Scorpio_: newbie(me) in need of lots of help (24. Jul 2008 00:50)

i just collected a niger from there summer flight thingy and she was wingless and being "welcomed" into a nest entrance. i already know that all the ants i see around my house are the same nest and it is spread over 14 meters!
anyway..i put her in a plastic container with some workers i had taken from the nest, i let the workers settle for about 1 hour. they were wary and avoided her first and then they started biting her legs and wouldnt let go even though she was chewing there heads.
i removed her immediately and put her in a jar of coco fibre and i think she is still OK.
WHAT ON EARTH DID I DO WRONG???

miszt: (24. Jul 2008 01:02)

Yes this is a natrual thing, Lasius niger are highly aggresive, and they will not tolerate ants that are not part of their own colony

Check out the Caresheet in the biginners section, best to keep her in a test tube for the first 6months - 1 year :)

fill the test tube with water, then bung some cotton wool into it, very tight, about half way down, so you make a resivoir of water, then pour out the remaining water, then using a pair of tweezers or somthing, use a small piece of cotton wool to dry out the rest of the test tube, put the queen in, and plug with more cotton wool :)

miszt: (24. Jul 2008 01:09)

test tube should look something like this...

http://formicopedia.com/home/images/stories/test_tube_example.jpg

SteveUK28: (24. Jul 2008 09:07)

Quick question.. why should the cotton cool be tight against the water? Whats wrong with an air bubble?

miszt: (24. Jul 2008 14:24)

not tight against the water steve, it needs to be plugged/bunged tight, so that water doesnt leak, theres no problem with having air...infact if air bubbles dont appear over the weeks and months then its to tight, and there probly aint any water getting to the colony (so it wouldnt last weeks lol)

JimmyVe: (24. Jul 2008 17:25)

Great pictures John, can you mail it to me. (Than i can make a sticky of it. ;) )

@ Scorpio_: Hello and welcome to the forum.

Nice to see you are interested in keeping ants. But it better to read the care sheet first. It will answer a lot of your question. If you still have questions after reading it feel free to ask them. ;)

Scorpio_: (29. Jul 2008 16:25)

ok...
what happens when the water runs out??

tail__: (29. Jul 2008 20:24)

You will give the ants the new test tube to move, or better a real formicarium.

SteveUK28: (30. Jul 2008 09:48)

Just checking.. thought i had been doing somat wrong lol.. glad im not ;)