I wanted to share my experience with Myrmecia pyriformis. Especially at the beginning, I made a lot of mistakes, so this should give other keepers the chance to learn from them. I started with the colony on April 2, 2025, when I received it as a queen with 2 pupae. Eleven days later, egg-laying began:
And already the next day, the first worker hatched. I’m aware that the nest may seem a bit large at the moment, but the queen was sold to me in this setup and had lived in it with the previous owner as well. There are no issues with leftover food, as the ants always diligently hide it in one corner of the outworld, so I currently see no reason to provide them with a smaller nest.
The worker surprised me with her climbing skills, as I was used to ants of this size having trouble climbing glass. Agave syrup was very well accepted as a carbohydrate source, but the ants proved extremely selective with other types of food. On April 26, 2025, almost two weeks after the first worker hatched, the second worker emerged and immediately set about redecorating the outworld.
Just two days later, she got stuck in a drop of agave syrup and died. Since this incident, I’ve only been offering very tiny drops of agave syrup, and the colony has started occasionally filling the dish with stones.
On May 4, 2025, I saw the first small larva, which led to another issue in husbandry. Being my first *Myrmecia* colony, I wasn’t yet familiar with how selective these ants are. I had underestimated them and assumed their previous refusal of protein was simply because there was no brood to feed. Within just one week of offering a variety of food (mealworms, spiders, woodlice, moths, flies, grasshoppers, thawed cockroaches, and thawed crickets), the larvae were fed to each other, leaving only one larva remaining. Realizing the seriousness of the situation, I went to the nearest pet store and bought all the food items I could. Fortunately, freshly killed crickets were accepted and successfully brought into the nest.
Over time, the larva grew larger and larger and eventually began pupating six weeks after the first worker hatched (June 18, 2025). To me, it seemed very small.
During this time, another problem occurred that I still cannot explain. The remaining worker somehow managed to break a leg and lose an antenna. She may have fallen accidentally from the outworld cover, but I have no definite answer. In any case, she died a week after sustaining this injury and didn’t bring in any food during that week, which forced the queen to hunt herself.
On July 27, 2025, the new worker hatched. At first, she always stayed close to the queen, but eventually she began foraging on her own.
Crickets were brought into the nest and eaten, and no new brood was laid. However, this didn’t mean the colony wouldn’t face another challenge. This time it wasn’t dramatic—I just had a few pyriformis larvae left over from another boost, so I offered two to the colony, which were accepted. One of them was later discarded.
On August 30, 2025, this beautiful farewell photo was taken, just before my stand-in took over the care of the colony until the end of the month.
Please post questions and suggestions here.