Hi so i cought a new queen and im pretty sure its fertalized as both its wings are gone when i found it. So now i have it in a little tube which is approxamitely 11cm long in total with a 2cm water resivior and 4 cm's of walking space. i was just wondering if this little tube will be big enough for the queen to stay in until it is ready to leave. any help will be greatly appreciated. THANKS!
Yes that setup sounds fine.
okay. what if i put in 2 queen ants though?
Depends on the species, if they are Polygyn, then they will be ok, if not, they may live together until the first workers are born, then one of them will be killed, or they may just fight to the death
they are lasius nigers.
L. nigers are monogynous, meaning that they have only one egg laying queen in each colony. Best to stick with just the one.
ohhhh okay.
how big are teh any eggs btw? i see little white bumps but im not sure if they're eggs.. they're just kinda all over the place in teh tube
the egg's are very small and white they should all be piled up in the same place have you been holding the test tube?
yes i have is that a bad thing?
Ok... For all you newbies that have collected new queens and have them in test tubes.. the best thing you can do to be sure of sucess.. is to LEAVE the queen alone.. Completly.. Do not take a sneak peek.. Do not pick her up.. Do need try and feed her.. DO keep her dark and quiet. Then after a week or 2 you can start checking on her once a week.. and once she has a nice pile of eggs/larvae then you can start offering her small flies and other small insects. That is pretty much the best you can do!!
Good luck guys ;) :drink06: