How to Care for Myrmecocystus placodops | The Bicoloured Honeypot Ant Guide
Photo: Sam Kieschnick, via iNaturalist, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
With a bright red head and a glossy black back end, Myrmecocystus placodops is one of the biggest and most striking honeypot ants in North America. In full sun, its fast workers even seem to shimmer silver.
It is the bicoloured honeypot ant, and a mature colony can hold well over a thousand golden repletes. This guide explains Myrmecocystus placodops care step by step, from a founding queen to a thriving colony.
Myrmecocystus placodops 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 placodops care sheet (PDF) or open the Myrmecocystus placodops care sheet page for the key facts at a glance.
Myrmecocystus placodops at a Glance
Also known as: the bicoloured honeypot ant, or bicoloured large honeypot ant
Origin: south-western USA and northern Mexico, from Texas to Arizona
Keeping level: Intermediate
Queen: about 13 to 15mm, black with a bright red head
Workers: about 5 to 10mm, very varied in size; red head, reddish to black thorax, black gaster
Colony: one queen only, hundreds in the first year and 1,000 or more later
Nest temperature: 24 to 30°C, best around 26 to 28°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, fast and active workers, so a PTFE barrier is a must
Meet the Bicoloured Honeypot Ant
In the wild, Myrmecocystus placodops lives in hot, open grassland and scrub, from the Rio Grande Valley of Texas west through New Mexico to Arizona and Sonora in Mexico. It is most common on the plains of western Texas.
The nests are dug into open, stony ground, with a crater-like entrance 2 to 3.5cm wide. Underneath, the galleries can run astonishingly deep: wild nests have been dug out to more than 4 metres.
Down there hang the repletes, sometimes 1,500 of them in one nest. They are such a rich store of food that coyotes have been seen digging into nests to reach them.
The workers are busy by day and easy to spot as they race across open ground. They hunt small insects and other tiny creatures, and they visit flowers for nectar, which they bring home to fill the repletes.
Each colony has a single queen, who seals herself away after her mating flight and raises 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, and a big queen like this one can take a little longer.
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. Moved earlier, the workers often abandon the queen in the bigger space, and the colony can fail. The same rule applies to a queen bought 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.
With steady warmth, keepers find the brood takes about 7 to 9 weeks from egg to worker. A well-fed, warm colony can reach a few hundred workers in its first year.
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 placodops
Bicoloured honeypot ants are large, fast and fond of running, so give them a well-sealed nest and an outworld with room to forage. A growing colony will need more space within a year or two.
👉 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 warmth-loving species like this.
Place the ant farm in normal daylight, never direct sunlight: the sun can overheat a closed 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
Keep the nest at 24 to 30°C. The colony grows best around 26 to 28°C. A cool nest means a slow colony that barely grows.
Most UK homes are far cooler than that. 👉 The Advanced Heating System Small 4W holds a steady warm spot with its digital thermostat. Set it to 28°C.
The heat mat goes under one quarter of the nest only, on the side opposite the watering area. The ants can then move between the warm and cooler parts. Never heat the whole nest.
In the outworld, aim for about 18°C overnight up to 28°C by day. By day it should ideally match the nest or be a degree or two cooler. If the nest is heated, warm the outworld too, because a big gap confuses the ants.
Water and Humidity
This is a dry-country ant, and an overwatered nest quickly leads to mould. 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.
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 in its repletes. 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 and never let them run short. Both are far better than sugar water or home-made mixes.
🥩 These are keen hunters, and a growing colony needs plenty of protein. 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.
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
Bicoloured honeypot workers are fast and tireless runners, 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 nest warm at 26 to 28°C all through her first winter.
From the second year, the colony has a natural winter rest from November to the end of February. In our experience 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. Keep offering a little honey or Ant Nectar. In March, bring the nest back up to full warmth gradually.
Can I Release My Ants?
Never. Myrmecocystus placodops 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 placodops good for beginners?
It is an intermediate species. The colony needs steady warmth, plenty of sugars and protein, and a fresh PTFE barrier. For a very first colony, a beginner species such as Lasius niger is easier.
Can I buy Myrmecocystus placodops in the UK?
Best Ants UK does not sell Myrmecocystus placodops. 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 bicoloured honeypot ants need?
Keep the nest at 24 to 30°C, best around 26 to 28°C. Most UK homes are much cooler, so an Advanced Heating System set to 28°C under one quarter of the nest is a must.
How many workers before moving Myrmecocystus placodops into a nest?
At least 10 workers, and 15 to 20 is even better. Moved earlier, the workers often abandon the queen in the bigger space and the colony can fail.
Do Myrmecocystus placodops 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.
What do Myrmecocystus placodops eat?
Plenty of organic honey or Ant Nectar for energy and for the repletes, and Protein Jelly or Cricket Mash for the brood. Feed twice a week, in the outworld only, and remove leftovers after 2 days.
Do bicoloured honeypot ants sting?
No. They have no sting that can hurt people, although they defend their nest bravely. As with every ant, never handle them.
Ready for Your Own Honeypot Colony?
A bicoloured honeypot colony soon outgrows a small nest. When yours needs more room, 👉 the A6 ant farm kit with meter gives a big honeypot colony space to grow, 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.
