Leaf Cutting Ant Forum

My shop

antkeepingshop.weebly.com

It's not massive as I only run it as a hobby and for customers to be able to afford cheap ants and nests but if some of you could check it out that would be a great help


Thanks

We've had lots of business over the past few months, and to be honest it's pretty over whelming having to keep up with so many people lol. All going really well though, I'm trying to aim to be one of the biggest ant and Formicarium sellers

Don't aim to be the biggest, aim to be the best on quality, price, customer service or all of those! create your own USP, offer the market something they haven't already got! Being smaller with less over heads means you can react to retail changes and keep competitive! Having staff means they have to be paid and that comes from price increases and profits!

Britishants.com wrote: Don't aim to be the biggest, aim to be the best on quality, price, customer service or all of those! create your own USP, offer the market something they haven't already got! Being smaller with less over heads means you can react to retail changes and keep competitive! Having staff means they have to be paid and that comes from price increases and profits!

Completely agree I think I'm focusing mainly on Carebara, Oecophylla and Termites this year. Three hard to get insects that I will sell quite cheap and in large quantities.

Formica123 wrote:

Britishants.com wrote:I think I'm focusing mainly on Carebara, Oecophylla and Termites this year. Three hard to get insects that I will sell quite cheap and in large quantities.

Mmmh. I think getting Oecophylla and Termites viable and for sale in a year is a stretch. There is a fantastic potential market for Weaver Ants in Zoos. If there was a reliable supply of them there would certainly be a market. Adam aside, Termites are rubbish. Not worth bothering about. Mainly because, unless you have an Adam fetish with them, they are difficult to display in a way that makes them worthwhile. They do only a few of the things that Leaf Cutters do and they do it less well and less impressively. I went to Africa a few years ago and brought back both Termites and Oecophylla. To be honest, I personally am bored by them and would question the motivation to take them further myself.

What should I focus on then? (Other than leafcutters, already have some plans for them)
I promised Adam a colony of termites, so I'm picking his species as we speak to get them imported through HARC.
I'm definetely going to start on Pheidologeton as there's a very large market for them.
My Oecophylla supplier is very cheap and effective, so I'll be selling them cheap so the common hobbyist can have a go.

Oh, and I'll be selling paraponera too.

Andrew, if you were a regular and keeper, what would you be most interested in?

If you supplier of Oecophylla is very reliable, does that mean you have had them before? If not, I suspect that you will run into problems. If they send queens the success rate will be very low. Either for you if you try to grow them, or your customers, if they have to do it.

They are small colonies, not single queens. I bought 1 colony off him before but it was winter and they died the next day with cold, but when they arrived they were perfect.
I'm going a test order of 5 colonies next month, I'll let you know how things go

Formica123 wrote:They are small colonies, not single queens. I bought 1 colony off him before but it was winter and they died the next day with cold, but when they arrived they were perfect.
I'm going a test order of 5 colonies next month, I'll let you know how things go

If cold killed them they would not have been perfect when they arrived. Never heard of cold killing insects after they arrived perfect. Cold in transit, to that extent, would result in them arriving dead. If they are alive and good when they arrive then, once temperature returns to normal they will be active and normal themselves. To my knowledge there is not normally a delayed effect from cold.

They were left in my bedroom on the window sill with the window open on a - night, my fault entirely. But I'll see how the test order goes - and decided from there. It's the same guy I get my Carebara from so he's definetely trustworthy