KeeprHusbandry You're a Pro? Click here to meet Rex
Atlas / Library / Formicidae / Trap-jaw ant
IntermediateNocturnal · sleeping now
Formicidae

Trap-jaw ant

Odontomachus rixosus

The page we cite does not state this figure. We opened it on 10 Aug 2026 and it gives no temperature for this species at all. The values above may still be right, but we cannot show you where they came from, and nobody here has checked them against a second source. Anything about a sick animal goes to a qualified exotic vet, not to a page. thewildmartin.com

Photograph: Jonghyun Park · CC BY

Photographed by an observer on iNaturalist and published under a Creative Commons licence; the photographer and the licence are named under the image. It is not an animal of ours, and no animal was handled by us to produce it.

14:00
Day

Drag the sun. Trap-jaw ant is nocturnal, so what it is doing changes with the light.

National law is not global, and we hold no national wildlife law for any country, Thailand included. Check your own authority before buying or selling.

Back to the globe My keep

https://keepr.pet/husbandry/en/odontomachus-rixosus

‹ All husbandry guides
Temperature25–29 °C
Humidity60–80 %
Diet2–4 days

The numbers

Temperature

152025303540 °C
25–29°Ambient

One ambient band, 25–29°C. This sheet states no warm side, no cool side and no night figure, so none are shown. Same scale on every sheet here, so two species compare by eye.

The sheet states25-29C

Humidity

60–80%Target RH

The sheet states60-80%

Enclosure
Test-tube founding; bioactive soil nest + outworld

Identity

Adult size

1.75 m0.9–1.3 cm
1520100400 cm
0.9–1.3 cmNose to tail, adult

The size the sheet states for a grown animal.

Why

Two drawings, because they answer two questions. The silhouette is at true scale against a 1.75 m person: it says how big this animal actually is, which no number does for someone who has never seen one. The bar under it is logarithmic and shared by every sheet here, so a 2 cm isopod and a 4 m python both stay readable on the same axis and two species can be compared at a glance.

Order / Family
Hymenoptera
IUCN / CITES
Not evaluated; CITES not yet in our data
Difficulty
Intermediate–Advanced
Commonality
Popular novelty; periodic in SEA trade
Adult size
Worker 9-13mm; queen ~13-15mm; long snap-jaws
Lifespan
Queen several yrs; small-moderate colonies
Growth rate
Slow-moderate
Activity & niche
Ground/leaf-litter predator, nocturnal
Temperament
Nervous, fast; snapping mandibles + sting
Venom / defense
Spring-loaded mandibles (snap) + functional STING; painful, generally harmless

Enclosure and conditions

Temperature
25-29C
Humidity
60-80%
Min. enclosure
Test-tube founding; bioactive soil nest + outworld
Substrate
Moist soil/cocopeat + leaf litter (bioactive)
Hides / decor / water
Leaf litter, cork hides; high humidity; water dish

What your climate adds

This sheet states a range to hold. Your local climate decides how much work holding it is. Pick the nearest city: nothing is sent anywhere, the choice stays in this browser.

Diet

Feeding rhythm

every 2.3–3.5 dAs the sheet states
12Meals in 28 days

Twenty-eight days, one row. Each band is a meal window.

Why

The windows widen as they go because the interval is a range: four meals after a 10–14 day cycle land anywhere between day 40 and day 56.

The sheet statesLive/pre-killed insects; little sugar · Protein 2-3x/week

Staple food
Live/pre-killed insects; little sugar
Feeding frequency
Protein 2-3x/week

Behaviour and handling

HandlingDo not handle - snaps and stings
CommunalSingle colony; do not mix
Defense / stress signsJaw-snapping (can launch itself), sting posture

Reproduction

Reproduction
Semi-claustral founding after nuptial flight; queen often needs feeding

Common health problems

Common health issues
SignsFeeding refusal, dehydration, slow founding
Red flags / quarantine
SignsSting + escape via jaw-jump; secure lid; never release

Good to know

  • Mandibles snap shut at over 60 m/s - among the fastest movements in the animal kingdom

What it needs

A thermometerbecause temp25-29C
A hygrometerbecause humidity60-80%
Not stated: The size of the enclosurethis sheet describes the enclosure without a figure: « Test-tube founding; bioactive soil nest + outworld »

Every line above is deduced from a value this sheet states, and names which one. Nothing here is a general recommendation. What the sheet does not state is listed too, rather than left out: a kit that looks complete is worse than one that names its gap.

Sources

Others in this group

What this sheet states

100%
TemperatureHumidityEnclosure sizeActivityOriginDietSourcesUVB

Every field this product runs on is stated here. That is not a claim that the values are right: it says what the sheet states, not whether it is true. Whether a human has read it is the badge at the top of this page.

UVB is measured but does not count: it is absent from 421 of 678 sheets, and on most of them that is not a gap, since a nocturnal snake's sheet has no reason to state a UV index. Counting it would call the library incomplete without cause.