Little Colony

a living ant colony in your pocket — watch it dig its nest, raise its brood, and grow

What it is

A calm living toy. Your colony digs its nest, builds real mounds, raises named ants, and sleeps under the stars. Drop a pinch of sugar and watch the foragers come. Follow Pip through the galleries. Replay your colony's whole story as a timelapse.

New in version 1.4

Released 3 November 2026. The sun room has a reason now, and food comes home the way real ants pass it. Free for everyone; your colonies keep everything they have.

A warm stone: a flat stone lies on the surface over the sun room. It holds the day's warmth, and the nurses lay the brood under it first. (Meadow and tundra.)
Food passed mouth to mouth: a forager coming in with sugar or honeydew meets a nestmate just inside the door and passes her the drop, and it goes on down the nest from mouth to mouth. In the desert, the one who receives it fills a jar.
Italian: the app now speaks Italian.
iPhone Duo: the colony fills both displays.

A flat pale stone on the surface above the sun room, with ants on top of it and the brood laid out in the room beneath. — The warm stone over the sun room.

Ants in the entrance shaft beside the sun room, one carrying an amber drop to pass to a nestmate. — A drop passed on in the shaft.

Version 1.3

Released 24 October 2026. Colonies now begin the way real ones do, and the meadow has new visitors. Free for everyone; your colonies keep everything they have.

A true founding: after the nuptial flight, a young queen lands, sheds her wings, seals herself into a small chamber and raises her first workers alone. When the seal opens, the colony goes out for the first time.
Males fly with the princesses on the evening of the flight.
Food for the larvae: most mornings a dead fly or beetle lies out on the ground. The first ant to find it lays a trail home, and several carry it in together, down to the nursery. No ant ever kills anything. (Leaf-cutters feed their larvae on fungus instead.)
Ants and caterpillars: the ants tending the herd see off a caterpillar that eats their plant. Now and then it is a common blue, and they tend it in the grass for drops of sugar. Nobody is hurt.
Each land's ant is named: garden ants, honeypot ants and leaf-cutter ants.

A young queen in a small sealed chamber underground, with her eggs, larvae and first worker beside her. — A founding: the queen sealed in with her first brood.

Several ants on the surface carrying a dark beetle together. — A beetle carried home together.

A short green caterpillar resting by a meadow plant, an amber bead on its back, with ants beside it. — The common blue, tended in the grass.

A winged male flying above the colony's mound at dusk. — A male on the evening of the flight.

Version 1.2

Released 12 October 2026. Every land now has its own ant. Your colonies keep everything they have; a colony in the desert or the rainforest takes up its new ways the next time you open it.

Meadow: garden ants tend a herd on the plants for its honeydew, climbing the stems in a line, and see off a visiting ladybird. Nobody is hurt.
Desert: honeypot ants hang from the ceiling of the honey room as living jars, swelling as they are fed and taking the colour of what fills them.
Rainforest: a young leaf-cutter colony carries green sails home from the shrubs to a fungus garden it grows underground. The shrubs regrow, each in its own soil.
Every colony: the first workers are small, and once the colony is big enough, broad-headed majors hatch and stand guard at the doors through the night.

A meadow plant with a herd of pale-green aphids on its stem, a ladybird beside them, and ants climbing toward it. — The meadow: a ladybird by the herd.

A row of swollen amber honeypot ants hanging from the ceiling of a chamber labelled honey room. — The desert: the honey room.

A line of leaf-cutter ants on the surface, each carrying a green piece of leaf over its head. — The rainforest: the column at first light.

Two large ants standing head-out in the entrance of the nest at night. — Every colony: majors at the door.

Version 1.1

Released 30 September 2026.

A real nest: shafts and chambers, with a nursery, a granary, a sun room and resting rooms, each one labelled.
Brood you can watch: nurses carry eggs, larvae and pupae between rooms, up to the warmth by day and down at dusk.
A granary that fills with seed, and a pile outside for the husks.
The queen is easy to find, and she has a name.
Colonies grow to 500 ants instead of 200.
Ants live a whole life: the youngest nurse, the oldest forage, and they grow old.
A home-screen widget of your colony.
German, Portuguese, Spanish, French and Polish.

A cross-section of soil with shafts and flat-floored chambers full of ants, labelled rooms, a granary holding seed, and the queen beside her nursery. — A colony of 328 ants on day 10.

Our promises

Your colony never suffers for your absence. Nothing ages, starves or is lost while the app is closed.
Zero ads. Ever.
Free forever. One optional supporter pack: three more lands, the desert and the rainforest each with its own ant, and the tundra. The meadow colony is whole and free.

Support

Questions or ideas: look.ash@icloud.com

Privacy

Little Colony collects no data. Nothing leaves your device. Full privacy policy.