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The other day, I noticed that one of my two fire ant queens(the one with the smaller clutch of eggs) has (it appears), eaten most or all her eggs :( which sucks because she is the one I am rooting on to survive(the other one seems fine). I do not know if she has left an egg or two and if she has then I can't see it. But what's worse is, the other day, I noticed that there is mold (fungus) in the first one's test tube so I took a cotton swab and cleaned as much as possible(without disturbing her). Would it be ok to leave her in that test tube or must I move her to another one? I'm afraid that if I move her, the one, two or three infinitesimal eggs in the test tube will get destroyed, Should I leave her in there and count on the mold not to get to her? Also I am afraid that if I let her into the other testtube with the queen who has a big clutch of eggs she may eat some of that queens eggs or worse, the two may fight and mortally injure each other. I'm confused as to what I must do. I want queen # 1 to make it as she is still alive and appears healthy (though she is eggless).
depends what the mold is, it culd kill her, personally i'd move her into a freshly steralized test tube, can u give a discription of the mold or even better a photo?
The pictures probably wont show it but some of it is on the sponge. I feel so bad for this chick. She's had it bad from the start.
Yeh I had that problem awhile ago. But even worse, the mold set in on the eggs!! the queen died too :( I think you should do as miszt says and try and move her into a sterilized tube. Good luck
Mold growing in test tubes is common but usually not harmful to the ants. Since it's likely coming from tap water or distiled water it's nothing the ants don't already encounter from watering your garden or when it rains. Though it might not look good and you can get things such as water turning red, I've never had a colony die due to such mold.
Mold that can kill your colony however is the web like fungi that grows from dead insects and food not being removed properly. This kind is not restricted to only grow on wet surfaces such as cotton or in the water but will branch out and engulf the space the ants need to live as it slowly attaches itself to them. This is easily removed however with a cotton swab though.
Ah, ha! So that's why the water turned red in one of my Queen's test tubes. Mystery solved.
I've also had others turn yellow, it doesn't harm the ant and has never killed any that I've had.
sadly I think this might be the second kind...which probably grew on a tiny residue of egg yolk. I'm still debating on whether to move her though. Do you think I should move her into the second test tube with the queen that has a small clutch of eggs? I thought previously that the second queen was a fore ant queen but she is darker than the first one which is reddish in color.
Cant you move her into a 3rd test tube? Does it has to be with the 2nd queen?
Ok I moved both of them to two new separate test tubes. The mold got to the first one's eggs and destroyed them. It was such a delicate thing moving the second ones brood since the eggs were so tiny but I managed. I feel bad for the first queen who is now broodless. I took two eggs from the second queen and put them in with her but so far she hasn't accepted them. I wish I had some more fire ant brood right about now!