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bignath001: Workers ate queen (1. Jun 2010 20:45)

Hi,
I came home from work 2day and discovered my lasius niger queen in 2 pieces. I believe that the queen may have already died but can any1 think of a reason why the would kill a live queen, or why my queen would just die as i thaugh my colony was very healthy. It is only around 6 month old but there is alot of brood and workers. Another question is if i get anouther queen from antstore and put it in with my queenless workers would they adopt it. Any info would be greatly appreciated

train11: Re: Workers ate queen (1. Jun 2010 20:53)

Hey Big,

sorry to hear that.
What you can do now is to try to adopt a new Lasius niger Queen.
For that buy the new queen, put the old colony and the new queen seperate from each other into the refrigerator. Cool both down (about 5 degrees) for one or two days.
That would make them slower in their movements and let them become less agressiv.
Now before you put together both in the freezer (under 0 degress) for three minutes. Then pout them together, give them two more minutes in the freezer.
After that, put back the colony wich now has become on into the refrigerator for two days.
Now they should smell all the same and with a bit luck your new queen is adopted.

Good luck!

(Dont forget to take care that they have enough water while beeing in the refrigerator)

bignath001: Re: Workers ate queen (2. Jun 2010 11:53)

hey train,
Thanks for the help, i ordered another queen off antstore yesterday so whenthat arrives i will try doing what u said. Hopefully it will work because i was really starting to get excited with the progressof my colony. Anyway thanks again foryourhelp i really appreciate that.. :grin:

train11: Re: Workers ate queen (3. Jun 2010 08:18)

Hey:)

I really hope, you`ll be sucessfull! It´s always a risk. Depending on the ant-type (formica/lasius and so on) the possibility of not beeing sucessful can be up to 75 percent, some professional dealer told me. So good luck and if you want, tell us about the result! :)