°C, no longer bubbling) for 10 to 15 seconds.
Then cut it in half only, and serve it in the outworld. Night foragers like these often clear the food after dark.
Keep Mites Out of Your Colony
Blood-sucking mites are one of the biggest dangers for any ant colony, and they are not rare. They often arrive with bird seed from local shops and off-licences, dried mealworms (useless as ant food), and live food from pet shops or online, where about half carries mites.
Buy ant food only from established, reputable ant-keeping suppliers. At Best Ants UK we clean our foods in several ways before dispatch and check every colony twice a month.
Live food always gets the scalding step above. Now and then, look at your queen with a magnifying glass. Tiny white or reddish specks on her joints and legs, together with ants dying fast, are a warning sign of blood-sucking mites.
Stopping Escapes
Navajo honeypot workers are tiny, fast and very active, so escape prevention is a must. Paint a band of 👉 PTFE Fluon escape barrier around the top inner edge of the outworld lid. The ants slip off it and can't climb out.
PTFE wears off as the ants keep testing the same spots. For a small colony of up to about 100 ants, reapply it roughly every 4 weeks. For 300 to 500 ants or more, reapply it about every 2 weeks.
Never shake the bottle, because it foams. Roll it gently in your hands instead.
Winter Care
Best Ants UK never puts a queen into a winter rest in her first year. Keep the warm spot at 31 to 33°C all through her first winter.
From the second year, the colony has a natural winter rest from November to the end of February. This desert ant doesn't need a cold hibernation.
Simply switch the heater off and keep the colony at room temperature, around 20°C, for its rest. It slows down anyway, because its biological clock can't be tricked. Never put ants in a fridge, shed or garage, and avoid any abrupt temperature change.
Feed less in winter, but never guess. At 17 to 22°C, give about a third of the summer amount. At 22 to 26°C, give about half. In March, bring the nest back up to full warmth gradually.
Can I Release My Ants?
Never. Myrmecocystus navajo is not a UK ant, and a colony raised indoors won't survive outside. If you can't keep your colony any more, 👉 visit our ant adoption page and let us know. We'll see whether we can take it in.
Frequently Asked Questions | FAQ
Is Myrmecocystus navajo good for beginners?
It is an intermediate species. The colony needs real heat, plenty of sugars and a fresh PTFE barrier, and it grows slowly at first. For a very first colony, a beginner species such as Lasius niger is easier.
Can I buy Myrmecocystus navajo in the UK?
Best Ants UK does not sell Myrmecocystus navajo. It is a North American ant, and it may be illegal or impossible to import to the UK. We don't encourage importing ants from abroad.
What temperature do Navajo honeypot ants need?
A warm spot of 31 to 33°C (35°C at most) on about a third of the nest, with the rest at 24 to 26°C. Use an Advanced Heating System set to 32°C, and keep the room at 20 to 22°C or more, or the heat mat struggles to reach that heat.
How many workers before moving Myrmecocystus navajo into a nest?
At least 10 workers, and 15 to 20 is even better. The workers are only 3 to 4mm long, so a smaller colony is easily lost in an ant farm. The same rule applies to a queen on her own.
What do Myrmecocystus navajo eat?
Plenty of organic honey or Ant Nectar for energy, plus Protein Jelly or Cricket Mash for the queen and brood. Feed twice a week, in the outworld only, and remove leftovers after 2 days.
Do Myrmecocystus navajo hibernate?
Not in the first year. From the second year they have a natural winter rest from November to the end of February. They don't need a cold hibernation: switch the heater off and keep them at room temperature, around 20°C.
Do Navajo honeypot ants sting?
No. They have no sting, but the workers are quick and feisty when disturbed. As with every ant, never handle them.
Ready for Your Own Honeypot Colony?
A thriving Navajo honeypot colony can pass 1,000 ants. When yours outgrows its first nest, 👉 the A6 ant farm kit with meter gives it more room, with a digital meter to keep heating and watering simple.
Print this guide and keep it next to your ant farm, so the essentials are always close. 👉 Explore all our free ant care sheets.
