Click to view full story of "waking ants during hibernation"

1121: waking ants during hibernation (14. Feb 2005 15:38)

hi,

im completely new to ants but have read a bit about how to keep them . i was planning on buying the lasius niger ants from antstore , then i read that they are hibernating at this time of year . my questions are:

how damaging to the colony if the ants are woken from hibernation and what is the deciding factor for when they hibernate or wake up.

when would this type of ant "wake up" after hibernation

i am planning to use the ants in a biology project to study their behaviour so if i can i need to have the ants out of hibernation to study them.

Thanks for any help."

sobek: (21. Feb 2005 17:21)

They ants are sleeping from october until March.
If thze ants wake up to early thats not so good because the hibernation is very importanly!
Without them to colony cannt get virgin Queens and "gyes".

I hope i could help you! sorry about my english!
byye

1121: (21. Feb 2005 17:37)

seeing as its almost march now i might go ahead and buy some
do they need any outside stimulus to wake them up (temperature, light ,humidity etc)

thanks for you're reply sobek.

sobek: (21. Feb 2005 18:22)

u r welcome ;)
yes they need 20 degress! But they ´ll ready aktic with 10 or 15 degress.
Lasius niger or so is not very difficult to keep. in my room it has 22 degress and they love it ;)